The Portland daily press., 1877-01-02
THE LAKE SHORE DISASTER.
More Heart-PendinS
Details.
Personal Experiences Of Sur.
yivOrS.

Two WaterviIIe People among the Killed.
WATaRvILLE, Jan. 1.-Private dispatches
lust received state that Mrs. William Marston
of Watervile, and Mrs j. D. Marston and
child of Chicago, were victims Of the Ashtabu.
la disaster Mrs. William Marston was accom-.
panying her daughter to her home in Chicago
on account of her i'll health. The bodies have
been recovered.
ACousin Of Coy. Hayes Killed.
AsHrABULA, Jan. Miss Mary Birchard of
Fayetteville, Vt, cousin to Gov. Hayes, was
on the Inflated train. The uncle from whom
wiled Miss Brchard $4,000. The three years
allowed in which to settle up the estate and di.
vide the property having expired, Miss Brchard
was on her way to take formal possession of
the list of the saved, and she was probably kill
ed. Her destination was Elyria, Ohio, where
| her sister lives.
The Investigation.
| 1t is said that objections were made to an in
| vestigaton of the accident, but jury has been
| finally summoned, and its members propose to
| arrive at a verdict and withhold the condemna-
ton of no one where it is deserved. 1t is said
| that the fire companies were prevented from
| throwing water on the burning wreck, and that
| the condition of the bridge had been criticised
/ BY engineers.
Additional Details.
| CLEVELAND, Ohio, Jan. 1.-The following
are additional incidents of the Ashtabula hor-
| ror:
Daniel Mcclure, the engineer of the leading
| locomotive Socrates, which escaped, and who is
the only unhurt man who saw the whole affair,
states that the train was running slowly at the
time of the accident. He felt the bridge give
way When he was two car lengths from the west
end. He felt it settle down. He had his hand
on the throttle and pulled it wide upon. The
draw-bar connecting the two engines was snap
ped by the sudden jerk. The trucks of his wa
ter tank did not clear, and settle down, but the
opening of the throttles saved the engine, and
the trucks were pulled on. Heran up the track
hundred yards and gave the alarm, by repeat
ed whistles and ringing of bells. He saw the
engine Columbia sink with the bridge. and turn
bottom upward. The express, baggage and
passenger cars fell over in heap, the passen.
ger cars on the express cars. All went into the
liver. Fire first broke out in the last sleeping
car, which swung over to one side and was soon
in blaze. In two or three minutes the entire
| wreck was mass of flames. The shrieks OF
the wounded and the groans of the dying were
terrible to hear, but their voices soon hush
ed as the flames reached them.
He further says, 81 was one of the first at the
wreck. pulled several out of the ice aud
helped to extricate several persons from the de.
brs. One woman was pinned down by her legs
in a burning car and her cries for help were pit.
eous. In despair at last, as the flames circled
around her, she shrieked, take an axe and cut
off my legs!' but it was impossible to Teach
her and she was consumed. The paint in the
burning cars snapped like powder, and terrified
| the wOrkmen"
He cannot estimate the number burned, but
thinks one hundred persisted by the flames and
water. Many were killed outright. A hus.
band and wife in the burning wreck were held
down by distractions and calmly waited their
fate.
Neither pen nor tongue con describe the
horror of the scene. In twenty minutes after
the fire started it was impossible to extricate
passengers.
The engineer of the Columbia, Folsom, OF
Cleveland, says his engine turned bottom up
and he was thrown violently through the win
dow OF the cab and badly cut. Mcclure helped
pick him up, bruised and bleeding. His first
words were, Another Angola horror, Dan.''
| The train was running at the rate OF ten
miles an hour at the time The bridge was
considered safe. Passenger train Nos, with
two engines, had passed safely over at about
Z o'clock. McGuire's train struck the bridge
at 1872. He thinks the frost and weather and
heavy train snapped the bridge. At the time
OF the accident the storm was at its height;
he could not see two car lengths ahead of the
engine, and this rendered it next to impossible
to give Immediate assistance. Mcclure thinks
no one would have escaped from the doomed
train had not his engine been saved, thus
enabling him to give the alarm. Even more
terrible would it have been, had the Socrates
Ill,
one would have known of the disaster, and the
next train due at Ashtabula wouli perhaps
have shared the same fate, and been thrown
into the river.
Another incident was of, man who escaped
from the wreck with his clothes all ablaze, and
| ran as it mad. The crowd on the bank yelled
to him to throw himself in the snow, but he
took no heed, and then some one shouted to
those near him to knock him down. He was
showed down into the snow, but rising instantly
turned his face to the burning wreck, plunged
into it and was lost. 1t was a case of utter
| frenzy.
1t is found that two children of Bliss the
| evangelist are safe in Avon, N. Y. Bliss and
his wife were on the train, but no trace of their
| bodies has been found.
Mr.. Burnham, who is at the hospital badly
| bruised, states thai after assisting to rescue
| Mr.. Reed and Mr. Tilden, he heard a cry for
| help from under pile of shattered timbers,
| and turning back he found man struggling to
| free himself from the broken and spIintered
mass that held him firmly down. Mr.. Burn
ham endeayored to get hold of him. but found
it impossible to do SO, as the advancing fire was
now flashing in his face and making rapid
progress toward him. He was compelled to
| leave the unhappy man to the terrible fate of
| being burned alive.
Mr.. Bnrnham saw the necessity of securing
his own safety and climbed or clambered out Of
| the remains of the smoking car on to the bot
| tom of another car. Here he saw two men
| with heads 0rotruding from a mass of debris
| who appealed to him for help. He pulled the
one nearest to him out, and helped him away,
the mans leg being broken. The other sue
| ceeded in extricating himself. Mr.. Burnham
then got out himself and now first becoming
| fnlly conscious of his hurts sought a place of
safety where he might be able to secure atten-
| ton.
Regarding Mr.. Chittenden, who occupied the
seat with Burnham, that gentleman thinks he
II w q III nur1o tha ffr,,ho