Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1911-05-06
10 DEAD IN WRECK
fragments of Bodies Taken
From Burned Cars.
SIX WERE SCHOOL TEACHERS
Disaster at Martins Greek Was Caus-
ed by Spreading Rails and Oil
From Tank Car Took Fire
and Cremated Victims.
SIX WERE SCHOOL TEACHERS

Easton, Pa, May Ten lives we're
lost in the wreck OF the special trair
at Martins creek, carrying 1853 school
teachers from Utica, ~ Y, on a sight
seeing trip to Washington. The cause
of the disaster is attributed to spread
ing Of the rails.
The train had run by way OF Scran-
ton over the Lackawanna railroad and
was taken in charge by the Pennsyl-
vania crew at Stroudsburg. There
were three coaches The corps OF
teachers were having merry time
and looking forward to great times
during their stay in Washington,
feature of which was to have been a
reception by Vice President and Mrs.
Sherman. There was sudden grind
and jar. The merry party was thrown
together in heaps and violently jerked
into all sorts of positions, many of
them buried under baggage. The en-
CINE had left the tracks, turned over
on It's side and the coaches were de-
rallied.
While the panic-stricken teachers
were making frantic efforts to get out
of the cars the flames broke out,
seeming to envelop the whole train
at once and sweeping with frightful
roar upon the struggling women. none
of whom had been able to snatch any
wraps or hand baggage.
So swift was the descent of the
flames that the six unfortunates who
had been unable to get out of the
coaches in time were cremated, 1t is
supposed. Another presumption is that
they tainted with fright and that in
the panicky rush they were overlook
ed The oil from the tank car into
which the passenger engine had crash
ed fed the furious flames, and practi-
cally every atom of the coaches were
consumed in the fiery furnace. 1t Is
supposed that Goals from the firebox
of the wrecked engine started the oil
to burn, while flames from the stoves
in the dining car did the mischief in
the rear
OF the dead there were three in the
Easton hospital: Eleanor Rutherford,
a teacher, of Utica; Charles M. Per
son, the train conductor, of Strouds-
burg, and NJ w. Vanoy, the engineer,
Of Trenton.
There seems to be no reason to
doubt that others died in the fire.
From the mass of ashes and twisted
iron the wrecking crew removed frag-
d ments of four bodies.
Professor A. G. Burton, president OF
the Utica Teachers association, said
that he had sent word home that these
six teachers, all of Utica, persisted in
the flames Sophie Knoult, Mary Al
len, Sarah Jones' Susan Sessions, Bes-
sic Walker and Louise Lindsman.
Stewart F. Day, secretary to Mayor
Frederick Gilmore, of Utica, sent word
TO the mayor that after talk with the
Pennsylvania railroad officials he was
- convinced that no further hope could
be held out TO the relatives and friends
of the six
Besides the six teachers, four en-
ployes of the Pennsylvania railroad
are dead: Person, the conductor;
Vanoy, the engineer; Harry Wilmer.
the haggageman, and Joseph Bicknell,
the tourist agent, whose home was in
Philadelphia.
The fire made such thorough work
that il was impossible for the sur
seons to tell whether the fragments
found are the remains of men or wo-
men. DR. II. G. Jones, of Utica, who
came here with Mr. Day, thought that
the fragments taken from the wreck
were the remains of women.
Chief Surgeon Michler of the Eas-
ton hospital has ten patients under his
care Three of these are in a danger
Gus condition. They are Carrie Ruth
erford, sister of Eleanor; Augusta
Leight, of New Hartford, N. Y. and
SGeorge Parsons, the locomotive fire
nlan. He said there was a chance that
all of these might pull through, but
kasat their injuries were grave. Miss
Rutherford was dreadfully burned
about the head and breast in trying to
escape from a rear coach. Miss
14eights injuries are similar to Miss
Rutherfords.
AL of the survivors save the in
5ured In the hospitals have been sent
home by the Pennsylvania railroad.
Many of those who went back to
Utica carried injuries, some of them
serious, but they were able to travel.
The investigation made by Professors
Burton and Vincent Brown and Miss
Marian Haskins, one Of the heroines
of the wreck, determined definitely
that at least fifty of the teachers were
burned or cut or bruised. On board
the special train there were thirty wo-
men whose hands or faces were band
aged. Some were unable to sit up on
account of sprained backs or dislocat-
ed ankles.