Quincy, Massachusetts, USA
1890 - DEAD BY DOZENS. THE GRIM TERROR REAPS A GHASTLY HARVEST. FRIGHTFUL DISASTER ON THE RAIL. SIXTEEN SOULS HURRIED TO ETERNITY AND MORE THAN A SCORE OF PEOPLE SCALDED AND MUTILATED.

Boston, Aug. 20. - The Cape Cod and Woods' Hole train on the Old Colony railway was wrecked at Quincy, just the other side of the President's bridge at 1 p.m. yesterday. The disaster was a frightful one, resulting in the death of about twenty persons and the wounding of many others, some of whom are terribly scalded or mutilated. The train was express to Brockton, and from Brockton express to Boston. It left Brockton at 10:40, going at say thirty miles an hour. Just this side of President's bridge (so called because the homestead of President John Quincy Adams is close by) the engineer whistled to "down brakes." The train began to shake as if shivered by the shock of an earthquake. Then came a crash, the engine left the track, turned itself alongside the rails, while the train slid along, leaving the engine about midway of the train opposite the first passenger car from the smoker. In this car most all the harm was done.

In the Fatal Fourth Car.

This fourth car collided with the engine, and was instantly filled with escaping steam. The ill-fated passenger car was completely wrecked. It contained seventy-five passengers - men, women and children. The windows on the east side were all closed, thereby preventing the steam from escaping. The scenes about the car were of the wildest description. Strong-hearted men fainted as the steamed bodies of a dozen women and children were being taken from the ruins. Some of the occupants, gifted with presence of mind, broke through windows and escaped with slight wounds. Where the engine and the car collided were several women and children steamed to death, while some were badly mangled.

WILLIAM FENNELLY, a carpenter, was in the fourth car. He said: "Our car swept like lightning right on the broken engine and was forced on top of it with a terrific shock. We seemed snatched right up from the earth fifty feet in the air. When the car descended on the engine it had whirled over and wounded passengers were thrown ruthlessly about. As the car struck on its side solidly, the bottom of it was torn away, and thus an opportunity was given us to get out. That was the only thing that saved my life and those of forty or fifty other passengers. Thirty seconds after the car struck I would have given $1,000 for a drink of any kind from whiskey to water. I thought I should suffocate.
The death-dealing steam entered the car in dense clouds from the locomotive beneath us, filling every crevice and almost suffocated those whom it did not burn to death."

"Ten women were gasping about me as I tried to shriek and shout, and as they became weaker and weaker as the steam filled their lungs I could see them push their hands or feet through the torn windows, trying in vain to get a breath of fresh air. I don't know how many I saw die before me. I saw them in the car crying out for help, and I did all I could. I saw the flesh burned from men and women as that cursed steam enveloped them, and I saw men groaning and shrieking in their death struggles as the scalding fumes became hotter and denser. I hardly know how I escaped."

"When I had succeeded in getting out of the wreck, the passengers from the other cars were not to be seen, but over on a fence bordering the railroad track were ten or twenty men - it seemed to me 100 - watching the scene of ruin and powerless from fright and astonishment to help us. I screamed, shouted, and swore at them, but they would not move, and the more I cursed the more helpless they became. These men - I hate to call them that - saw me rise from my perilous position; saw me tear at the boards of the car bottom with all my might; saw me pull helpless women from the interior of the steaming car; saw me caught beneath a falling bar of iron, and unable to extricate myself or to aid others, and they refused to aid me. I don't know whether they were fools or cowards, but they received a sound and thorough cursing from me."

A LONG ROLL OF CASUALTIES.

SIXTEEN DEAD, FIVE CRITICALLY AND TWENTY-NINE LESS SERIOUSLY INJURED.
There was no lack of help when the onlookers had recovered their senses. The Quincy fire department was promptly on hand, and the rescue of the injured and recovery of the dead was rapidly prosecuted. The company officials hurried physicians to the scene, and soon twenty-five were busy looking after the unfortunates.

