TRAIN WRECK IN MILFORD – Six people died after a torrential downpour on Oct. 4, 1877, washed the Quequacomissicong bridge right out from under the railroad tracks a quarter-mile south of the Milford station.
The Frenchtown Press tells of the prolonged downpour that was transformed into a roaring tornado that caused stout hearts to quail...
Amid all this storm, the Oswego Express train pushed its way, the iron monster doing noble battle with the elements. The train ran into Milford just thirty minutes late, and after receiving an addition to its living freight, proceeded on its way – to death!
About one quarter of a mile below the station was a double culvert running under the track; the creek that flowed under it had grown in a few moments to a roaring, seething abyss. The ordinary pure, placid, harmless little stream had assumed giant proportions… carrying before it the culverts that sought to stay its progress. Above, remained the rails and sleepers (ties), inviting on to sudden death the train and its unconscious occupants… Amid the inky darkness, and the fury of the elements, down, down, fifty feet below, into the fearful chasm, plunged the train and its occupants.
At 8:16 p.m., according to stopped watch found in the engineer's pocket, the locomotive fell like a ton of bricks, followed by a combined smoking and baggage car and a passenger coach. The remaining car, another passenger coach containing 17 passengers, stopped partly over the brink. The plunge was shared by the seven-man crew and 10 of the passengers. The baggage/smoking car, was washed out into the river, while the passenger car remained in the creek, just short of the river.
Frenchtown harness maker William Roberson (1841-1899) had been in Milford on business, and was headed home in that passenger coach. According to the Press, “while thinking of the few minutes that would terminate his journey, suddenly he felt the awful shock and was thrown out the front end of the car into the water. Being no stranger to the locality, and possessed of excellent courage, he swam to the right of the embankment and gained the shore in safety. He was considerably stunned by the fall and is now suffering from what we hope may prove to be slight internal injury.”
However, in Fargo's account, Roberson was “washed along the aisle of the car and out into the river.” Most significantly to Roberson, he survived in both versions and would enjoy another 22 years among the living.
Engineer Jonathan Thornton of Lambertville and conductor Thomas C. Reading of Trenton died that night, along with four passengers. A 13-year-old railroad newsboy, William Lewis of Kensington, Pa., was plunged into the river, but clung to his buoyant “trunk of periodicals” until he was taken aboard a boat some distance downstream.
The next day, Charles A. Slack of Frenchtown was looking for bodies and saw something in the river just south of the Frenchtown bridge. He rowed out to it, saw that it was indeed a body, put a chain around it, and towed it back to shore. He'd found the remains of postal clerk Thomas E. Hamilton of Philadelphia.
H. Clayton Roberson of Frenchtown, also out looking for bodies, climbed a tree for a better view, and saw one in mid-river. He and a “Sinclair boy” rowed out and towed the body back to shore. It proved to be that of attorney William J. McElroy, also of Philadelphia. The recovery was made at the foot of Sixth Street, according to Frenchtown historian Clarence Fargo.
These photos were taken by the prolific and skilled George W. Freeland of Milford. He would eventually die on the railroad tracks, hit by a train. This photo shows the underside of the locomotive and looks out past the mouth of the creek into the river.
From "Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia"
Great photos and a sad story, well told.