Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-07-05
TERRIBLE WRECK ON THE
NORFOLK & WESTERN.

a pile of ashes and blackenctl
irons is all that remains of the i'll.
lated express. No. 2, on the Norfolk
" Western, which plunged into n
washOut near Thaxton's Tuesday
morning.
The iragmentary remains of the
thirty or more passengers, who per
lShed in the terrible wreck and hol.
ocaust, Rave been taken to Roam.
oke. There are eight or ten bodies
there burned out of all shape and
recognition, five of them being in
one caSket. The exact number of
passengers killed and burned can
not DO stated with any accuracy,
but 1t is not less than thirty, and
possibly thirty tivo or more.
The train was composed of bag.
gage, express, Ilail, second class
and first class cars, and three sleep.
ers, all of which except the last
sleeper, followed the engine into
the fatal gap or washout, breaking
to pieces and catching on fire, from
the grato of the engine.
Tho fill about three quarters of a
mile beyond Thaxton's, in which
tho break occurred. is about 225
feet i'll length and about 30 feet i'm
height at its middle point. A very
heavy rain had fallen during the
night, and tho culvert under the fill
not being Of sufficient dimensions
to carry off the surplus water, the
embankmcnt acted AS Il dam, back.
ing the water up into an lomptu
lake, under the great pressure from
which the center Of the fill finally
gave way, causing break of Is
feet in width and about 80 feet i'm
depth, over which the rails and ties
remained suspended.
III was into tho crevaSSe thus
fol med that the doomed train
plunged, the engine, from its great
momentum, springing clear across
the break, and partially burying it.
self in the end of the broken cm.
bankment on The other side. The
accident occurred so suddenly and
the wreck was 70 complete that few
oil the passengers in any of tho for
ward cars had the remotest chance
of escape and only seven, of all who
were in these cars were saved.
The cars caught fire and soon
everything inilamable was in a
state of conflagration, casting a
lurid glare around Tho destruc
ton was complete. Even the sleep
ers left on tho track were totally
consumed. Not particle of wood
was left and only Il heap of ashes
and irons remains to tell tho story
Of the doomed train. 1t was I'm ut.
ter wiping out Of everything and
everybody, except the few who eS-
capped. Even the bones of the dead
were incinerated, except IL few
small fragments.
The list of the dead, whose names
could bo ascertained, is rs follows:
Patrick Donovan, engineer, Lynch
burg.
Charles, Prucc, fireman, Roanoke.
a. S. Francis, mail agent, Marion.
Nathan Cohen, merchant, Roanoke,
ell route to Germany to visit his
parents.
w. G. Stead, Cleveland, Tenn, Gil
route for England.
j. w. Bcal, Cleveland, Tenn, eli
route for Paris.
j. j. Rose, Abingdon, postal clerk.
John Kirkpatrick, of Lynchburg.
A. NJ. James, Roanoke. travelling Oh
gincer of the road.
j. w. Livesay, Roanoke, train dis
patcner.
Dennis Ncelan, Roanoke, janitor of
Norfolk and Western Offices, eli
route to New York to be married
A little niece of Mrs. Judge Thomp
son, of Staunton.
q. j.. Peyton, Radford.
Mrs. q. l.. Peyton aud little child,
Radford.
Miss burlington, Houston, Texas.
j. NJ. Hardwicke, Cleveland, Tom.
L. Marshall, Cleveland, Tenn.
Tho names of many of those who
were cremated will probably never
be learned unless the inquiries of
their friends should disclose the fact
of thor being on the train.
Following is list of the injured {:
Bishop Alpheus w. Wilson, of the M.
IL. Church, South, of Baltimore