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GENERAL NEWS MARRIAGE NEWS DEATH NEWS COURT NEWS RAILROAD NEWS LAKE NEWS
Source:  Milwaukee Sentinel
Wisconsin
Sept. 7, 1852

Another 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, 1880

Nathan 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, 1901

A 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, 1901

LOFTY 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, 1953

12 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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