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
Tuesday, July 9, 1912
Engineer Beatty Succumbs To His Injuries and Wreck's Death
List Now Reaches Total of 23
Losing out in a valiant fight for life, Smith C. Beatty, one of the engineers on the ill-fated freight train which dashed into a passenger coach on the Wilpen branch, last Friday afternoon, passed away at 3:30 o'clock, this morning, at the Latrobe Hospital, his death increasing the death toll of the wreck from 22 to 23, and making complete the annihilation of the crews which manned the two freight engines, Engineer Frank McConnaughey and Fireman George Byers having been killed instantly, and Fireman John Ankney having died within a few hours following the wreck.
Yesterday, it was thought that Mr. Beatty had a slight chance to recover, but the injuries to his head, including concussion of the brain, coupled with weakness resulting from loss of blood, proved more than human strength could combat, and the end came in the early hours of the morning.
Mr. Beatty was born in Armstrong county, on the 14th of February, 1876 so that he was in his 37th year. He appeared in Ligonier when he was just a boy, having accepted a position working along the track of the L.V.R.R. 19 years ago. From the place of section hand, he advanced until, several years ago, he was made an engineer. He had never been in an accident until the one of last Friday, and he had never lost a day from work.
Recently he had acquired a new home on Loyalhanna street, Ligonier, where he and his
family were living happily.
He is survived by a widow, an eight year old daughter, Ethel, a mother, two sisters, Mrs. Edward Frye and Mrs. Edward Lowry, both of Ligonier, and three brothers, Al,
Clarence and Myron.
The remains were taken to Ligonier, this morning, and the funeral will be held on Thursday.
Mr. Beatty was the engineer on the front engine of the freight train, last Friday. The throttle of his engine was found reversed, and he had remained at his post until the last.
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Facts Back Of The Wreck Are Still Enveloped In Doubt
That the morrow may bring to the public something authoritative as to the blunder or blunders leading to the Ligonier wreck, an interview had with General Manager George Senft, of the L.V.R.R., this morning, would seem to promise.
"I am sorry, but I have nothing for publication today," said the general manager when a Bulletin representative approached him with another request for something that would enlighten an anxious public as to what had transpired in the few minutes before the fatal crash occurred.
"Probably tomorrow I may have something. We are not hiding anything, or trying to hide anything from the public, and we fully intend to give you all the information in regard to the affair. But because of certain circumstances we are unable to do this, just yet. It can only be after a full investigation has been made, after complete information
has been received, and after authority to speak has been given that I can give you what you seek.
"We realize the fact that the public is anxious to know and I can assure that it will know just as quickly as possible."
James CV. Coutts and F. C. Smith, both of Washington, D. C., are on the scene, representing the Interstate Commerce Commission, while John P. Dohoney, marshal of the State Railroad Commission, is also present. All three men said that they could give out nothing for publication. They also said that they did not know how long they would be kept in Ligonier. The impression given was that their stay would be for some time, should the situation seem to demand their presence.
Meantime, while everybody in authority is keeping lips tightly closed, rumors continue to fly thick and fast, and words of a most emphatic kind are to be heard coming from citizens, the declarations being based on what they've heard. It is at one man that most of these rumors are aimed, and some of them even go so far as to purport to quote
identically, the remark which the rumors hold out as having been used by the man in answer to an order that the passenger train be held, which order he is credited, by these rumors, with having received.
These rumors are on the tongues of many, in Ligonier, yet every effort to drive on of them home to fact has proven unavailing, thus far, and it will not be until the railroad
men themselves open their lips, that it will be known what of truth or of falsity may lie in the rumor.
Every rumor, when run down, either leads to nothing at all as the foundation for it, or it
ends in the stone wall of a railroad man's tight-drawn lips.
A statement is made by some residents. The reporter draws him aside and asks him how he knows. He has heard it from some one else. The other, in turn had heard it from still another, and the clue when followed up, invariably, thus far, has ended in nothing at all, or in the face of an official or company employee who cannot speak until the time appointed arrives.
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Injured Are Improving---
Of the fifteen wreck victims remaining at the hospital, all appear to be getting along nicely, today, the word from the hospital this afternoon being to the effect that in each case encouraging conditions were in evidence.
Word from Pittsburgh is to the effect that all of the patients both at the West Penn and at the Allegheny General Hospital, show signs of improvement.
Dr. Johnston, of Ligonier, shows slight improvement, today. His condition, however, still continues very serious.
Dr. McAdoo, of Ligonier, the L.V.R.R. surgeon, visits each victim daily, whether they are in homes, in the local hospital or in Pittsburgh hospitals, the company having directed him to make certain that everything is done for them in the way of nursing, treatment and comforts.
Several attorneys from a distance reached Ligonier, today, seeking to be retained by the foreign families who lost relatives in the wreck.