The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1906-12-04
PRESIDENT SPENCER DIES
IN RAILROAD WRECK
Head 0f The Southern and Three
Guests Meet Death.
OPERATORS ERROR THE CAUSE
Rear End Collision on Presidents
Own Line Claims Seven Victims
General Philip Schuyler, of
New York, Perishes by Fire.

Lynchburg, Va Samuel Spencer,
president Of the Southern Railway,
one of the foremost railroad men OF
the country and friend and associ-
ate of j. Pierpont Morgan for a
score of years, was killed on his
own railroad in a Thanksgiving Day
horror that probably has never been
equalled
General Philip Schuyler, grandson
of General Schuyler, of Revolution
airy fame and granddaughter of Alex
ander Hamilton, who was accompany
ing President Spencer on a hunting
trip to the latter's lodge at Friend
ship, N, c., also lost his life in the
rear end collision, in which seven
persons were killed and eleven seri-
ously injured.
The seven lives were crushed out
in the private car Of President
Spencer.
Mr.. Spencer was killed instantly
while he slept and his body was
charred almost beyond recognition
by the flames that consumed his car
Immediately after the collision.
The dead: President Samuel
Spencer, New York City; General
Philip Schuyler, New York City;
Charles D. Fisher, Baltimore; Fran
els T. Redwood, Baltimore; D. w.
Davis, of Alexandria, Va, private
dispatcher to President Spencer; j.
w. Shaw, colored, Spencer, N. c.,
fireman; badly crushed and both legs
broken, died later in Lynchburg
hospital
An unknown person, whose head
and limbs are burned off short, Tho
is believed to be the third porter on
the private car
e. A. Merrill, Mr.. Spencer's private
secretary, was badly burned about
the head and arms. Willis J. Win
ston, of No. 233 East 127th street,
New York, suffered broken leg. The
other injured persons were negroes.
The accident, the worst that has
occurred on the Southern road in
many years and practically unpar-
alleled in railway accident history
in that it cost the life of the presi-
dent of the road on which it occurred,
seems to have been due to mistake
by the operator Of the block signal
at Rangoon, four miles north Of the
scene of the accident, in letting the
second train through before his
block was cleared. Mattox, the
operator, disappeared.
H. B. Spencer, who is a vice-pres-
ident of the Southern Railway and
the son of President Spencer, was a
passenger on the northbound train
from the South which reached the
scene of the wreck soon after it oc-
Cured. He spent several hours there
until the charred remains of his
father were taken from under the
locomotive and then he came to the
city with them and those of the
others of President Spencer's. party.
Samuel Spencer was regarded as
perhaps the biggest figure in the rail-
road, and financial world that the
South has ever produced. He was
fifty-nine years old and in the height
of his career. Mr.. Spencer was born
in Columbus, Ca, the son of Lam
bert and Vernona Spencer. His
father was a prosperous storekeeper.
AS mere youth he shouldered his
fathers musket and went to the
front as a private in the Nelson Ran-
gers, and independent company of
Confederate cavalry, operating on
scout duty After serving for sew
eral months with the Nelson Rangers
he Joined General Forests cavalry
troop and later served under General
Hood in Atlanta and in the cam
paign about Nashville At the close
of the war young Spencer entered
the University of Georgia, taking a
civil engineering course. He married
Miss Vivian Benning, of Georgia, in
1872. He is survived by his wife
and three children--Henry B. Spen-
GER, sixth vice-president and general
manager of the Southern Railway;
Vivian Spencer and Mrs. James T.
Lang, Jr., wife OF the vice-president
of the Michigan Central
The interests of the South were al
ways prime considerations with Mr..
Spencer, and he probably did as
much as any other one man to pro-
mote the Souths industrial devel-
opment. He was regarded as one of
the most democratic railroad presi-
dents in America