Railroad Smash-Up at Jersey City and Cortland Local News of 1885

The Cortland News, Friday, October 22, 1885.

Railroad Smash-Up.

   JERSEY CITY. Oct 20—About 8:30 o'clock Sunday night the Pacific express, west bound, ran into the rear end of an extra train containing seven cars loaded with baggage and eight cars loaded with 800 immigrants, mostly Norwegians, at the west end of the Hackensack river bridge, throwing the rear car of the emigrant train over on the east bound track

   Before the track could be protected an east bound Lehigh Valley passenger train ran into the wreck killing nine persons and injuring eight others so severely that it is feared none of them can recover.

   A terrible scene was presented by the wrecked cars. The bodies of the dead and wounded lay about in the most horrible forms. Some were buried beneath piles of broken timbers, others lay huddled about the track. One woman's head was cut completely off. The head rolled down the embankment while the mangled body lay between the tracks. It was almost pitch dark and foggy, and the only light was that of the fire which enveloped the baggage car of the Western express. The wild shrieks of the suffering could be heard tor blocks away.

   Thousands of spectators and hundreds of train wreckers gathered at the scene of the wreck this morning. The broken trucks to the wrecked trains were quickly removed and the mire searched for the bodies of more victims. None were found.

   The tracks were cleared and trains began again to run and wreckers began the lifting and removal of the disjointed big Lehigh Valley engine which had crashed into the rear of the emigrant and which lay on its side half buried in the meadow. They began work on the pilot first. Directly beneath it they found the torn and mangled bodies of two boys and a woman. They were lifted tenderly and placed in a car. No one knew them, but from their garb they were immigrants, but their faces were so cut and bloody and besmeared with the black mud that immediate recognition was impossible.

   They were removed to the Jersey City morgue and at 3 o'clock this morning Chief of Police Murphey of Jersey City placed Thomas H. Platt, the telegraph operator at the east end of the Hackensack river bridge, and whose error is said to have caused the accident, under surveillance. At 7 o'clock when he was relieved from duty he was arrested. He said that while he had been advised by operators all along the line to run away, he had determined to stop at his post and take the consequences for his terrible mistake. He said that he had allowed three minutes for the immigrant train to cross the bridge and without waiting for the signal "O. K." had permitted the southern express to pass. He is now in jail awaiting the result of the coroner's inquest.

   It is thought that when the engine is removed, a work that will take several hours to complete, more bodies will be found. It is now thought that all the injured in the hospital will die.

 

TOWN CORRESPONDENCE.

South Cortland, October 22, 1885.

   Again we hear complaints of the depredations of chicken thieves.

   Our school commences next Monday with Miss Mary Hunt as teacher; and then will be heard the merry voices of the school children as they pass to and fro with dinner pail in hand.

   The subject of prohibition is receiving more attention at the present day than ever before in the history of the world. How to restrict the drink traffic is the greatest problem now before the American people.

   How much better it is to lose your vote when voting for principle than to vote against your principles and have your vote count.

   Mr. and Mrs. Frank Haskins are visiting this week with friends in Preble, Fabius and Kinney Settlement.

 

PREBLE, October 22, 1885.

   "Who says it aint hard times?" A few of the farmers have sold their butter, and after paying help will have from two to five dollars to winter their families on. What is the cause? A Democratic administration, of course.

   Our academy under the new teachers, Mr. and Mrs. Coon, is maintaining its excellent reputation, and flattering reports are received of excellent discipline and thorough instruction under their management.

 

WEST HOMER, October 22, 1885.

   The West Homer cheese factory has sold their fall cheese tor ten cents per pound.

   A number from this place attended the prohibition meeting at the Opera House Cortland, last Saturday night.

 

LATE NEWS ITEMS.

   A phenomenal migration of squirrels is now in progress from Northwestern Mississippi in direction of Arkansas. They are crossing the Mississippi from innumerable points along the line twenty miles in length and are migrating westward through See and Crittenden counties, Ark. They are traveling in thousands, and the people who live along the line of their march are killing them with sticks in countless numbers. Enterprising men are following them in wagons, slaughtering as they go and shipping the carcasses to the nearest market. They seem to have lost all fear of man, and in some instances have attacked hunters. A similar migration was observed thirteen years ago and is well remembered by old citizens.

 

The Recent Rain.

   The heavy rain that started on Tuesday evening caused considerable damage throughout this state and worked havoc with the railroads.

   Near Binghamton it raised the streams so as to submerge farms on the low lands and carried away piles of apples and potatoes that were gathered and awaiting removal to the houses, and in Binghamton cellars were flooded.

