The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1903-12-17

Five souls ushered into eternity aud
two lowering on its brink is a brief
record of heawful sacrifice OF human
life in the Baltimore & Ohio catas-
trophe near Everett tunnel Sunday
morning at 7:20 O'Clock, when an eX-
ira eastbopnd freight ran away down
the treacherOus seventeen mile grade
and piled in mighty conglomerate
mass at the point where the two loco
motives left the rails on sharp curve.
Those killed were
! ENGINEER ERNEST D. ERWIN.
aged q years, of South Cumberland,
of engine 1864
EMORY ERWIN, aged about 60
years, of Tunnelton w. Va. riding
with his son to Cumberland.
/ FIREMAN WALTER b. NINE, of
near Terra Alta, w. Va, on engine
/ 1864.
FIREMAN J. V. CARTER, of Ken
ston, Moth Carolina, aged 28 years,
/ boarded in South Cumberland. fire
man on engine 1862
BRAKEMAN JOHN HAYES. Of
Staunton, Va, aged %, boarded in
Cumberland
The injured are
Engineer Michael J. Gibbons. South
Cumberland, aged 80 years, engineer
of 1862, fatally crushed.
Fireman T.. G. Bucklew. of Terra
Alta, W. Va, boarded in South Cum
berland arm, shoulder, leg and face
bruised and cut Was dead-heading
on Ervin's engine
Extra Brakeman b. T. Bolinger, of
Grafton, W. Va, seriously crushed ::
taken to keYser Hospital.
Flagman John Murphy, of South
| Cumberland, and Conductor J. Ran
dolph Harrison, of Keyser, were on
the rear of the train, escaped without
injury
The extra was made up of twenty
five cars loaded with coal and mer-
chandise, the coal being contained in
heavy steel gondolas The train was
in charge of Conductor J. Randolph
Harrison, of keyser, and when first
descending the grade the air pump
on engine 1864 was discovered to be
working badly. AT Swanton it was
decided to try another engine to sup
ply 1.-The air, and the 1862 was COUP
led on in front. Seemingly the dan
ger which had previously existed had
been precluded, but within a very
few minutes after leaving Swanton
the train was running at fearful speed.
Both engineers, realizing that the
train was rapidly getting beyond their
control, sounded the shrill warning
for brakes
Brakemen Hayes and Bolinger and
Fireman Bucklew, who was dead
heading from Rowlesburg to Cum
berland, put forth every endeavor to
set the brakes by hand. Meanwhile |
the speed of the runaway train was
increasing until telegraph poles flew
by so swiftly as to escape vision. /
With lightning like celebrity the train .
sped to destruction. Ahead was a
heavy curve, one mile west of Everett |
tunnel. 70 round that curve with
this Onrushing mass of hundreds of
tons every man on the train knew was
physical impossibility, unless the
speed could be slackened by the aid
of the handbrakes, and although in
the few seconds which remained they
labored with all their power to avert
disaster, cruel fate had ordained that
the worst was to occur.
Shortly came the crash. The for
ward engine left the rails, veered and
rolled upon her side. The second
locomotive toppled over on the north
part of the track and rested on the
verge of steep decliyity. Car after
car, thus brought in its fearful flight
to sudden halt, piled high the heap
of death and destruction. Steel beams
were snapped like brittle wood, iron
rods were transformed into wierd
contortions, the contents of the cars
as they twisted and writhed in this
awful upheavel being thrown in every
with death-dealing force.
Opportunity to escape were denied