Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-07-04
A SCORE KILLED
And Probably Twice That Num-
ber More or Less Injured
By a Rear-End Collision on the Erie
Railroad.
RaVenna, O., the Scene of a
Frightful Disaster.
A CROWDED SLEEPING CAR CON-
PLETELY DEMOLISHED.
FIRE FOLLOWS AND THE VICTIMS
ARE CREMATED.
FIRE FOLLOWS AND THE VICTIMS
ARE CREMArED.

ing to Their Homes in the East from
Findlay, O.-SOme of Them Caught IL
the Debris and Burned Alive Within
Sight of the Horror-Stricken Spectators
The Catastrophe Said to De Due t.
Carelessness.
RAvENNA, O., July A disastrous
railroad wreck, attended with fearful
loss of life, occurred near here on the
Erie railroad, at 3 o'clock Friday morn
ing.
The horrible calamity fairly appalled,
the town and neighborhOod. Twenty
persons were killed and their bodies
burned to a crisp. More than that
number We're injured.
The charred remains of the dead were
taken from the ruins of a demolished
passenger train as fast as the flames
could be subdued by the people,
who rallied to the rescue.
Such terrible sights as were witnessed
in the early morning hours made the
people sick. An express loaded with
sleeping passengers was run into by a
freight train while the express was at a
standstill in this city. The wreck of the
passenger train was terrible and com.
plete.
Fire Adds to the Horrors.
TO add to the condition of the unfor-
tunate passengers who were imprisoned
in the debris, the train caught fire and
was consumed. In this way death fairly
swept through the wrecked train.
The fire department of Ravenna was
soon on the scene and extinguished the
flames, but not before terrific havoc had
been wrought.
By daylight twenty bodies, nearly all
of them charred in a horrible manner,
were taken out. Twenty-three injured
had also been rescued.
A large number of the killed were
glass blowers who were on their way
east from Findlay.
Due to Carelessness.
The freight train that telescoped the
express was the dressed meat express
from Chicago and was running about
thirty miles an hour when it struck the
passenger train. The accident was due
to carelessness in leaving a switch open.
The brakeman who was sent back
had got only about fifteen rods before
he met the freight train.
The passenger train, which was the
vestibule express with eight coaches
from Cincinnati to New York, ON the
New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio rail-
road, was forty-six minutes late, and
the engineer was trying to remedy the
fault in the engine when the fast freight
was sighted in the rear. A brakeman
was sent back, but the heavy freight
train of twenty four cars could not be
stopped on the down-grade in time, and
it crashed into the rear of the passenger
train.
The car was completely demolished
and a terrible slaughter occurred. Many
of the dead and injured were caught in
the debris, and the fire, which imme-
diately resulted from the scattering of
the locomotives cinders, completed the
work of destruction and death. The
dead and the wounded, as fast as they
could be taken out, were taken to the
Etna House and cared for.
Besides the victims in the rear coach,
four passengers in the Pullman car next
forward. We're killed. Two men and
one woman were burned to death i'll this
car, while their bodies were partly out
of windows, their attembts to escape
having been fruitless. One woman was
heard screaming horribly while being
burned, but she could not be reached.
Two headless bodies of men could be
seen caught in the outrigging of the
locomotive inside the telescoped car,
and another dead body was suspended
from the cowcatcher.
Another Account.