Ligonier Valley Rail Road Newspaper Articles
We have compiled over 1,400 newspaper articles that mention the Ligonier Valley Railroad, or related subjects. The articles were originally published starting in 1873 and our collection runs through 1995. Enjoy!
Latrobe Bulletin
Saturday, July 6, 1912
Nineteen Are Dead As Result of Wreck On Wilpen Branch, While Several of the More Than Thirty Injured Are In A Serious Condition
Rhoddy Family Loses Two Little Girls
While Overton Family Is
Almost Wiped Out
"I was standing on the step, along with another trainman," he said, in telling of his experience. "Suddenly I heard some one shout, 'There they come,' and looking up I saw the freight bearing down. I jumped and when I came to my senses I was 50 feet away from the scene of the wreck. I had been hurled over a barbed wire fence, and how I escaped injury, I cannot comprehend.
"When I looked around, it seemed that I could see bodies everywhere. Children were lying about in heaps, it seemed to me, while one little boy was running about, with the side of his head crushed and with blood streaming down over his shoulder. I saw two bodies on the pilot of the passenger engine, the freights apparently having carried them along and having hurled them to the position in which they were lying.
Coroner McMurray On The Scene
Coroner McMurray arrived in Ligonier early in the evening, having traveled by automobile from Gbg. He said that he would make a complete investigation as to the accident. The coroner seemed exercised over the fact that his office had not been notified of the accident until after seven o'clock at night. Coroner McMurray called upon Mr. Senft but the latter was unable to give him any explanation as to how the collision had occurred.
General Manager Senft And Conductor Kuhn Make Statements
General Manager George Senft, of the Ligonier Valley Railroad, was almost overcome by the disaster. Mr. Senft has been in ill health for years, and has had a private nurse in
attendance upon him for some months past, or since he underwent a critical operation at the Columbia Hospital.
"I am simply overwhelmed," he said, his voice, meanwhile choking with sobs. "I can't understand how it occurred. For 32 years the record of the road has been clean, as far as the killing of passengers had been concerned, two passengers having been the sum total of all the fatalities occurring on the road. I believed our system to be of the best, and calculated to prevent accident. Now, as I was hoping that I would be able to lay down my duties within a short time, with a record clean.
"I can't say how it happened. The money loss is of no consideration to our company.
"To think that I helped to put some of those little girls and boys upon the train, Miss Mathews having asked me if I needed her and when I said that I did not, she having said that she was going to take a little crowd into the country, for flowers, I lifted several of them upon the train. And the next time I saw them, one was dead, another was dying, and my own little grandchild was seriously injured. It is awful."
"It was my last run," declared the veteran conductor, Charles Kuhn, as he was being rushed to a Pittsburgh hospital, with his leg broken in two places. "If I live, I will never take charge of a train again. If I die, I will go with a clear conscience knowing that the wreck was not my fault."
The veteran conductor is said to have declared that the crew of the freight train had sent
word of their intention to make a complete run but that the word hadn't been heeded. Always before, he is reported to have said the freight had waited at the switch.
Only Curve In the Entire Line
The trains met on the only curve to be found between Ligonier and Wilpen, all the rest of the track being straight. Had the trains approached each other, anywhere along the line, except where they did, the trainmen would have been able to have seen each other, a mile away. The branch is six miles long.
Some One Had Made a Blunder
That some one blundered, allowing the two trains to meet, seems certain, though the blame has not as yet been fixed. The passenger train was due to leave Ligonier at 3:45 o'clock, and it left on time. It is said, that the freight crew, having been ready to start for Ligonier at 3:39, had sent word to Ligonier to hold the passenger train until the freight arrived, it being thought that the run could be completed within six minutes.
Whether this word really was sent, or whether, being sent, some one failed to deliver it, is not known, for a certainty. The passenger train pulled out on time, and finding the switch open, it continued on its way, the open switch indicating that the freight had not passed the next switch. But it had, and it was running with all speed possible, toward Ligonier, expecting that the passenger train would be held for it.
A Violation of the Law
The passenger train was being run backwards, the engine being behind the coach, and a trainman with a whistle, being stationed on the front platform. This is said to have been in violation of State Law. A Ligonier constable, over from the mountain town, last night, stated that he had notified the company not to run its train backward.
Stood Aghast At Scene
P. C. Clifford, a coal miner, who was walking to his home in Ligonier, was near the curve when the wreck occurred, he having arrived upon the scene within a minute following the crash.
The freight train, he said, had been running at a terrific speed, and when the engines met the coach, the rending of wood was mingled with the crises of the injured. The dead and injured were scattered about, he said, while blood seemed everywhere. Some of the victims lay 25 feet away from the track.
"It was the worst sight I ever saw," said Mr. Clifford. "And I never want to see its like again. Everybody seemed dazed, and as thought they didn't know what to do. It was terrible."
Ezra Nicely An Eyewitness
Justice of the Peace, E. G. Nicely was an eyewitness of the wreck, he having been driving alongside the track, when the trains met. He said that it all happened so quickly that he could hardly describe it, the freight having rounder the curve and having borne down upon the halting passenger train with a speed that was terrific. The engines had torn the coach asunder, scattering the passengers in all directions.
Mr. Nicely said that he realized there would be need for doctors, and he immediately turned his horse and ran it to Ligonier, it falling to him to break the news to the town.
The List Of the Dead and Injured
The Dead.
MAT NIEPORT, of 2528 Larkin Alley, Pittsburgh. Son of Mrs. M. Nieport. Employed as a coal miner at Wilpen. Died in Latrobe Hospital. He was on his way home from the
Westmoreland Hospital where he had lain since the 19th of May, with a broken leg, when he received the injuries which ended in his death.
GEORGE W. HUBLEY, 25 years of age, of 345 Graham street, Pittsburgh. Civil engineer on his way to take charge of corps on the Ligonier Valley Railroad. Was
graduated from State College this year. Died on train en route to Latrobe.
JOHN ANKNEY, aged 36 years, firemen of Ligonier. Fireman on freight train. Crushed about the chest. Died on way to Latrobe Hospital. Survived by widow and by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Chris C. Ankney, of Latrobe.
MARY ELIZABETH RHODDY, 12 years old. Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry W.
Rhoddy, of McCance. Fracture at base of brain. Left arm broken. Died in the Latrobe hospital at 9:00 p.m.
MRS. MAUDE OVERTON, age 25, wife of John Overton, of Wilpen. Body crushed. Died on way to Allegheny General Hospital. Body brought to Stader's morgue.
FRANK McCONNAUGHEY, aged 46, of Ligonier. Engineer on freight train. Scalded to death beneath engine. Survived by two daughters, Mary and Ethel.
GEORGE TOSH, 65 years of age, of Ligonier township. Veteran of Civil War. Survived by one son, John. Crushed about the breast and right leg broken.
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