The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-08-20
A BAD WRECK.
Disastrous Accident on the Old
Colony Railroad.
Fifteen Persons Killed and Thirty-thr
Wounded, Three Fatally.
Residents Of California Among the Injured
List of the Identified Dead and Those
Badly Hurt.
Special Dispatches to THE MORNING CALL.

Boston, Aug. 19.-One of the most dis
astrous railroad accidents that ever oc-
Cured in the vicinity of Boston, and one
that rivals the famous Wollaston disaster
of October s. 1878, occurred this afternoon
on the same road, the Old Colony, and very
near the same locality. In the Wollaston
disaster fifteen persons were killed and
nearly $50 injured. To-day fifteen persons
were killed, twenty-three seriously injured,
three fatally, and several more sustaining
slight injuries.
THE DISASTER.
The train wrecked to-day was the Woods
hall express, which was due in Boston at
l 80 o'clock in the afternoon. 1t consisted
of a locomotive, baggage-car, smoker, Pull
man car and four ordinary coaches heay-
lily loaded. The train had passed
Quincy Station. running ten miles
an hour, and when just beyond
the Presidents Bridge the engine
left the track from some cause at
present undetermined and plunged into an
embankment twelve feet high. The tender,
baggage car, smoker and Pullman passed
by the engine and were stretched along for
a distance of 100 feet beside the track. The
foremost passenger coach left the rails and
fell upon its left side upon the engine. The
lower forward portion was torn to pieces
and of the passengers in the car, some fifty
in number, many were thrown into the rear
corner. from which eleven bodies were
taken out. The escaping steam and smoke
from the engine instantly filled the car.
THE ENGINEER KILLED.
The forward cars were forced up over the
outward bound track. completely blocking
traffic all day and night. Only three per-
sons on the train ahead of the passenger
coach were injured. The fireman was in
stantly killed and buried under the engine.
The engineer and Pullman-car Conductor
Benson were both badly injured. In the
three rear passenger coaches the occupants
received no worse injury than slight
shaking up. The first passenger coach was
the principal scene of death and agony, and
the experience of the unlucky occupants
was probably never exceeded in horror and
III .uy IdllIOuu WItCh VI ISCcnL
years.
DEAD AND WOUNDED.
The killed are:
ALLEN, Mrs. ERCUTT, Philadelphia.
FENNELLY, Mrs. MARY E., aged 70,
Louisville.
FENNELLY, ALICE.
FENNELLY, CATHERINE.
JOHNSON, E. j., Montpelier. Vt.
RYAN, JOHN. fireman of the train.
WELLS, Mrs A. c., Hartford, Conn.
A daughter Of Il. L. Welch, Waterville,
Conn.
Four women. two men and TWO children
unidentified.
The following we're critically injured:
Mrs. Oscar Fennelly, Louisville, scalded
over the whole body; c. NJ. Copp. Cleve-
land. Ohio, scalded over the whole body
and not expected to live; E. c. Bailey of
Dorchester. formerly proprietor of the
Boston Herald, scalded on the face and
hands.
Those seriously injured number thirty,
and the conditions of two or three are criti-
cal. IL is TtDUIlcu lildI tUc VI OHC VI
the unidentified dead is W. II. Grady, and
two of the others are Mrs. E. P. johnson
and her 15-year-old boy. 1t is also reported
that niece of Mrs. A. Wells of Hartford
is among the unidentified dead.
The Goals in the engine set fire to the
coach, but the fire was soon extinguished.
A number Of physicians were summoned
to the spot as soon as possible. Those
living were taken from their positions of
peril and those most seriously hurt taken
to the hospital. The dead were laid on the
grass beneath tree until the undert akers
arrived. All that human skill could accom-
plish was done to soothe the last hours of
the dying and quiet the pain Of those suf-
fering from burns and wounds.
CALIFoRNIASs INJURED.
Among those seriously injured are: Mrs.
Martha E. Chase, at the head of the Santa
Rosa Female Seminary, Santa Rosa. CAL,
face and left arm slightly burned; Rev. T.
NJ. Dimmick Of Los Angeles, face, arms
and hip scalded; his wife, sister of Mrs.
Chase, had her face and hands scalded and
suffered compound fracture of both bones
of the left leg between the knee and ankle.
In the afternoon the crowd became so
great about the wreck, tearing remnants of
the cars to pieces and securing mementoes,
that the officers were compelled to drive
them away and erect guard ropes
The general impression seems to be that
the wreck was caused by spreading rails.
| The most unfortunate party was the family
| of Oscar Fennelly. His wife, three chill
| dren, mother and maid were in the party.
| His mother and two children were killed,
| and his wife so seriously injured that she
may die any moment. His other child and
| maid are both injured.
Three persons. so far, have not been
| found, and five more may die, making
| twenty persons in all as the victims Of the
| terrible wreck.
| Electric lights and gasoline lamps were