Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1911-08-29
TWENTY-FIVE DEAD
FIFTY INJURED
PORTION OF LEHIGH VALLEY
PASSENGER TRAIN WRECKED
NEAR ROCHESTER, N. v.
MANY G. A. R. MEN ON BOARD
Two Coaches Fall IS Feet Carrying
Down Human eurden.-Dlnsr
Dragged Over Bridge and
Went Down Bank,


list of killed and injured far from
complete, rs persons are known tc
have lost their lives, and between sc
and 60 to have been injured, many Of
them seriously, in the wreck of Lehigh
Valley train No. 4, on q trestle near
here.
Two cars Of the train plunged of
the structure, were hurled against
the stone embankment and dropped to
the bed of Canadaigua outlet, 45 feet
below, when the fast-running east.
bound train was derailed and broken
in twain on the viaduct. Another car
rolled down the embankment beyond
the river. The remaining II cars Of
the train kept the roadbed.
The first car which went over, q day
coach, plunged to the creek and was
crushed upon the rocky bed. 1t land
ed upon its side and few of the occu-
pants escaped death or serious in
Jury. The following car plunged head
first into the chasm and with the for
ward end resting in the creek stood
balanced almost perpendicularly.
The train carried many veterans re-.
turning from the Grand Army en-
campment at Rochester and at least
two of the old soldiers were known
to have gone to their death in the
wreck. A large proportion of those
killed and injured were women.
The wreck was the worst in the his
tory of the Lehigh Valley line in this
state and one Of the most disastrous
ever recorded on the system. Spread
rails are believed to have been the
cause Of the accident.
The engines and two day coaches
had just passed the center Of a 400
foot trestle over Canadaigua outlet,
$50 yards east of the station at Man.
chester, at 1885 o'clock when the
Pullman car Austin" the third Of the
long train. left the rails. 1t dragged
the dining car with 1t and two day
coaches and two Pullmans followed.
All bumped over the ties short dis.
lance when the coupling between the
day coach and the rear end of the
diner broke. The forward end of the
train dragged the derailed Pullman and
the diner over safely, after which the
diner plunged down the embankment
and rolled over.
Both cars were filled with passen-
gers and in few moments the cars
lay a mass Of crumbled wood, metal
and glass, under which 100 men, WON.
en- and children were buried, many
of whom had been killed instantly.
The second day coach struck on tho
bottom and stood end up, the rear end
few feet above the ton
Of the trestle. All Of the passengers
In this car were piled in a tangled
mass Of broken seats at the bottom
Of the car.
lndescribable pandemonium follow.
ed. The Pullman car Emelyn, which
remained on the bridge, with one end
over the gulch and several
cars behind it, derailed and in imme-
date danger Of going over on the mass
Of wreckage below, were soon emptied
Of all their passengers, who, with
gangs of railroad employees from
the big freight yards at Manchester,
rushed to the aid of the imprisoned
victims of the disaster.
Axes were secured and body after
body was removed and carried by the
knee-deep in the river bed,
10 the bank on the west side of tho
trestle. There the dead and injured
we're laid on the ground. while nlanks
and timbers were requisitioned and a
field hospital established.
Many Killed Instantly.
1t was necessary to chop through
he sides and bottom of the day coach
and the work Of removing the victims
moved with painful slowness. Death
had come swiftly to many, a large
number of the dead having had their
skulls crushed in when they were
thrown against the car seats and pro
|ections.