TWENTY CRISP BODIES.

ANOTHER HORRIBLE CALAMITY OCCURS IN OHIO -- SCENES AT THE WRECK ON THE ERIE RAILROAD.

Cleveland, Ohio, July 3 -- A freight train rain into a passenger train on the Erie road at Ravenna, at 3 o'clock this morning, the passenger train being at a stand-still. Several cars were torn to pieces and set on fire. Twenty bodies, most of them burned to a crisp, have been taken from the wreck. Twenty-three injured passengers have been rescued.
Ravenna, Ohio, July 3 -- The worst railroad accident ever occurring in this vicinity happened at 3 o'clock this morning. The horrible calamity has fairly appalled the town and nieghborhood. Twenty people were killed and their bodies burned to a crisp. More than that number were injured. The charred remains of the dead were taken from the ruins of a demolished passenger train as fast as flames could be subdued by the towns people, who rallied to the rescue. Such terrible sights as were witnessed in the early morning hours made the people almost sick. An express, loaded with sleeping passengers, was run into by a freight train while the express was at a stand-still in this city. The wreck of the passenger train was terrible and complete.
To add to the condition of the unfortunate passengers who were imprisoned in the debris, the train caught fire and was consumed. In this way death fairly swept through the wrecked train. By daylight twenty bodies, nearly all of them charred in a horrible manner, were taken out. Twenty three injured passengers had also been rescued. A large number of the killed were glass blowers, who were on their way east from Findlay.
Youngstown, Ohio, July 3 -- At 3 o'clock this morning a frightful wreck occurred at Ravenna on the New York, Lake Erie and Western railroad. Train No. 8, fast express, bound for New York, while standing at the depot waiting for orders, was crashed into from the rear by a freight train. A day coach on the rear of the train was completely telescoped and two sleepers forward took fire and were burned up. Nineteen passengers were killed and thirty-eight badly injured. Many of the victims were so badly burned that they are almost unrecognizable. A special train conveying surgeons was sent from this place. The freight train that telescoped the express in the dressed meat express from Chicago and was running at about thirty miles an hour when it struck the passenger train. The accident was due to carlessness in leaving a switch open. It is rumored that three of the members of the Pittsburg base ball team were killed in the wreck.
Pittsburg, Pa., July 3 -- Director DERR, of the Pittsburg ball club, said it is possible that KING, GALVIN and MILLER were on the wrecked train.
New York, July 3 -- The following has been received by the Erie officials here:
Cleveland, Ohio, July 3, 1891.
E. B. Thomas, First Vice President:
No. 82 ran into the rear end of No. 8 at Ravenna station at 2:32 a.m. Engineer of No. 8 was doing some work on his engine. He had been standing still about eight minutes. Had flag out thirty-five car lengths on a straight line. Engine No. 679 and two sleepers burned up. As near as I can learn at present there are senen killed and about ten injured.
[Signed] A. M. Tucker, General Manager.
Cleveland, Ohio, July 3 -- General Superintendent TUCKER, of the Erie railroad, nervously paced back and forth in his office all this morning waiting anxiously for a dispatch from Ravenna.
"I have received as yet only meagre reports," he said, "and am waiting anxiiously for full accounts from officials. There is nothing to conceal about the wreck. It was caused by an employe's negligence. Train No. 8, a fast night express going east, left Kent all right with a long line of coaches and sleepers. A few minutes later fast freight No. 82 followed the regulation distance behind. At Ravenna, the next stop, the engineer found something wrong with his machine and delayed a few moments to fix it. Knowing that the freight was following, a flagman was sent back to stop it. The failure of this man to properly perform his duty caused the disaster. I am not yet exactly informed that he did not do so, but suppose that he failed to go back far enough. He evidently thought that the passenger would go on before the freight came along and so shirked his work. The express train had been at Ravenna just eight minutes when the freight dashed up too close to be stopped by the flagman. It crashed into the rear of the passenger train and scattered death on all sides. To add to the horror fire broke out and consumed many of the dead and injured who were held fast in the ruins. Such fearful sights had better be left to the imagination than any attempt to depict in words. I do not know how many were killed, or who they were, but reports will soon tell the story. It was 5 o'clock this morning when I first received word, and since then I have been endeavoring to obtain definite news, but everything is so confused that as yet I have received little."
