(erielack) Erie RR. Wreck at Greenville, Pa. Feb. 1901

[rjflei_@_aol.com]

Greenville, PA Train Wreck, Feb 1901
Posted  November 15th, 2007 by _Lori Boggs_ 
(http://www3.gendisasters.com/users/lori-boggs)   
 
SWIFT DEATH IN A WRECK  
Erie Train Jumps the Track Rounding Sharp Curve and Five Perish. 
Steel Mall Car Telescopes the Smoker Tearing, Killing, Crushing and  
Maiming. 
Sergeant Major Harry Hart and Two Privates on Their Way to Fort Crook Lose  
Their Lives. 
Greenville, Pa. Feb.7. -Train No. 5, The New York-Chicago limited on the 
Erie  railroad, was wrecked this morning within town limits. Five passengers 
were dead  when taken from the wreck, several are missing and there are many 
badly injured.  The dead are:  
SERGEANT MAJOR HARRY A. HART, Fort Wood. New York. 
GEORGE W. PATTERSON, Philadelphia, private, company I Tenth United States  
infantry. 
PETER J. CURRY, Cuboco, N.Y., private, company I Tenth infantry age 21. 
UNKNOWN MAN, aged 25, supposed to be CLARENCE LEE of Somerville, N.J. only  
papers on person was a postal card that had been sent to the Adams Produce  
company, Rushville, Ind. and a ticket from New York to that point. His face 
was  literally torn into shreds. 
Injured: 
WILLIAM B. MOORE, Lenox Roard, Brooklyn, compound fracture of left leg and  
badly cut about head; B.A. MARSDEN, Philadelphia, terribly crushed about 
the  body; IVAN LESTER SMITH, Canasteo, badly crushed; JOSEPH BROOK, 
Brookfield,  Mass. compound fracture left leg, cut and bruised about head and body; 
private  Tenth infantry; WILLIAM F. MACGINNITIE, attorney, Portland Ind., hip 
crushed,  face cut; O.H. SIMONS ,Kent, O., brakeman, compound fracture left 
leg, right leg  badly bruised; C .J. HENRY, Meadville, baggageman, left leg 
broken, injured  about the chest; S.AITKEN,salesman, New York, slightly 
suffering shock; LEVI F.  CAHOON, Gloucester, Mass., slightly injured; CLARENCE 
LECK, Somerville, N.J.  injuries serious; MILTON STANLEY, Newton, N.J. leg 
fractured, cut about face;  CHARLES CORNELL, Elmira, N.Y., slightly; HARRY 
WELSBURG, express messenger,  Dayton, O., crushed; CARMIE COIGUIR and CARMIE 
GROCCO, Carbondale, Pa.,  slightly. 
FEW ESCAPE INJURY. 
Hardly a passenger escaped without some injury. The ill-fated train was  
composed entirely of vestibuled Pullmans, three sleepers, a day coach,  
combination smoker and baggage and a mail car, and was drawn by one of the new  
Atlantic type of engines.  
It was on the smoking department that death laid a ruthless hand, for there 
 was not one of the sixteen occupants escaped being killed or injured. This 
car  was completely telescoped by the steel mail car ahead, which went 
through at as  it was paper tearing, crushing, maiming and carrying death. The 
only wonder is  that the occupants were not all killed outright. 
The scene of the wreck is on a sharp curve. On one side forth feet below,  
flows the Shenango river, on the other is a steep curve and before it had 
gone  two car lengths plowed into the steep hill where it fell on its side and 
was  half buried. 
The train was running about two hours late and the accident happened at 
7:10  a.m., just about the time when the occupants of the sleeper had finished  
dressing. 
RESCUING THE INJURED. 
After the terrible crash the uninjured passengers set about the rescue of 
the  dead and wounded, surgeons were summoned and dying were being cared for 
as fast  as they could be discovered beneath the wreckage. It was several 
hours before  the victims had been removed and placed in the two rear 
Pullmans. 
The scenes inside the telescoped cars were terrible. The men begged to be  
released and screamed in agony. They were all heaped in a corner of the car, 
 dumped there by the irresistible impetus of the mail car. The injured were 
 placed on a special train and taken to the Spencer hospital, Meadville, 
about  noon. 
Very little was left of the baggage or express matter in the cars and most 
of  it was dumped in the river in order to clear the debris for rescue. 
The train was in charge of Conductor SIM RANDEL, with Fireman GEORGE 
ECKERT.  Both the engineer and fireman escaped but jumping, though both were badly 
 bruised. Superintendent BELKNAP and other officers were early on the 
ground.  They were unable to assign a cause for the acident(sic) unless spreading 
rails  can be blamed. 
A party of soldiers, nine in number, on their way to Fort Porter, N.Y. to  
Fort Crook, Neb., in charge of SERGEANT MAJO(SIC) HARRY A. HART of New York, 
 occupied a part of the smoker. Of the number three were killed and two 
seriously  injured. They were under orders for the Philippines and would have 
sailed in a  short time. 
The track was blocked for twelve hours the work of clearing the wreck,  
progressing slowly, and it is believed other bodies are still beneath the  
debris. 
Morning World-Herald, Omaha, NE 8 Feb  1901



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