The following were dead when taken from the wreck:
MRS. ORCUTT ALLEN, Philadelphia.
MRS. MARY E. FENNELLY, aged 70, Louisville, Ky.
F. J. JOHNSON, Montpelier, Vt.
JOHN RYAN, South Boston, foreman of the train.
Four women, two men and two children, one a boy of 14, unidentified; total, 18.
The following died during the afternoon and evening:
MRS. A. C. WELLS, Hartford, Conn.
A daughter of H. L. WELCH, of Waterville, Conn.
ALICE and CATHARINE, daughters of MRS. OSCAR FENNELLY, of Louisville, Ky.
The following are critically injured:
MRS. OSCAR FENNELLY, of Louisville, Ky., wife of the cashier of the Citizens' National Bank, Louisville, scalded over her whole body.
C. M. COPP, Cleveland, O., scalded over whole body, not expected to live.
E. C. BAILEY, of Dorchester, formerly proprietor of The Boston Herald, scalded on face and hands.
MRS. GEORGE P. WELSH, Cleveland, O., scalded on head, arms and neck.
MRS. ABBIE M. ABBOTT, Louisville, Ky., face and hands scalded, compound fracture left thigh.
The following were seriously but not fatally wounded:
MRS. MARTHA E. CHASE, at the head of the Santa Rosa Female seminary, Santa Rosa, Cal., face and left arm slightly burned.
REV. T. M. DIMMICK, Los Angeles, Cal., face, arm, and hip scalded.
His wife, a sister of MRS. CHASE, face and hands scalded and compound fracture of both bones of the left leg half way between the knee and ankle.
HENRY J. WELCH, face, arms, and neck scalded.
MRS. T. A. ADDION, Chelsea, face and arms burned.
MRS. ANDREW TOWER, Charlestown, spine injured, back scalded.
MRS. GEORGE M. SNOW, Winter Hill, daughter of MRS. TOWER, face and hands scalded.
MRS. MARY F. SNOW, Charlestown, face and hands scalded, internal injuries.
CAPT. W. R. ABBOTT, Louisville, hands scalded.
J. C. BROWN, Lawrence, slightly scalded on hands and face.
B. F. BENSON, Pullman conductor, face and ear cut.
R. W. EDWARDS, a chancery judge, Louisville, wrists cut.
GEN. NAT WALES, Boston, finger broken.
ELIZABETH FENNELLY, aged 6, daughter of MRS. OSCAR FENNELLY, Louisville, Ky., hands, arms, and legs burned.
MISS JESSIE McALLISTER, Fort Wayne, face, side, and hands burned.
RUTH BLACKBURN, Lowell, contusion of left leg and severe shock.
MRS. M. A. HAILE, Fort Wayne, Ind., grandmother of MISS McALLISTER, nose broken and knee sprained.
LUCY ___, negro, maid of the FENNELLYS, badly burned.
Engineer BABCOCK, wrist broken and head and legs lacerated.
R. T. NEEDHAM, Lawrence, slightly injured.
MRS. J. S. NEEDHAM, Lawrence, body badly burned.
MRS. J. C. BROWN, of Lawrence, slightly injured.
MRS. S. F. STOWE, of Somerville, leg burned.
DR. F. B. WARNER, of Canandaigua, N.Y., hand bruised.
MOSES FARNHAM, of Franklin.
MAYER HIRSCHSBURG, of Hirschsburg & Co., of Boston, badly scalded about face.
MISS MINNIE and MISS ROSE TUCKER, of Lexington, slightly injured.
MRS. EVA BALLARD, of Nashville, scalded about head and face.

It is reported that the name of one of the unidentified dead is W. H. GRADY, and that two other are MRS. E. P. JOHNSON and her 15-year-old boy. It is also reported that the niece of MRS. A. C. WELLS, of Hartford, Conn., is among the unidentified dead.

Theories as to the Cause.

There are several theories as to the cause of the accident. For several feet back along the track there is a sort of furrow which seems to indicate that something about the engine broke and ploughed into the soil for some distance, finally derailing it. The general impression, however, seems to be that the engine was thrown from the track by spreading rails, and it is stated that a gang of workmen had been repairing that portion of the track, and may have left some of the rails insufficiently spiked. There was no switch near by on that track, so that the disaster could not have been caused by a misplaced
switch.

FIVE MORE VICTIMS OF THE RAILWAY WRECK.

Boston, Aug. 21. - Five other victims of the Quincy disaster Tuesday have been added to the list of the dead, making twenty in all.
They are:
MISS ELLA BARD, aged 23, who died at Quincy hospital.
MRS. ABBIE ABBOTT, of Louisville, Ky.
MISS TILTON.
MR. and MRS. CHELSEA.

Pickpockets worked the occasion with great success. Those who escaped uninjured were dazed, and all that seemed necessary was for any person to meet them and offer to take charge of their valuables. These were turned over in many instances. Several of the dead persons were known to have had money and watches, but these were not found on their persons.

In a lot of weeds near the track the jack which is supposed to have caused such a terrible loss of life has been found. Marks of the flanges of the wheels were plainly cut in the heavy tool, and it bore evidence of having been run over by a train. The sides of the socket on the casting to receive the handles by which the weight is raised were pressed close together, and a large hole was cut through the casting and the bottom of the casting was broken off.

Evening Gazette
Sterling, Illinois
August 20, 1890

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