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Source: Milwaukee Sentinel
Wisconsin
Sept. 7, 1852Another link in the Lake Shore Railroad has been
completed. The cars ran from Ashtabula to Conneaut for the first
time on Saturday week. There are now only about thirty miles
from Erie west to be completed. |
Source: Summit County Beacon -
Ohio
May 12, 1880Nathan Daugherty, an Ashtabula lad, was killed
at Conneaut, by falling between car platforms. |
Source: Sun
Dated: Apr. 20, 1891
SIX POSTAL CLERKS AND TWO ENGINEERS KILLED - A frightful
wreck occurred on the Lake Shore Railroad, at Kipton, Station, about
40 miles west of Cleveland, Ohio, early Saturday evening, in which six
postal clerks and two engineers were killed. The fast mail No.
14, bound east collided with No. 21, the Toledo express, just as the
latter train was about to pull on the siding to let the fast mail
pass. The fast mail was running at full speed, and the force of
the collision was so great that both engines, three mail cars and one
baggage car were completely wrecked. Following is the list of
the dead:
Edward Brown, engineer of No. 21, Toledo, Ohio
Charles A. Topliff, engineer of No. 14, Toledo, Ohio;
F. J. Nugent, postal clerk, Toledo Ohio;
Charles Hammil, postal clerk, Toledo, Ohio;
F. F. Clemens, postal clerk, Cleveland, Ohio;
John J. Bowerfine, postal clerk, Elyria, Ohio;
James McKinley, postal clerk, Conneaut, Ohio;
C. H. McDowell, postal clerk, Elyria, Ohio.
Staley, fireman of No. 14, injured;
Danzig?, son of section fireman, struck by wreckage and badly
hurt.
None of the passenger coaches left the track and none of the
passengers received serious injuries. |
Source: Grand Forks Herald
North Dakota
July 12, 1901A BRIDGE COLLAPSES.
ON THE NICKEL PLATE ROAD WITH THREE HEAVY LADEN CARS.
WITH AN AWFUL CRASH AND WITHOUT WARNING.
ON THE HELPLESS WORKMEN ENGAGED IN MAKING REPAIRS BELOW - ELEVEN
KILLED AND TEN SERIOUSLY INJURED - THE LIST OF DEAD.
Conneaut, O., July 11 - Just after 10 o'clock today three cars of
the east end local freight went through the Nickel Plat bridge at
Springfield, PA. The train left Conneaut only a few minutes
before the accident in charge of Engineer Wm. Griffith of
Buffalo and Conductor Phil A. Moore of Buffalo. The
latter was killed outright. The bridge crew was at work on the
bridge and the 11 men killed and 10 men injured are mostly working
men. A fill was being made at the bridge and about 25 workmen
were about the structure. The Conneaut wrecking train with local
officials and doctors left for the scene at 11 o'clock.
The horrible affair occurred just after passenger train
NO. 3 had pulled through. The local, after the passing of the
passenger train, pushed three cars heavily laden out on the structure
to unload stone for the masons working beneath on the large stone
abutments. The unloading had hardly been begun when without
warning the whole structure bearing the three laden cars filled with
laborers fell with an awful crash into the valley. So sudden was
the affair that only one man, a mason named George Smith, had a
chance to leap in time to save himself from injury. The list of
dead include:
Conductor Phil A. Moore, Conneaut.
J. Zaboss, workingman, Cleveland
George Swartz, workman, Springfield.
Homer Beckwith, foreman, Conneaut
Five Italians, names as yet unknown.
Randall West, Springfield.
The men as the train fell had all leaped as far as
possible so that only two or three were buried beneath the awful mass
of debris at the bottom of the ravine. These were easily pulled
out and carried to the top of the hill and placed on the lawn awaiting
the arrival of medical assistance, which came promptly. As soon
as news of the accident reached Conneaut, a wrecking train and a
hurriedly constructed ambulance train were dispatched to the scene.
The wounded were first attended to. They were placed in cots and
all were brought to Conneaut with the exception of the men named
Randall, Beckwith and Swartz, who were taken in charge of
by their parents at Conneaut. The living were conveyed to the
hospital. The remains of the dead were transferred to the morgue
to await identification. |
Source: The Worcester Spy
Massachusetts
July 12, 1901LOFTY RAILWAY BRIDGE CRASHES DOWN WITH CARS
TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE NEAR SPRINGFIELD, PENN
CAUSED BY FALL OF STRUCTURE ON WHICH THREE HEAVILY LADEN CARS WERE
STANDING.
