Historic Pelham: Two Boston Globe Accounts of What Happened in the Mail Car During the Great Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885

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On December 27, 1885, the mail express train out of Boston known as the late night "Owl Train" and the "Boston Express" reached Pelhamville during a major windstorm. The train was running late and was trying to make up some time by speeding along the downgrade that passed through Pelhamville. The train was traveling between thirty five and forty miles an hour. Just as the train sailed past the Pelhamville Station, the gale lifted the station's massive wooden passenger platform into the air and flipped it upside down onto the tracks.

Engineer Riley Ellsworth Phillips saw swirling dust ahead, but did not see the platform on the tracks. Accounts differ as to whether he cut the steam, and braked. One account indicated he ran up on the obstruction too fast and never had time. If he did apply the brakes before hitting the overturned platform, it did not help. The locomotive engine smashed into the obstruction, left the rails, and tumbled end-over-end down the 60-foot embankment, dragging the fire tender and a large mail car with it. Though the passenger cars left the rails and bounced along throwing the passengers inside about the cabins, no passenger car tumbled down the massive embankment. The mail car, locomotive, and fire tender came to a crashing halt only a few hundred feet from the little wooden trestle that carried the train tracks over the Hutchinson River.

Engineer Phillips and his fireman, recently-married Eugene Blake, were thrown out of the cab of the locomotive as it flipped end-over-end down the embankment. Phillips was bruised, but lived. Fireman Blake, however, was crushed during the incident. He was found at the foot of the embankment and was carried into the nearby Pelhamville train station. Some accounts say Fireman Blake was laid on a "cot" of some sort in the Pelhamville station. Others say he was laid on the floor.

Most accounts agree, however, that once carried into the Pelhamville station, the mortally-injured Eugene Blake suffered tremendously for an agonizing forty minutes. During most of that time, he was administered to by an angel -- a woman who stepped out from among uninjured train passengers to offer help. The woman was Emma Cecilia Thursby, a famous American celebrity and singer who traveled the nation giving concerts. Fireman Eugene Blake died of his injuries. A number of others were injured including, as one might expect, most of the mail clerks who were in the mail car as it tumbled down the slope.

There are hundreds and hundreds of accounts of the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885. There is one known photograph of the aftermath (see below) and a number of engraved images that appeared in an article about the wreck that appeared in Scientific American (see below).

Two accounts of the wreck that appeared in The Boston Globe shortly afterward are particularly significant because they piece together what happened in the mail car during and shortly after the wreck. Those accounts are transcribed below, followed by citations and links to their sources.

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"THE GLOBE EXTRA!
3 O'CLOCK.
IN AN INSTANT, Enveloped in a Cloud of Dust, The Locomotive Takes the Fearful Plunge, Graphic Description by Engineer Phillips of the Disaster at Pelhamville. Terrible Experience of the Men in the Mail Car. Helpless, They Listen to Turner's Agonizing Appeals. How Help Came When Hope Had Almost Fled.
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NEW YORK, December 28. -- Ira Phillips, the engineer of the Boston express which was wrecked at Pelhamville last night, gives the following account of the disaster: 'When I struck the crossing just north of the depot a cloud of dust rose up. I had been keeping a sharp watch, as we were then a little behind time, and I was making it up on the down grade. We were running about thirty-five or forty miles an hour. Before I had time to put on the brakes, or, in fact, do anything, we came on the overturned platform. The next I knew I was at the bottom of the ditch, where the water-boy found me. After he had helped me, I sent him back to see if any one was signalling the Adams express train that I knew ought to be ten or fifteen miles behind us. When the boy returned, we hunted for poor Blake.

The crash came in an instant, and there was nothing I could do to check the speed of the train. It is a miracle we are not all killed. On a straight track I could see a long distance ahead, and if there had been anything in the way I would have noticed it. I am quite sure the platform must have been torn up by the same gust of wind that enveloped the track in dust less than 100 feet ahead of me.'

When the locomotive struck at the bottom of the ravine Phillips was thrown violently against the fire-box, the door of which was open. He was stunned for a few moments, and when the water-boy found him the boot of his left leg was burned off, his heel burned and his overalls on fire.

'We had all our mail sacked and pouched,' said Chief Clerk F. S. MCausland, who was in charge of the mail car. 'Without any warning, we went tumbling down the embankment, and dust and dirt filled the car almost to suffocation, and, to make it worse, the lights were put out. Oil from one of the lamps trickled down my back, and I thought it was water and supposed we had gone into Hutchinson's creek at the end of the filling, about 1000 feet from the depot where the accident happened. It was very cold in the car, and the door of the safety -valve was opened. My first thought was that perhaps coals might be shaken out among the sacks. I called to some one to close the slide; but J. H. McCoy, one of my six assistants, with great presence of mind, had already done this. Then I called each of them by name to learn if they were safe. They answered me, and Turner, who was jammed between a table and the side of the car, said:

'For God's sake, help me.'

'The car had turned over on its side, the iron rods were twisted all out of shape, the sacks and pouches torn from the stanchions, and the heavy tables all heaped in the middle of the car. Peter Conaty of Worcester and Charles Mitchell, the only New York boy, were buried under this, and were nearly smothered. There was a glass window in the top side of the car, and McCoy smashed this, crawled out, and hastened for hep. I told the men to save themselves, for I had no idea where we had landed, nor what might follow. They did the best they could, but Turner cried piteously for help.

'I can't hold out much longer. For God's sake hurry,' he called.