   The Chenango river at that place rose Wednesday afternoon, by actual measurement, in two hours and ten minutes over fourteen inches.

   At Owego the tracks of the Erie and Southern Central Railroads were covered so deeply with water that it became necessary to abandon trains.

   At Horseheads it was reported that people were being removed from their residences in boats for fear the houses would be carried away. The tracks of the E., C. & N. R. R. at the latter place were washed out of position, causing the suspension of traffic for nearly one whole day, so that no trains came in from Elmira until Wednesday night.

 

Abundance of Water.

   Rain commenced failing about six o'clock Tuesday evening and at midnight Trout brook had risen over two feet. Rain continued during the night and all the day yesterday but not so abundantly as at the outset. James Rowe's hen house was washed out and a number of hens drowned. About two rods of the wall forming the creek bank in the rear of P. H. McGraw & Son's factory grounds was washed out and the water commenced eating into the bank, but yesterday a quantity of brush and stone was put into the gap and prevented further damage. An empty tub standing clear from any eaves caught four and a half inches of water direct from the clouds during the night.

—McGrawville Sentinel.

 

CORTLAND AND VICINITY.

   The Marathon tannery which was destroyed by fire a few weeks since will be rebuilt.

   Special sale of Upholstered Walnut couches—only $6.00 Robert Otto, No. 8 Orchard street, Cortland.

   The afternoon train from the East on the E. C. & N. was two hours late on Wednesday. The report that the track was covered four feet with snow at DeRuyter is false—only two feet fell.

   Pat Ryan repaired to his domicile last Monday evening in a beastly state of intoxication and proceeded to amuse his wife with his fists. Mrs. Ryan objected to the sport with a dipper, applied on the nose, and afterwards had Patrick arrested for intoxication and assault and battery. Justice Bierce allowed him to repose at the county's expense in the Bastille for 10 days in default of enough filthy lucre to pay his fine.

   The electric lights failed to shine either upon the just or unjust Tuesday evening. The contract of the village with the light company only calls for twenty nights lighting each month, as it is supposed fair Luna will shed her beams the other ten. But when it rains like blazes and the clouds won't let her shed, it seems as if some means might be provided for furnishing the light whether the moon ought to shine or not.

   Work is being pushed rapidly on the new Bank Building. The fronts are nearly all to, stagings have been removed from the front part, and the whole thing begins to look as if a finish was near. Painters commenced work the fore part of this week in the upper stories and the lower one will be ready by the time the men are [done.] In fact the building is so near completion that the lessees of the store on the south side are in hope of getting in in the course of a couple of weeks.

   One of the heaviest rainstorms that has visited this section in some time occurred last night, and this morning there is a flood in the river, the water being well above the banks. The creek that runs underground under West Main street and thence to the river, has become dammed up somewhere back of the Maybury building, and is flowing across Mill street in a broad sheet, and thence between Huits' market and John O'Connell's house. On Academy and Tannery streets the turfing in front of the Catholic church, and A. C. Robacher's and W. R. Pollard’s premises has again partially washed off. We understand that at Lisle several houses near the depot are surrounded by water. Wm. Dellow informs us that Hunt's creek is higher at his factory than it has been for years.--Marathon Independent.

   Saturday afternoon last Clayton Gardner, of McGrawville, and Pat. Doud of this place, ran a one hundred yard race on O. U. Kellogg's track for a purse of fifteen dollars. Gardner was successful, winning in 11 1-4 seconds.

   District Attorney Palmer and T. E. Courtney, Esq., are at Glen Haven for medical treatment.

   The principals of the State Normal and Training Schools were in Cortland Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, it being the regular semi-annual meeting for the purpose of discussing Normal School work and how to improve the efficiency of the schools. Dr. Palmer, of Potsdam. Dr. Milne, of Geneseo, Dr. Sheldon, of Oswego, and Prof. Clark, of Potsdam, were present. Dr. Sheldon and Dr. Milne addressed the school Wednesday afternoon, and Dr. Palmer and Prof. Cook Thursday afternoon. Dr. Hoose gave a reception to the visiting principals, the faculty and local board of the Cortland school Wednesday evening. Prof. A. S. Bickmore, Superintendent of the American Museum of Natural History, of Central Park, N. Y., lectured Thursday evening at the Normal chapel to a large audience on "Yellowstone Park," illustrating the lecture with stereoptic views.



Reference:
Meadow Station, N.J. train wreck: http://www3.gendisasters.com/new-jersey/12919/meadow-station-nj-train-wreck-oct-1885