Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-06-04
About twenty Persons K1Ra ~
Dynamite Explosion fon a
Freight Car.
There We're Twelve Hundred Pounds
of Dynamite and Forty Ital-
ians on the Car.
The Mangled Bodies of the Victims
We're Hurled in Every
K Direction.
The Number Killed Not Known.

The Number Killed MOI hnOWn.
TARRYTowN, N. Y, May 20.-There
was horrible accident near here to-day
by which the loss of life is estimated at
between sixteen and twenty and the in
jured as many more. An engine and one
fiat car we're conveying load of Italians
and twenty-four cases Of dynamite, each
containing fifty pounds. The Italians
we're being taken to a section of road
where third track was being laid. A
coil of rope lay in front OF the truck of
the engine. just as the train was pass
ing Holmes Point, midway between Tar
rytown and Irvington, a spark from the
locomotive ignited the coil of rope. The
moving train famed the flames and be.
fore the Italians realized their danger
one of the packages Of dynamite ex-
ploded.
William Brannigan, engineer of the
derrick tram, happened to be $50 yards
from the train at the time. He tells the
following story: "When the coil of rope
set fire to the first package of dynamite,
one of the men, seeing it on fire, sprang
off the flat car. He fell under the wheels
and was killed. The next moment there
was rumbling noise, dense cloud of
smoke and flying mass shot up into the
air. Before the explosion some of the
Italians had tumbled off, and saved their
lives by so doing: The train had just
about come to stop. Brannigan saw
one man blown fifty feet in the air. He
fell into the Hudson river. Another man
was blown over on the bluff. Others
IL
eral are supposed to have been blown
into the river"
James Niskern of Yonkers was one
the gang and went to Tarrytown to have
his tools sharpened. The gang was
then working at Mount St. Vincent.
While he was away in Tarrytown the
gang was moved. When Niskern was
returning from Tarrytown he saw the
wreck made by sthe explosion. He
says he counted sixteen dead men on the
track and sixteen wounded. He under
stood that twenty men had been blown
into the Hudson river. Most of them
were Italians. George Hecker, engineer
of the train, was cut on the head. So
was fireman Leonard Pam. Pam also
had three or four ribs broken and he was
badly shocked. John Smith, brakeman,
was killed. John Connors, conductor
was badly injured and was sent to his
lone at Tivoli. Jimmie Morrison, a boy
employed in carrying powder, was also
killed: John Mccarthy, time keeper,
was killed. The others killed we're ali
Italians. It is no. said that eighteen in
all we're killed. The names of the Ital-
ians are not known. They are known
only by numbers. Twenty-Five men are
injured. Among them was Tom Finne-
gan, blacksmith and foreman. his leo he-
ing smashed. Two bodies have besn
taken out Of the river. Nobody
knows how many more remain
there. Two Italians who were NOT
killed by the explosion we're D so
oadly tr1ghtened they ran to the river
wall and jumped into the river. They
have not been seen since. The waiting
room OF the beautiful new station in Tar.
rytoWn was turned into temporary hos
pltal, where all the surgeons who could
be gathered up operated or the sufferers,
The wounded men were stretched upon
the Waltlng-pom floor, and there one Of
them, an Italian, died. The floor. after
their removal, looked like the floor of an
abbatlor: Blood lay about in great
pools. AS to the number of men on the
train, accounts differ. Some say there
were thirty-three. The lowest estimate
places the number at over thirty. Diss,
ton, the boss, thinks there were over forty
and, as a matter of fact, the number ~
those blown either to atoms or into the
river is to certain extent matttar
OF speculation. The train was torn '' 70
atoms, the railway tracks ripped from
their beds and great hole dug ont If
the earth, totally blocking traffic on tho
railway for many hours. Up in Tarrv'
town, over across the river in Nyack and
al up and down the stream, it was tor
rifle, the ground trembled as thoupb 'e n
an earthquake, the walls of several Tar.
rytown houses were shaken and cracked
and IN the Tarrytown streets windoI
glass fell IN showers to the sidewalk
Even over in Nyack heavy panes Of o o1ass
were smashed. The beautiful hon ses
which line the bank for mile or more on
each side of the scene of the accident accident
suffered more or less. The hillside was
scorched and blackened, and here a ",
there huge limbs of trees were wrenohad d
OF as though by thunderbolt. Tn Tar
rytown scores of clocks stopped and TO-
IN u this way that almost the exact honr ~ =,
the explosion, 11:2O o'clock. can ha IT,, -