Men Working Below buried in debris
Cleveland, O., July 11 - Just after 10 o'clock today three cars of
the east end local freight went through the Nickel Plate bridge at
Springfield, Pa.
The train left Conneaut only a few minutes before the
accident, in charge of Engineer William Griffith of
Buffalo and Conductor Phil A. Moore of Buffalo. The
latter was killed outright. The bridge gang was at work on the
bridge and the 10 men injured are mostly workmen.
A fill was being made at the bridge and about 25
workmen were about the structure.
The horrible affair occurred just after passenger train
No. 3 had passed, pushed three cars heavily laden on to the structure
to unload stone for the masons working beneath on the large stone
foundations. The work of unloading had hardly begun, when,
without any warning, the whole structure bearing the laden cars,
filled with laborers, fell into the valley. So sudden was the
accident that only one man, a mason named George Smith, had a
chance to lean in time to save himself from death.
The dead:
Homer Beckwith, foreman, Conneaut
Phil A. Moore, conductor, Conneaut
George Swartz, laborer, North Springfield, Pa.
John Cenos, laborer, Cleveland
Carl Randall, West Springfield
Five Italian laborers, names unknown.
The injured: -
J. J. McDermott, a brakeman, Ashtabula, jaw
broken, badly bruised.
Five Italian laborers, names unknown
The place where the accident occurred was at Crooked
Creek, directly north of East Sprinfield, Pa.
For many years the creek has been spanned by a heavy
structural steel bridge. On May 1 the work of filling up the
valley was commenced. Down in the ravine 55 feet below, masons
were at work building a large stone abutment.
The wreck presented a terrible appearance. The
steel was wrenched and distorted into one huge mass. The three
cars containing stone were broken to bits and the railway track was
obliterated in the pile.
The cause of the wreck can be laid only to accident.
For a long time all the trains have been required to reduce their
speed to four miles an hour in passing over the bridge. The
railroad men regard it as little less than miraculous that the
structure withstood the strain of heavy laden passenger train No. 3,
which passed over it a short time before, and then fell with three
loaded cars standing upon it.
Conductor Moore was on one of the cars while the
crew of workmen was waiting underneath to level off the stone as it
was dumped off. Without a word of warning the bridge gave way.
The three cars with their heavy loads were buried into the gulley a
distance of about 80 feet.
Into the very midst of the workmen the train tumbled
and many were crushed.
Special trains from Conneaut and Erie carried physicians
to the scene of the accident. The work of recovering the dead
and rescuing the injured, was difficult, as they were buried under the
heavy cars. It appears from later reports from the scene of the
accident that the engine did not go down with the wrecked bridge.
Only the cars heavy loaded with stone, were carried down. It was
at first reported that engineer Griffith had been killed but
this now seems to have been erroneous. |
Source: Anaconda Standard - Montana
Dated: Aug. 14, 1905
TWELVE KILLED IN THE CRASH.
TERRIFIC HEAD-ON COLLISION BETWEEN PASSENGER AND FREIGHT IN OHIO.
STUPIDITY OR NEGLIGENCE
Which of one of the engineers said to be ___ and this may have caused
the wreck - Engine and three cars of passenger scoot over freight and
tops and sides of coaches cave in like paper boxes, planting occupants
down. Long list of badly injured.
---
Cleveland, Aug. 13 - A fast eastbound
passenger train on the Nickel Plate road collided with a westbound,
freight train early to-day at Kishman, Ohio, near Vermillion,
resulting in the death of 12 persons, while at least 25 others were
injured. 8 of whom probably will die. The wrreck,
according to the officials of the company, was caused by a
misunderstanding of orders, or neglect to obey them, on the part of
the crew of the freight train.
CHARLES W. POOLE, engineer of passenger train,
Conneaut, Ohio.
JOSEPH ALEXANDER, Newark, N. J.
FRANK WEAVER, Findlay, Oiho
Nine Italian laborers
The injured include the following:
John W. Long, Cleveland
Richard A. Long, son of J. W. Long;
Mrs. John W. Long
Louis Rheinbold, Bascom, Ohio;
E. E. O'hara, Findlay, Ohio
B. L. Kerr, Grafton, Ohio
John W. Murphy, West Haven, Conn.;
Philip Baskima, Tiffin, Ohio;
Floyd Trumer, Ada, Ohio;
John Dedtout, Tiffin, Ohio;
Frank Phillips, Findlay, Ohio
Aside from the engineer, the men killed
on the passenger train were all riding in the smoking car and were
mostly foreign laborers in the employ of the Standard Oil company on
their way from Fort Seneca, Ohio, to Brookfield, Ohio, in charge of a
foreman. Engineer C. W. Poole of the passenger train was
killed while trying to reach for the air brake. His fireman
saved himself by jumping.