A Later Account.
Ravenna, Ohio, July 3 -- Four years ago this town received the greatest shock ever experienced by it, and one that was never expected to be equalled. This shock was the attack upon Detective Hulligan by members of the Blinkey Morgan gang; the killing of Hulligan and the rescue of a prisioner. This morning at 3 o'clock the express train on the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio road was run into by a fast freight train and nineteen or twenty people were killed and their bodies charred by flames that soon broke out in the wreck. The Morgan attack was eclipsed and the whole nieghborhood shocked as it never expected to be again. The cause of the terrible catastrophe is loudly given. Two miles from Ravenna the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio and Cleveland and Pittsburg cross. When the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio express reached this crossing this morning, it was delayed there for a considerable length of time. Behind the express and thundering along at a rapid rate was a refrigerator train, used to transport meat and accustomed to cover the distance it had to run at a speed little less than that of an ordinary passenger train. After the half at the C. and P. crossing was ended, the express hurried on to Ravenna and pulled up at the depot. But the time that the train was held at the C. and P. road was sufficient to permit the meat train to come up, and hardly had the wheels of the express ceased to revolve when the engine of the freight crashed into the rear end of the express almost at full speed.
The scene that ensued was terrible in the extreme. The engine plowed its way, pushed on by the wright and momentum of the heavy cars behind it, through the coaches as if they were made of thin boards. Above the horrible grinding and crunching of the cars could be heard the agonized shrieks of the maimed passengers, who but a second before were sound asleep. There were two or three sleepers in the train and these were well filled. There was also a car of excursionists bound east. Many glass blowers from Findlay were on board the train going to New York state. A dozen people from Akron composed an excursion party on the ill-fated train. When the collision occurred those in the rear cars were either instantly killed, wounded or pinned down by the portions of the demolished cars. The latter could not escape unaided, and in the terrible fright and confusion that followed, and before the citizens of the town could reach the scene of the disaster, fire broke out in the wreck and spread with frightful rapidity. If the accident had been awful before, it was now an unequalled horror. The flames rushed through the debris and the shrieks of the maimed or pinioned could be plainly heard in the night air. Forward the wounded and unharmed passengers were getting themselves out of the cars that were still intact. They at once did all they could to stay the flames and rescue the imperilled. But before this was done nineteen people were sacrificed, that many bodies being taken out afterward. Most of these mangled corpses were blackened and burned in a manner sickening to look upon, some of the being roasted into unrecognizable masses. As the work of taking out the dead bodies progressed, the full extent of the calamity dawned upon the workers from the town and those of the passengers who escaped alive. By daylight nineteen bodies had been carried out. How many more met death is not known. Those wounded to a considerable extent numbered twenty-three. Many others were bruised and scratched, in fact nearly everybody on the train was hurt to some extent. Of the Akron party none was killed. A number of Cincinnatians and several of the Findlay people met death. The work of identifying the dead is now in progress.
Cincinnati, Ohio, July 3 -- A telephone message from Manager HANLON, of the Pittsburg Base Ball club, at 10 o'clock states that GALVIN, MILLER and KING, of that club, were not on the wrecked train. They are still in this city.
The Engineer Talks.
GEORGE HOLMAN, engineer of the freight, said to a reporter: "I cannot see that I am to blame. Oh, my God! If I could have got sand I could have stopped the train, but the rails were wet and the sand would not take. I was not warned in time and could not see the lights on the rear of the pasenger owing to the darkness and fog. I reversed the lever as quickly as possible, and the fireman jumped from the train, sustaining severe fracture of the righthand." MR. HOLMAN seems to think the brakeman of the passenger train, FRED BOYNTON, could have flagged from a greater distance.
