Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 January 1878 — RAILWAY WRECK. [ARTICLE]

RAILWAY WRECK.

The Accident Near Tartftvllle, Ct.—Some Details of the Calamity. A Hartford (Ct.) dispatch giving particulars of the terrible railroad disaster near that city says: Over 500 residents of Winsted, Canaan, Salisbury, and other places in the western section of the State had visited the Moody and Sankey retival meeting, and embarked for home after services, leaving Hartford by a special train of eleven cars and two locomotives. The party had enjoyed a rare feast of religious communion witn the great evangelists, and little did they imagine the fearful catastrophe so close at hand. There was no wamiug—nothing to lead to apprehension. Crossing the Farmington river bridge, one mile from Tariffville, the train was just entering upon the trestle-work Btretching across the meadows when an ominous crash was heard ahead of the train. The west span, 100 feet long, on the Howe truss principle, had yielded to the overweight of two engines, and, parting near an abutment, caved into the stream, crushing through six inches of ice with which it was covered. The first engine cleared the woodwork of the bridge proper, and, turning over, landed bottom up, irretrievably damaged. Its mate went down, enwrapped in the wreck of the bridge, both landing upon solid ground, but the baggage-car crashed through the ice into six feet of water, and deposited its dozen occupants in the icy flood, mixed up with the myriad of splinters into which the woodwork was shattered. The first passenger-car was next crushed to half size. Swinging around at right angles, into its weakest spot, the side, came like a catapult the heavy front platform of the next car, the rear end of which remained upheld against the central pier of the bridge. The fourth car, striking its predecessor, swung off diagonally, and pitched head-foremost into the chasm. This ended the crash, for the remaining cars were saved from going off by the ends of the two cars resting against the pier as described. In a moment the shrieks of women and groans of men rang out upon the piercing cold air—the shrieks of crushed, mangled beings, struggling to obtain release from the meshes into which the shock had hurled them in the ends of the overturned cars. The unhurt hastened to help the endangered, and additional aid came from the villagers of Tariffville, who were aroused by the noise) of the crash. A merciful Providence preserved the passengers from the usual terrible feature of fire originating from lamps and stoves, but the occupants of the first two cars were brought face to face with death by drowning, as the cars forming their prisons settled gradually down in the water and sand. Measures for relief were well organized by a few leading spirits, and soon the workers hewed and tore away timbers with a will until, in less than two hours, every car was cleared of its living occupants, the wounded being borne away to the river bank on sledges hastily improvised from saplings and car-cushions, and thence to the genial warmth of the cars which had remained on the track, and where friends were ready to minister to their needs. Telegrams were dispatched to Hartford and Winsted for aid, and special trains arrived soon after, Hartford contributing a dozen surgeons under the excitement occasioned by the report that at least fifty deaths had happened and wounds were innumerable. The worst injured were removed to hotels and private dwellings, people throwing open their doors and offering every accommodation. Two hours later the members of the party able to travel were sent home by a special train over other roads affording connection beyond the break. Meantime search for the dead began, and five corpses of women were taken from tho wreck, all having died from drowning. Further search yielded the bodies of six young men who met death in the same way, having been standing on a front pletform when the car went down, and being pushed under the water. Strange to say, of an aggregate of thirteen deaths reported, all but two are by drowning, only one passenger, Fred Hotchkins, and engineer Hatch, dying from injuries usually incident to such a disaster as this. The wounded number about thirty. Nearly all the dead were in the first passenger car, which was almost a complete wreck, although one body was taken from the second car, where it was found caught under a broken seat. Five young men from New Hartford, among the killed, were of a party of six who were on the platform of a car enjoving a. moonlight ride and whistling in chorus. The only survivor of the six was inside at the time.