Terrific Impact.
The high speed of the passenger train threw its
locomotive and first three coaches over on the engine of the freight
train, telescoping the smoker and the car following. Several
cars of the freight train were splintered to fragments.
Of the passengers in the smoker none escaped injury.
Fortunately there was no fire, but the heavy timbers of the wrecked
cars pinned down many and prevented them getting out until assistance
arrived. Doctors were sent on a special train to the scene of
the accident from Loraine. The injured were hurried to Loraine
and placed in the hospital. The dead were conveyed to the morgue
at Loraine.
Passengers dozing.
When the trains came together, almost
everybody in the smoker was dozing. The sudden jar hurled them
out of their seats into the aisle and threw several persons to the
roof, and the roof and sides of the car seemed all at once to crush in
like a paper bag, pinning down the passengers. The passengers in
the second care were more fortunate. There the violence of the
impact was not so severe, though few got off without cuts,
bruises, sprains or broken bones. No passengers in the sleepers
were injured.
The men on the train who escaped injury worked hard to
rescue the victims and were aided by residents from the vicinity of
the wreck. Some of the injured were laced in the sleeping cars,
while others were removed to houses near the scene.
Engineer's Watch Slow.
President Caniff of the Nickel Plate to-day stated
that from the information in the hands of the officials the freight
crew had orders to go on the siding at Kishman and there await the
passage of the passenger train. Why this was not done in
time to permit the passenger train to go by or a flagman sent out has
not yet been learned. A rigid investigation is being made by the
railroad officials. It is stated that the watch of the engineer
of the freight train was slow and that the engineer believed that he
had eight minutes to get from the station to the siding before the
passenger train was due. The freight train had slackened speed
and was about to back in on the siding from the main track when the
passenger train came tearing along at the rate of 45 miles an hour and
dashed into it. |
Source: Tucson Daily Citizen - AZ
Dated: Sept. 22, 1910
ONE KILLED; 25 INJURED IN WRECK
LIMA, Ohio, Sept. 22 - Chicago and Erie train No. 4 was wrecked near
Conneaut, killing an aged woman and injuring 25. The smoker
day coach and two Pullmans were overturned in a ditch twenty feet
deep. The track where the wreck occurred was recently raised
several inches. |
Source: The New York Times
Dated: Feb. 10, 1917
TRAIN KILLS TWO SOLDIERS.
Twelve Others in Ohio Regiment at El Paso Are Injured.
EL PASO, Texas, Feb. 9 - Private Charles Eaton of Company
L, Fifth Ohio Infantry, and Sergeant Karl Eisenhart of Company
K, Fifth Ohio Infantry, were killed late today when the Golden State
Limited on the Rock Island Railroad from Chicago struck a motor truck
in which they were riding downtown from Camp Pershing.
Private Eaton was from Conneaut, Ohio, and Sergeant Eisenhart
from Cleveland.
The dangerously injured were: Private A. J.
Roehl, Company K, right ear almost torn off, scalp wounds on right
side of his head, and severely bruised; Private Daniel F. Toomey,
Company L, scalp wound and body bruises; Private Rudolph J. Schmidt,
Company K, scalp wound and wrenched back. |
Source: Plain Dealer - Cleveland, Ohio
Dated: Feb. 10, 1917
FAST TRAIN KILLS SOLDIERS
HITS GROUP AT ROAD CROSSING
Flyer Strikes Truck Load of Cleveland and Conneaut Men; Kills Two,
injures Many.
Sergt. EISENHART and Private EATON of Fifth Regiment Die instantly
THINK DRIVER CONFUSED - Injured Say Man at Wheel Failed to Heed
Whistle
(Staff Special)
EL PASO,, Feb. 9, Two Fifth Ohio infantrymen were instantly killed
and eighteen were seriously injured this afternoon when the Golden
State Limited passenger train of the Rock Island plowed into a
truckload of soldiers.
Five of the victims were Clevelanders and five were
from Conneaut. The Clevelanders were members of Company K and
the men from Conneaut were enlisted in Company L.
The dead soldiers were Sergt. Karl Eisenhart,
Company K, and Private Charles Eaton, Company L.
The truck carrying the soldiers was one of a fleet that
was taking men into El Paso to watch a drill of high school cadets.
Say Whistle Was ignored
Guardsmen who escaped with a mere shaking up and
burses said Carl Kalda, driver of the truck, apparently was
so confused that he disregarded the limited's whistle and tried to
make the Dyer street crossing, against the terrified protests of the
militiamen, who realized their danger.