Manager TUCKER Talks.
"There is no use trying to shift the responsibility," said TUCKER. "Our road always tries to use the utmost precautions for safety, but here is a case where a man failed to do his duty. I do not know yet who he is or how he feels, but I should think he would be contemplating shooting himself by this time. On all our passenger trains there is a flagman, whose especial duty it is to flag approaching trains in just such an emergency as this. The flagman is selected generally from among the best brakemen and is paid extra for his work. He is provided with a lantern and track torpedoes, and is expected to guard the train from others approaching from other directions. The flagman is instructed to not only wave his lantern but place torpedoes on the track. In this way the approaching train is given warning to stop. Freight train No. 82 left Kent five minutes behind the passenger, and the latter had stopped at the station eight minutes when the crash came. In that time the flagman could have gone back a mile, if necessary, but he did not do so. Engineer PENDERGAST and Conductor BOYNTON, two of the oldest and most trusted employes on the road, were in charge of the passenger train. I do not know who the freight crew were nor whether any of them were hurt. It is slow work obtaining reliable information."
An Eye Witness.
Captain WALLACE, one of Warren's best known citizens, was in the third coach from the rear of the train asleep in his berth when the shock came. His story of the awful affair is as follows:
"The train was composed of vestibuled sleepers. It was, as near as I can tell, about 3 a.m., when a crash unlike anything I ever before experienced, came. I was thrown from my berth and nearly knocked senseless, but finally crawled from under a pile of debris and found myself comparatively uninjured. I looked about me and the sight that met my gaze I will never forget. The three rear coaches, including the one I was in, were piled up in an indescribable mass and flames shot up from two of them like from a huge bon fire. The air was filled with the moans and shrieks of the imprisoned passengers and strong men stood helpless with the knowledge that before their eyes human beings were being burned or crushed to death. My first thought was for the people in the rear coach. When I boarded the train my attention was called to them by some one remarking that there was a party of fifty-three men in the rear car. When the freight crashed into us it crushed this car into a thousand pieces and flames broke out almost immediately. How any of the passengers in that car escaped, if they did, is a mystery. I saw them take some eighteen or twenty bodies from the wreck, but I do not think that that is half of those who will be found to be missing when the reports are in. I am of the opinion that every man in the rear coach was killed. The sight of the corpses as they were taken from under the debris was sickening. Pieces of flesh, an arm or a leg were found and in this way it was impossible to tell how many were killed. Every piece that was taken out was burned to a crisp, so that identification was impossible. When I left the scene the wreck was still smouldering and the air was fairly thick with the odor of burning bodies."
The Dead.
The following is the list of the dead so far as identified:
THOMAS VINHILL, Corning, N. Y.
DAVID RELITAN, Corning, N. Y.
WILLIAM KANE, Brooklyn, N. Y.
ALBERT GANTRAP, Corning, N. Y.
HENRY GILDAY, Corning, N. Y.
The Wounded.
The following is a list of those wounded and missing:
FRED HUFF, Corning, N. Y.
FRED BURNS, Corning, N. Y.
JAMES GRIFFIN, Boston.
A. HARDEMAN, Corning, N. Y.
LEWIS KIMBALL, Corning, N. Y.
WM. NEWCOMB, Corning, N. Y.
JOHN CADIGAN.
JOSEPH MADIGAN.
THOMAS HANLEY.
JAMES DWYICKIN.
GEORGE SMITH.
DENNIS RYAN.

The Fort Wayne Sentinel Indiana 1891-07-03

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The following is an accurate and complete list of the dead in the wreck:
JOHN COYLE.
DAVID RELATIN.
FRANK BURNS.
JOHN GRIFFIN.
FRED DUFF.
OWEN HARDMAN.
DENNIS RYAN.
PATRICK RYAN.
DENNIS CASSIDY.
ALBERT GUNTHERUP.
JOHN DENNE.
HENRY GILDE.
T. A. NOTAN.
THOMAS KIEVELLE.
WILLIAM NEWCOMBE.
All of the above named are from Corning, N. Y.
WILLIAM KANE, aged 14, of Brooklyn.
JOHN KIMBALL, of Findlay.
MRS. MAMIE KENNAN and Child, of Chicago.

The Weekly News Mansfield Ohio 1891-07-09
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!