'Help came and I tried to encourage him by the light of a lantern, E. E. Clark of Haddam, Conn., C. P. Turner of Malden, Mass., W. F. Hart of Charlestown, Mass., Conaty, Mitchell and myself were helped out. Clark, Turner and Hart were the ones most injured, although McCoy's ankle was twisted."

Source:  THE GLOBE EXTRA! 3 O'CLOCK.  IN AN INSTANT, Enveloped in a Cloud of Dust, The Locomotive Takes the Fearful Plunge, Graphic Description by Engineer Phillips of the Disaster at Pelhamville. Terrible Experience of the Men in the Mail Car. Helpless, They Listen to Turner's Agonizing Appeals. How Help Came When Hope Had Almost Fled, The Boston Globe, Dec. 28, 1885, Vol. XXVIII, No. 181, p. 4, col. 3 (Note: Paid subscription required to access via this link).

"BURIED UNDER THE SACKS.
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Mail Clerk Conaty's Graphic Story
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Of His Experience When the Awful Crash Awoke Him at Pelhamville.
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Turner Pinned to the Floor by the Mail Bags.
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WORCESTER, December 28. -- Peter F. Conaty, a mail clerk on the 'Owl,' which was derailed at Pelhamville Sunday morning, arrived home today. He was seen at the residence of his brother, Rev. T. J. Conaty, and gave an account of the occurrence. With six other clerks he was locked in the mail car, and all having finished their work, made beds of the mail sacks upon which they laid down. Conaty and Mitchell were at the end of the car near the engine and Turner was lying on a table with McCoy, who got up at Stamford and threw off the mail. Fortunately he did not return to the table or he would have been crushed also with Turner. They were rushing, of course, at a high rate of speed and were startled by a crash and jarring of the car as if glasses were being broken. The uproar seemed to increase until suddenly the car seemed to snap and jump the track. In an instant it was tossed down the embankment, going lengthwise, so that all the mail matter crowded to the upper end of the car where Conaty and Mitchell were lying and entirely covered them. The men at the other end were of course knocked about but escaped the accumulating baggage except Turner, who was caught under the table upon which he was lying and pinned to the floor.

Young Conaty tried to extricate himself from the burden, while his imprisoned companions were groaning and crying for air as they were nearly all suffocated. He was fortunately near a window, and grasping with both hands the iron bars he pulled himself from beneath the mail bags and immediately drove his fist through the window. In extricating himself the full weight of the mail matter fell upon Mitchell, whom, after a struggle, he succeeded also in getting out, and both then crawled through the window. They then clambered up the hill to get at the other end of the car, where they heard their companions struggling and crying for fresh air. They took a stone to break in the door, but just then McCoy, another mail agent, who had also climbed out of the car window, opened the door with a key he had. All the other clerks were then easily assisted out except Turner, who was severely hurt and bleeding, and it required the efforts of two men to bring him to the open air. He was bleeding badly, and after being carried to another car was cared for by a young lady passenger. The clerks released themselves from the mail car by their own exertions, and it did not require the use of axes to break open their prison box. They were not confined in all more than thirty minutes. Mr. Conaty is injured much more seriously than at first supposed, and tonight was scarcely able to move on account of injuries to his leg and his spine. He is under medical care, and will not be able to attend to his duties for several weeks."

Source:  BURIED UNDER THE SACKS -- Mail Clerk Conaty's Graphic Story Of His Experience When the Awful Crash Awoke Him at Pelhamville -- Turner Pinned to the Floor by the Mail Bags, The Boston Globe, Dec. 29, 1885, Vol. XXVIII, No. 182, p. 4, col. 6 (Note: Paid subscription required to access via this link).

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I have written before about the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885 that resulted in the death of Fireman Eugene Blake and injuries to several others including a number of the mail clerks and the train engineer, Riley Phillips. See:

Fri., Aug. 25, 2017: Pelham Remembered in 1922 the Remarkable Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.

Fri., Dec. 30, 2016: Pelham Recalled the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885 Upon Death of Riley Ellsworth Phillips in 1927.

Tue., Apr. 05, 2016: New Information About Efforts to Comfort the Dying Fireman Eugene Blake After the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.

Tue., Aug. 11, 2015: More on the Findings of the Coroner's Inquest That Followed the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.

Fri., Mar. 27, 2015: Compensation Paid by the Railroad After the 1885 Pelhamville Train Wreck.

Wed., Feb. 11, 2015: Coroner's Inquest Jury Found Railroad "Criminally Negligent" in the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.

Wed., Mar. 26, 2014: Postscript To the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885 - Settlement of the Widow's Lawsuit Against the Railroad.

Mon., Feb. 17, 2014: Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885: Another Account Published with a Diagram of the Aftermath of the Crash.

Fri., Jul. 15, 2011: Another Newspaper Account of The Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.

Thu., Apr. 2, 2009: Biographical Data and Photo of the Engineer of the Train that Wrecked in Pelhamville on December 27, 1885.

Wed., Jan. 9, 2008: The Aftermath of the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.

Mon., Sep. 24, 2007: The Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885

Tue., Sep. 25, 2007: More About the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885

Wed., Sep. 26, 2007: The Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885 Continued . .

Thu., Sep. 27, 2007: Findings of the Coroner's Inquest That Followed the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885

Fri., Dec. 21, 2007: 1886 Poem Representing Fictionalized Account of the Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885.

Bell, Blake A., The Pelhamville Train Wreck of 1885: "One of the Most Novel in the Records of Railroad Disasters, 80(1) The Westchester Historian, pp. 36-43 (2004).

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