Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-04-21
BURNED TO CRISP.
Eight Lives Lost in New York
Railroad Wreck.
Victims Penned in Debris and Slowly
Roasted to Death.
Ten Others lnjured-YouthfM Watch.
man Makes Mistake.

Jamestown, N. Y, April 20.-Eight
persons are dead and 10 injured, three
of them seriously, as the result of a
collision between a passenger train and
a freight train on the Erie railroad,
at an early hour today, near Red House,
N. Y.
OF the dead only one, Robert H.
Hotchkiss of Meadville, a brakeman,
has been identified. Seven bodies, APP
parently those of three men, three
women and a child were burned beyond
recognition in the fierce fire which fol-
lowed the wreck. The women are said
to have boarded the train at Youngs-
town and to have come from Pitts
burg.
r. S. McCready, mail weigher of
Meadville, Pa, and Frank Barhite of
jamestown, travelling salesman, are
missing and it is likely two of the I'M
identified bodies are those of the two
men.
The injured are:
H. Pulsifer, New York, badly bruised.
c. w. Mesick, Chicago, back badly
injured.
Anna st. Sci, Brooklyn, N. Y, shock
ed and very sick.
H. r. Cleminger, mail clerk, Gerry,
N. Y, ribs fractured and body bruised.
John Drougouan, Duluth, bruised and
badly cut.
Mrs. Foote, 80 years old, st. Pal,
Mimi, bruised and shocked.
S. A. Cooke, colored porter, New
York, back and ribs injured.
C. S. Johnson, colored porter Sum-
p,aryillo NJ r Loo fractured
e. c. Gabler, express messenger,
fatal.
r. T. Bell, fireman, head and back
bruised.
Mrs. Foote and E. c. Gabler and
Fireman Bell are in the hospital at Sal
manaca. The others were able to pro-
coed to their destination.
The wrecked passenger train was
running from Chicago to New York and
was derailed by striking a freight
train which was entering a siding at
Red House. The wreck at once took
fire and the combination car. two day
coaches and two sleepers together with
several freight cars We're consumed.
There is some dispute as to the cause
of the wreck, but it is alleged that the
operator in the tower, Lawarry Vale,
boy II years of age, by mistake dis
played a white signal toward the. pas
senger train, indicating to the en-
gineer that he had clear track be-
fore the. freight had made the siding.
The train ran toward the end of the
siding at high speed, collided with the
second engine of the freight train just
as it was about to clear the main line.
striking at a slight angle, tearing off
the cylinder and part of the cab and
jumping the track. The passenger en-
CINE and some of the coaches ploughed
up the earth for distance Of three
rods and crashed into a small wooden
structure used as a feed store and
school house.
The first half dozen cars of the
freight were wrecked. They were box
cars loaded with coal. The coal filtered
in amongst the wreckage, creating an
intense heat. All but three of the cars
of the express followed the engine and
the whole mass of wreckage was soon
in flames. The tracks were strewn for
rods with burning wood and coal and
heaps of twisted iron work.
The train is one of the fast trains
on the Erie. The two private care
attached to it, today, were occupied by
w. J. Murphy, his wife and two Of
ficials of the Queen & Crescent Rail-
road and J. l.. Frazier. general super
intendent of the Clover Leaf. All es-
capped u1injured. r.