The Penn's Grove record., 1904-09-30
DYNAMITE WRECKS TOWN
Train Hits Wagon Load Of High Ex-
plosive Causing Havoc.
TWO MEN KILLED OUTRIGHT

Widespread Destruction at North Branch,
Md, Caused by Concussion, and Many
Persons Hurt School Children
Thrown Into Panic Engine Demo-
1ished-wagon Stopped on Track.
Cumberland, Md.-The village Of
North Branch, four miles east of Cum
berland, was wrecked by dynamite,
the explosion having been caused by
a Baltimore and Chic eastbound fast
freight train running into a wagon
loaded with dynamite at a crossing.
G. Walter Whitehair, a brakeman, Of
Brunswick, and Nelson Pike, engine
driver, of Martinsburg, were killed. A.
r. Sanders, fireman, of North Noun
tain, W. Va; Charles Hamilton, Of Lit
tie Orleans, Md; James Ashkettle, Of
Little Orleans; Mary Twigg, of Old
town; Raymond, the three-year-old son
OF Charles Hamilton; Maude Seibert
and James Laing, driver of the dyna-
mite wagon, were the most severely
injured.
The Baltimore and Ohio tower was
wrecked, as were the residences of
Adam Seibert, Charles Hamilton,
Charles Bloss, J.. Lewis Seibert,
Stephen A. Bloss and John Coleman,
and the commissary Of Michael Ell
more, a Wabash sub-contractor, and
office, stable anG hospital buildings.
Windows of the school house and of
the residence Of G.. A. Zimmerly and
others on the mountain half a mile
away, were all broken and the school
children were thrown into a panic.
The dynamite was being hauled for
Mr.. Gilmore, for construction work in
progress neal by. There were fifteen
cases on the wagon, aggregating $50
pounds. Laing was crossing the track
with the load when he saw the train
coming. He became panic stricken
and stopped on the track, according to
eyewitnesses, and then deserted the
team and ran. The train struck the
real of the wagon, which lacked only
three feet of clearing the track, but
the engine al on fifty feet before the
terrific explosion occurred.
Grant Hamilton and James Ashkettle
were in the tower with the formers
brother. Realizing what was coming,
they dropped down and the tower
toppled upon them. They were COW
cred with cuts from glass and splin-
tiers.
The engine was stripped of it's trim
mings and turned over at right an
giles, a total wreck, while seven freight
cars were badly broken up, the fore
most cars being destroyed. The track
was torn and twisted in all directions,
and heavy steel rails were broken in
two. The conclusion was terrific, an
unusual incident being the breaking Of
wires half way between telegraph
poles by conclusion only.
Laing was some distance away, run
ming down in a ditch when the engine
struck the wagon, and escaped with
various cuts and a fractured eardrum.
The horses were hardly scratched, al
though thrown fifty yards into a field.
1t required the strength of four or
five men to lift Pike, the engine driver,
from the throttle. His body was on
top of the overturned boiler, under
broken iron, and his hand grasped the
throttle in a death clutch.
The house Of Charles Hamilton was
torn almost inside out. The furniture
was wrecked and all the china and
crockery broken. Parts of the engine
were hurled many yards, and pickles
and whisky, with which several of the
cars were loaded, were scattered in all
directions. One of the tires of the dyn-
amite wagon was hurled to the top
of a telegraph pole, where it hung
fast.
The explosion emptied pillows of
feathers in several houses. An oak
tree was entirely denuded Of leaves.