The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1884-05-22
A FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT.

Collision on the Baltimore S Ohio Rail.
road Results in Scene of Wreck and
Ruin, the Killing of Fifteen Men and
the Iniuring of a Dozen MOre-Several OF
the Victims Crsmated in a Burning Car
All the Result of CareIessness.
PITTSBURGH, PA, May 10.
freight collided with the gravel
train on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad,
one mile east of COnnelIsvilIe, between
nine and ten O'Clock yesterday morning.
number of labOrers, variously estimated
at from twelve to twenty, were killed and
many were injured. The scene of the
disaster is on a sharp curve just west OF
the Sheer sand works. The freight train
was heavily laden with ore. The camp
train consisted of six cars. 1t contained
about fifty men, who had just been trans
terred from the Pittsburgh Southern Road
and were on their way to the Ohio Pyle
falls to work on the east end of the division.
Both trains were going at high rate Of
speed and came together with a terrible
crash. The engines remained on the
track and telescOped each other into the
smokestack, but the heavy tenders jumped
into the air and fell, the freight tender
upon its engine and the gravel train ten
der back upon the first car in the rear OF
it,
Here was the scene of death. Six mel
were killed outright in this car, and four
others, fastened down by the broken tim
berS, were roasted to death, the car catch
ing fire from the overturned stove and
burning up before the stupeied survivors
could comprehend the awful situation of
hAi Shris, lii
escaped from the car; one of them assured
your correspondent that the fire could
have been eXtinguished had water been
applied in time.
The wreck itself was a CHASTITY sight.
The tender of the freight engine stood
thirty feet in the air a the side of the
iron car that was burned, and there could
be seen sitting amid the glowing embers
and twisted iron rods and ashes three
grinning skeletons, one sitting bolt up
rigLt apparently peering into the flames
that had smOthered out his life as well as
those of his companions.
At noon a large force of hands were on
the ground eXtiuguishing the flames, and
! the wreck train was at work pulling the
| debris away and rescuing the charred re-
mains. The burned trunks of four of the
victims were taken out. Across the
| breast of one the white, Unsinged flesh
cOntrasted strangely with the blackened
! surrounding. That spot was where the
| heavy timbers caught him and held him
| in the grip of fate until the flames left
| nothing but headless, armleSs, legless
! trunk. The remains were reverently
! placed on a board, carried aside and laid
! down upon the green grass, spotted with
| purple forest flowers. Alean and hungry
| looking mountain dog shifted the roasted
| flesh, and licking his chops descended on
| the remains. Fortunately he was discov-
! cred and driven away.
| When the wreck was cleared away it was
| discovered that twelve persons had been
| injured and fourteen more were missing.
! The bodies of ten of these were recov-
! cred. The others are supposed to have
| been completely consumed. OF those re-
| covered only two-Cassidy and McDcr-
mott-could be pOsitiI ely Unidentified.
| The others were burned shapeleSs. One
! of the injured-J. T. O'Shea-died on the
! way to the hospital, making fifteen deaths,
as follows:
| KILLED.
Patrick Cassidy, aged forty, residence
| Cumberland, Ind.
Scott DesmOtt, aged twenty Ursina,
! Pa.
Dennis Ward, aged forty, residence un-
| known.
Shebeyneuman, residence unknown. )
Owen Conley, aged thirty, Pittsburgh
John Perry, aged thirty, Johnston, Pa
Thomas WhittIe, aged twenty-five resi-.
dence unknown.
Eli Sloan aged twenty-five, residence
| unknown.
Joseph Desmond, aged thirty-one resi-
dence unknown.
Patrick Kelly, aged thirty-seven, resi-
| dencc unknown.
John Hughes, aged forty-four, Cumber
| land, Md.
John Comfy, aged forty, New York.
Timothy Shay, aged forty, StauntOn,
Va.
J. T. O'Shea, aged twenty-one, Cum
! berland, Md.
The latter was fireman of tae freight
train and the others Iaborers.
WOUNDED.
The wounded are as follows:
James Smith, laborer, scalp wound.
Samuel Clay, engineer of the camp
train, right arm broken.
William McNulty, laborer, Philadelphia,
right ankle fractured.
Daniel Albright, laborer, Ursina, Pa,
leg broken.
w. J. Borns, clerk, right arm broken.
Thomas McCabe, laborer, both arms
broken.
Four Swedes, whose names a'e un.
known, were also injured, but not
dangerously.
The injured were sent to the West
Pennsylvania Hospital at Pittsburgh, and
the dead were brought to Connellsyille
for burial.
Coroner Britton arrived at the scene Oi
the wreck in tie afternoon, and held al
inquest. The testimony showed that
the train dispatcher, Gilbert Lewis
had ordered the engineer of the
camp train to run wild to Ohio
Pyle, a distance of eighteen miles
that before the train was out of sight
he remembered that the second sec.
tion of No. 50, coming west, had moi
passed. He made an effort to stop one
train or the other, but did not sue
ceed. On account of a sharp curve
where the trains cOllided, the engineers
thinking that the track was clear, could
not be held responsible. At ten O'Clock
the jury rendered a verdict that the vic
Tins came to their death by a collision
caused by the carelessness of Gilber
Lewis. District Attorney Cochran at
tended the inquest, but has not yet de
termined whether to prosecute Lewis Ol