Several of the soldiers made vain efforts to take the
truck from Kalda's control.
The machine plunged into either the locomotive or the
baggage car, nearly all of the men being thrown against the train
and under the wheels of the first car.
The disaster happened within the stone's throw of the
headquarters of Brig. Gen. John C. Speaks, commander of the
Second brigade of Ohio troops.
Two Killed Instantly.
Sergt. Eisenhart and Private Eaton were
killed instantly. Private Randolph J. Schmidt, Company
K, Cleveland, and Private Dan Towney, Company I., Conneaut,
were crushed about their heads and bodies and possibly fatally hurt,
although army surgeons late tonight were holding out hopes for their
recovery.
One car of Private A. J. Roehl, Company K,
Cleveland, was torn off and one of his shoulders was crushed.
The teeth of Private H. J. Clark, Company K, Cleveland, were
knocked out and his head was lacerated.
Private Daniel Dingwell, Company K. Cleveland,
suffered a broken foot; Private Daniel Roy, Company I.,
Conneaut, bruises on legs and body; Private Floyd Rugar,
Company I., Conneaut, and Private Grant Rood and
Private Karl Fisher of the same company, bruises on head and
bodies.
"It is my best judgment that the truck hit the head end
of the first baggage coach," said Maj. A. S. Houts, acting
brigade adjutant, who was standing alongside the tracks when the
accident happened.
Other witnesses said the truck struck the tender.
Men on the truck jumped or were hurled under the train these
witnesses said.
An official version of the accident has not been
announced by Gen. George Bell, Jr., commander of the Eleventh
provisional division.
Immediately after the accident, Gen. Bell
ordered a board of inquiry to examine survivors and witnesses.
Conneauta Victim Ran Away to Join Guard.
Special to the Plain Dealer
CONNEAUT, Feb. 9 - Because Charles Eaton, 20,
ran away from his home and joined Company L., Fifth regiment, O. N.
G., a Conneaut family is in morning tonight.
Private Eaton was one of the Ohio soldiers
killed in the accident at El Paso today.
Charles, the youngest son, joined the army when
the call first came, leaving his home in Albion, near here, and
enlisting. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. O. Eaton,
Jefferson street, Conneaut, who moved here after he had enlisted,
were ever watchful for news from him.
But Mrs. Eaton for several days had been
apprehensive that some injury would befall him and when news of his
death was told her tonight, she was overcome by the shock. She
is in a serious condition.
The first accident to members of Company L east a gloom
over the city tonight.
Daniel Roy, one of the injured, left a good
position in Detroit and hastened to rejoin the company here when the
call came.
Floyd Rugar was a sailor before he enlisted in
the guard. Daniel L. Toomey and Grant Rood came
from Girdard, Pa., east of here.
Henry Armstrong is from Conneaut, but Verne
Griffs and Ralph Morgan, members of the Conneaut company,
live in Albion, Pa., and Ashtabula.
Eaton leaves, besides his parents, three
brothers and three sisters.
The injured soldiers range in age from 20 to 24.
CRASH VICTIMS:
DEAD:
Karl EISENHART, sergeant Co. K, 2345 Belleville avenue,
Cleveland
Charles EATON, private, Co. L., Conneaut
INJURED:
Rudolph J. SCHMIDT, private, Co. K, 7003 Kurtz court S. E., reported
dying.
Dan. L. TOOMEY, private Co. L., Conneaut, reported dying.
Audley J. ROEHL, private, Co. K, 10002 Columbia avenue N. E.
Cleveland, shoulder crushed and ear torn off.
Hiram J. CLARK, PRIVATE, Co. K, 1665 E. 65th street,
Cleveland, head lacerated and teeth knocked out.
Daniel DINGWELL, private Co. K, Cleveland, foot broken.
Dan RAY, private, Co. L, Conneaut, bruised on head and body.
Floyd RUGAR, private, Co. L, Conneaut, bruised on head
and body.
Grant ROOD, PRIVATE, Co. L, Conneaut, bruised on
head and body.
Edward Walsh, private, Co. K, 18635 Lauderdale avenue,
Lakewood, shoulder dislocated and arm bruised.
John WITOWSKI, private, Co. K, 2909 E. 75th street,
Cleveland, arm wrenched.
Eugene GRIMM, private, Co. K, Euclid Village, O., foot
sprained.
Edward LUCK, private, Co. K, 3625 E. 65th street, Cleveland,
arm, shoulder and leg bruised.
Henry ARMSTRONG, private Co. L, Conneaut, O., hand
lacerated and leg wrenched.
