Meadow Station, NJ train wreck, Oct 1885

DEATH ON THE RAIL

AWFUL ACCIDENT IN NEW JERSEY.

Three Trains Conspire to Make Frearful Havoc - Two in Collision and the Third Plunges into the Wreck - Ten or more Killed and many Wounded - A Wisconsin Girl among the Killed.

NEW YORK, Oct. 19 - The western express on the Pennsylvania railroad, which left Jersey City at 8:15 last evening ran into an emigrant train at Meadow station, near the Hackensack river bridge. The emigrant train, which left Jersey City at 7:30 o'clock, had stopped at a coal shute and at the east side of the Hackensack river bridge. The western express leaving at 8:15 o'clock crashed into the caboose of the emigrant train and threw it and a passenger car upon the east bound track. The Lehigh Valley train No. 3, which left Newark at 8:10 o'clock on the way to Jersey City, crashed into the wreck and one of the Lehigh Valley cars took fire. Ten people were killed outright and a number were injured. The wreck was the most frightful seen on the road in years. Three of the dead were brought to Jersey City, whence all the ambulances were summoned. They were a man and a woman, both decapitated and terribly mangled, and a boy about 12 years old, whose legs had been cut off. All are dressed as emigrants. The woman had both feet cut off and was rolled into the ditch. She, with several others, was taken to Newark. One Pullman on the western express and two emigrant cars were smashed.

The killed have not yet been identified as most of them were horribly mangled. Among the killed was a girl 35 years of age, Ulina Arneas, on her way to her parents in Madison, Wisconsin.

The scenese in rescuing the dead, dying and injured were terrible. Headless trunks and mangled remains were dug out of the debris amid the cries and moans of the injured. Relief trains were on hand promptly to carry the dead and injured to Jersey City but the wreckage was so great that it was confidently expected last night that more bodies would be found when the debris should all be cleared away.

The Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, WI 19 Oct 1885
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!