Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-17
| IOHIO'S LAST WRECK.
1t Happens on the Panhandle Road,
at Mingo, Near Steubenyille.
TWO TRAINMEN BURNEDTODEATH.
Wedged in Baggage Car They Meet Their
Fate in Sight Of all.
MINOR NEWS FROM THE THREE STATES

STEUBENvILLE, Oct. 16.-The heavy fog
that ov 'rhung the Ohio river bottom was
| the cause of an awful accident on the Pan
ing, in which two men met the most hor-
rible death t! at man can suffer, being
| burned to ashes in the sight of aid that
could not release them from their fate
Aside from these two deaths the casualties
were immaterial, five persons being slightly
! injured
The first section of Panhandle passenger
No. 2, eastbound, Paul Rhodes, of Colum-
bus, conductor, and David Obeny, of Pitts
burg, engineer, collided with q westbound
freight on what is known as the gauntlet,
one-half mile west of Mingo. AT this point
the space is too narrow for q full double
track, and the inside rails are so close to-
gether that trains never pass, but are run
by electric signals. There is also a cross
over switch for the bridge, which has but
three rails on it. This morning the con-
ductoi and engineer of the eastbound pas
senger train said the signal was for them to
go ahead, while the man who has charge of
the tower declares that the signals were all
right for the freight to move
THE MOMENT OF THE CRASH.
However, this all may be, both trains ran
on, both running on the gauntlet, and they
came together with crash. The engine
and two gondola cars on the freight were
smashed into smithereens and took fire. The
engine, baggage, express and postal cars on
the passenger were also crushed and all
piled up in ar awful wreck. The remainder
of the passenger train was made up of two
postal and vestibuled sleeping cars, and the
passengers in them scarcely felt the shock
of the collision. The engineers and fremen
jumped and all escaped injury.
The men burned to death were William
Marshall, passe ger brakeman, and Joseph
Vestner, an express messenger, both of
Columbus. Marshall was in the baggage
compartment and Vestner was in the ex-
press compartment. They were both so
wedged in that it was absolutely impossible
for them to get out and they were burned
IN sight of fellow men, whose every effort
availed naught.
As soon as possible after the accident the
door of the express car was broken open,
but the passage was blocked by piles of
boxes wedged so tightly and about Vestner
that they could not be got out, and while
the men still worked the car was fast being
consumed by the fire.
FIRE DOES ITS WORK.
Almost as soon as the doors were broken
open the whole inside of the car was a mass
of flames, and the work of destruction of
life and property was completed in few
minutes. The heat was so intense that it
was at risk of life to go near the car
The baggage, mail and express was all
burned, including % bags of mail, three of
which were registered letters. Otis Var
nell, postal clerk of this city, was de-
failed to take charge of the mail saved from
the fi-e, there being several sacks intact
and number only partially burned
The wreck was on the scene of the terri
Bile collision in August, 1873, when west
bound passenger and an east-bound freight
collided with terrible execution, IA persons
being killed outright and one of the 40 in
jured dying shortly afterward. It was also
near here that Vice President Mccullough
and John G. SAKE, the poet, were injured in
the winter of 1875 SAKE was so seriously
hurt that he finally died of his injury.