Verne GRIFFIS, private, Co. L, Conneaut, O., leg
wrenched, cuts on head and arms.
Ralph MORGAN, private, Co. L., Conneaut, O., arm
fractured, back wrenched.
Michael LASHER, private, Co. L, Girard, Pa., bruised leg.
Carl FISHER, private, East Springfield, Pa., ankle sprained
and body bruised.
Floyd FULKERSON, private Co. A, Berea, O., hip sprained. |
Source: Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) Page 4 -
Dated: Thursday July 4, 1918
CONNEAUT, July 3, - Art Arhberg
42, died of injuries suffered when he was crushed between a railroad
car and an ore machine in the docks here yesterday. |
Source: Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH) Page 16
Dated: Thursday, Oct. 27, 1921
CONNEAUT, O. - Oct. 26 - John
Gourley, 69, track foreman here for the Bessemer & Lake Erie
railroad, during the last twenty-five years, died twenty minutes
after being struck on the head today by a bundle of ties that
slipped from the cable of a crane. |
Source: The Sunday Repository - Canton, O.
Dated: Feb. 25, 1923
R. R. Fireman Injured.
Cleveland, Feb. 24, - (A. P.) -
Traffic over the Nickel Plate railroad near South Euclid was delayed
for several hours this morning when a head-on collision between two
freight trains, in which Fireman H. O. Sharp, Conneaut,
suffered slight injuries, tore up rails and flung cars over the
right of way. Relief came when trains were re-routed over New
York Central lines. An investigation into the cause of the
wreck was ordered by railroad officials. |
Source: Dallas Morning News
Mar. 28, 195312 KILLED, 20 INJURED IN PILE-UP OF 3 TRAINS
List of Fatalities Expected to Grow.
CONNEAUT, Ohio, March 28 (Saturday) (UP)
- Two new York Central passenger trains and a freight train piled up
in a three-way collision Friday night, and Ohio State Police counted
twelve dead and at least twenty injured.
The wreck occurred about 10:30 p.m. Ohio time, when a
load of heave steel casings slipped off a westbound freight into the
path of the "Southwest Limited," speeding from St. Louis, Mo. to New
York.
Sgt. John Gosling of the Ohio State Patrol said
the 30-foot casings derailed both the freight and the "Limited," one
of the fastest passenger trains on its line.
The "Chicago Special," on route from Buffalo, N.Y., to
Chicago, Ill., then smashed into the wreckage, Gosling said.
The three trains piled up about two and a half miles
east of here, scattering wrecked care near the Ohio-Pennsylvania
border.
The NYC office in Cleveland, Ohio, was sending a relief
train of nine cars loaded with a Red Cross disaster unit carrying
plasma.
The NYC said a 15-ambulance caravan was on route from
Erie, Pa.
The accident happened on what is known as "State Line
Curve" near the border between Ohio and Pennsylvania. The wreck
was a quarter mile from the nearest road and the injured had to be
carried out to ambulances waiting on the road.
It's raining like hell out there," a NYC spokesman
said.
Train No. 5 was made up of eleven cars and the NYC said
all but the last car was derailed. The Southwest Limited was
made up of twelve cars and the first nine were derailed.
The spokesman said it was "believed" that only the
engines tipped over.
All four tracks of the NYC were blocked and the road
was rerouting other trains on Nickel Plate trackage nearby.
Hospitals throughout the area were alerted for a "large
number" of casualties. Extra doctors were called in. An
emergency relief train was reported to have left Erie for the scene.
Police said the number of fatalities possibly would
rise as workers at the scene searched through the wreckage.
Conneaut Police Chief J. A. Pounds said "A good
many persons have been injured" in the wreck. Railroad cars were
scattered all along the border.
The New York Central said an estimated 127 persons were
aboard the Southwest Limited when it left St. Louis.
Dr. George Stoney, at Hamot Hospital in Erie,
said he heard reports from "railroadmen" not at the scene that the
fatalities were estimated at from twelve to twenty-two."
The wreck occurred just along U. S. Highway 20, the
main artery between Columbus, Ohio and Buffalo. The only access
to the scene was a dirt road leading one mile from the highway.
Some fifteen to twenty ambulances were reported at the
scene, along with twelve police cars, including all of Ashtabula
County's auxiliary unites, plus sheriff's cars and Pennsylvania
patrolmen.
The injured were being taken to the Ashtabula General
hospital, to Brown Hospital at Conneaut and to the Hamot Hospital at
Erie.
Because of road conditions it was difficult for
ambulances to reach the scene and they took a long time brining out
the injured to hospitals.
Stoney said he understood there were plenty of
doctors available at the scene. |
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