The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-08-07
But TWO ESCAPED
Loaded Trolley Car Plunges
From a Trestle.
Into a Mill Pond Forty Feet
Deep.
THIRTY-SIX DROWNED
Exact Number of Passengers
Can't Be Learned
Because Somebody Made Away
With the Indicator.

Bridgeport, Conn, Aug. 7.-Nearly
forty persons were killed by an acct
dent on the Stratford extension Of the
Shelton Street Railway company at
o'clock yesterday afternoon, when
loaded trolley car went off the trestle
over Pecks millpond at Oronoque, about
six miles north of Bridgeport, and sank
in the flats forty feet below.
Thus far thirty-six people are known
to be dead and several more injured
Only two persons are known to have
escaped unframed.
It is believed that there were forty
three passengers on the car, out the IN
dicator was removed by a conductor of
another car and spirited away, so that
at present it is impossible to state ac-
curately the number aboard
The list Of the dead and injured as as
follows:
Joseph Eotchkiss, Bridgeport, engi-
neer fire department.
Henry c. Cogswell, Bridgeport, aged
so, employee of the New York, New
Haven & Hartford railroad; member of
the board Of education.
Orlando B. Wells, aged So, shoemaker
Selectman Elias E. Bradley and wife,
William Osborne, Stratford.
Daniel Calvin, Ansonia.
Conductor John Carroll, Bridgeport.
S. Banks, Shelton.
Mrs. Mcdonald, Bridgeport.
Bessie Toomey, aged %, Bridgeport.
Villain H. Harvey, aged 81, Bridge
port.
Mrs. J. H. Rugg, Stratford.
Mrs. Frank Blew and two children,
boy aged 3 and girl aged 5, Stratford.
William Mccullough, Stratford.
Mrs Arthur Holmes, Bridgeport.
Thomas McNalIy, aged 80, Bridgeport
Identification not positive).
Peter Ring, aged %, Bridgeport.
Patrick McDermott, aged so, Bridge
port.
Mrs. Patrick Brennan, aged 5O.Bridge-
port.
Alfred Pitt, aged %, Bridgeport
William Cotter, aged 25. Bridgeport
Identification not positive).
Irving Dpruse, aged %, Bridgeport.
INJURED.
Among the seriously injured at the
Bridgeport hospital are:
Margaret Brennan, scalp wound
Mrs. Sidney A. Hit, Bridgeport, right
leg fractured twice.
Margaret Farrell, right leg ampu-
tated above knee, will probably die.
George Hamilton, scalp wound, in
jury to leg.
Frank Kraft, Bridgeport, injuries
about head and back.
Arthur Holmes, Bridgeport, confusion
about the body, left leg crushed.
Fred HiIlercus, scalp wound, bruised
about the body.
Matthew Olvin, scalp wound, cut and
bruised generally.
MOTORMAN ESCAPED.
The scene of the accident is midway
between Shelton and Bridgeport. The
car was north bound running toward
Shelton. 1t was in charge of Conductor
John Carroll, of Bridgeport, who was
among the killed, and Motorman Ham
iltOn, Of Bridgeport, who escaped by
jumping.
The trestIe is 40 feet long, made of
iron, with stone foundations, and was
not protected by guard rails. South of
the trestle is an incline, down which
nj
After it ran onto the trestle for about
ten feet, the trucks left the rails and
then the car continued on the ties for
about seventy-five feet, when it went
off the trestle and dropped into the
pond below, overturning completely
and upending. When the car struck,
the four-tOn motor and the heavy
trucks crushed into it, instantly killing
many of the passengers.
Three physicians who were passen-
gers on car a short distance behind