Train Wreck of November 29, 1899

Materials courtesy of Dennis Morrison

December 1, 1899: The following words are quoted from a Newspaper article from Maysville, Kentucky  (contribution by Bernard Jaz Payne)

"Six persons were killed almost Instantly and 20 seriously injured In the train wreck at Paterson, N. J., where an accommodation train on the Lackawanna railroad crashed into the rear of the Buffalo express standing near the station. The dead are: Wlllard Craig, Mrs. Willard Craig and their two daughters, aged 10 and 15 years, all of Scranton,. Pa.; Mrs. Daniel Rowe, Ithaca, N. Y.; W. J. Welbrock, Cornell student. G-H. White, Ithaca, N. Y., will die from his Injuries, and Daniel Rowe of Ithaca will also die. The engineer on the accommodation) train was John Riordan. He stuck to his post. The fireman is said to have Jumped Just before the locomotive struck the end of the smoker. Riordan escape practically unhurt. He said that he had seen no danger signal, and did not know that the Buffalo train was on the other side of the curve, as it was an hour behind its regular 

time. Superintendent Russell of the Lackawanna road said that the flagman near the station should have given warning to the approaching train, and that Riordan should have seen the red lights on the ends of the Buffalo train to avoid the accident. Riordan says that the sharp curve on the road at that point hid the rear red lights on the Buffalo train from view. Whether the station flagman signaled the train was not absolutely cleared up. Riordan asserts he saw no signal. It seems to be a certainty that no one thought of sending a man down the road beyond the curve to Hag the approaching accommodation train, which was running on its usual schedule, and the people at the station must have known it was due. The accident wiped out the Craig family. They were on their way to spend Thanksgiving with relatives in Brooklyn. All of the injured persons in the hospitals at Paterson are doing well, and it Is believed all of them will recover."