Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-01-03
Four Cars Plunge Down an En-
bankment and Take Fire.
One Man Killed Outright and Many
Severely Wounded.
Physicidus Hasten From Portland
to Aid the Sufferers,
The Disaster Not SO Terrible as at First
Reported.
kESSEBcSK, Jan. ..

kESSEBrSK, Jan. ..
As the $50 train from Boston, on the Bos-
ton and Maine, Weymouth conductor, with
two engines, crossed the iron bridge at Cole
Corner, Wells, Me-, the bridge gave way
after the engines, baggage and parior ear had
| crossed precipitaiing the other four cars
down an embankment, and they Immediately
One man, name unknown, was killed. bill
was found on his person to Houghden Bros,
Haverhill. This was all that could he found.
Casualties.
J. Henry Downs, Berwick, probably fatal.
Conductor Weymouth, and james Nolan,
breakman, badly wounded. Leland and
James Carney, Pittsfield, Me. badly in
jured. Mrs. Frank y. Peabody and daugh-
ter, Kennebunk, slightly. Lizzie NJ. Dixon,
Wells. slightly. Joshua II. Smalley, West
Dennis, Mass, ribs broken. Mrs. G.. A.
Clark. Portland. face and head hurt. Paul
Wilde, South Braintree, severely bruised
about the head. WIN. II. Purdy. Old Orch
ard, wound in eye. +. ID. Parish, Salem,
n. H.. slight Oliver Vim, York, broken
arm and other injuries. Joseph p. Roberts,
Charlestown, Mass, slight, c. X. Tebbetts,
Boston, badly bruised. VIM. Haseltine,
wife and son, HaverhilI, slightly injured.
Drs, Ross and Wentworth of kennebunk,
and Hall of Wells were on hand and rend-
cred all possible assistance. A special train
was dispatched from Portland with doctors
The bridge was of iron, ffty-two feet long,
and built in 1872. The real cause OF the
accident cannot be ascertained. The wound
ed have all been sent to their homes or to
the Maine General Hospital except J. Henry
Downs, who is unable to be moved. The
damage to the rolling stock. as esti-
mated by Supt. Furhur, is about $50, 900,
including the cost of the bridge. The wreck
ing trains and workmen are clearing the
road, which will probably be passable tomor-
row. Coroner Sargent will hold an inquest,
tomorrow, on the body of the man who was
killed. +. A. Smith, roadmaster, is severely
injured.
Another Report of the Accident.
PORTLAND. Jan. ..
The through express train on the Boston
and Maine railroad, due here a. II Is, run
through bridge over the highway at Booth
by's crossing, three miles above Kennebunk,
this afternoon at 1915 o'clock. The train
l.,t.
storm was attached to two engines, and at
the time of the accident was running, as near
as can be ascertained, about thirty miles an
hour. Some say more, others less. The
engineers of the train say they were running
not over twenty miles an hour However,
that may be, they must have been running
with considerable speed to have succeeded
in dragging the tender of the second engine
and the smoking and parlors across the
chasm. The bridge is an ordinary iron struc-
ture, about thirty feet long. and is compare
lively new one, as she road has been built
but short time. Last week the railroad
commissioners we're over the road and in
spected the bridges, this one among the
number. The track crosses the highway at
sharp angle, which accounts in part for the
position of the cars. The first engine went
over all right and the second one was half
over when the engineer felt the rear driving
wheels settle under him but fortu-
nately the first engine pulled the
second over for had the scalding steam been
x.lk 81 he e
fering must have been greatly increased.
Both engines together pulled the baggage car
over and also the drawing room car, literally
seraping the trucks from under :them as they
scraped along over the edge of the abutment
The end of the smoking car, which was next
to the drawing room car, crashed into the
abutment and glanced of toward the left,
falling about fifteen feet and sliding along the
wall Of stone and was smashed into kindling
wood. The next car, new passenger car,
went down into the chasm and stood on end
followed by another passenger car, also on
end. with the upper end resting on the brink,
these cars being badly broken and wrecked.
The mail car, the last on the train. kept the
track but telescoped with the car in front.
smashing in the ends of both cars and break
ing the stove in that end of the passenger
car and scattering its contents, and almost
both cars were in a blaze: being
newly vanished. the flames ran with light
ming rapidity through these cars, and in FIVE
minutes all four of the cars were in flames.
The mail car, one of the first to catch fire,
burned so rapidly that the agent and his
Jerks had just time to grab the registered
etter box and few packages of registered
etters and rush out If the ear. and even then
he fire singed the hair of the agent. All the
est of the mail was burned, there not being
ime TO save another thing. The baggage
ar, although it had crossed over the bridge,
eft the track and ran down over the embank-
nent, throwing the five men in it, together
nth the baggage. promiscuously into the
rout end, bruising and jamming them Sc
erely. The express agents and the baggage
aasters were badly cut about the head and
ruised with the heavy trunks and parcels.