Searching for the site of the Horseheads/Breesport train wreck of 1911 in Lehigh Valley
I found an old photograph/postcard of a train wreck with little information on the back. It says, “Photograph of the Lehigh Valley wreck of May 1911 near Breesport.” Since I’d never heard of this accident, I decided to investigate.
First, I started with old newspapers.
The Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin had same day, May 8, 1911, coverage saying, “A passenger train on the Elmira & Cortland division of the Lehigh Valley railroad (that was due at noon), wrecked about eight miles north of the city and 20 persons were injured, three of them perhaps fatally.”
The most seriously injured Elmiran was Avery Ennis. The other Elmiran, Engineer P. H. Kiernan, was not seriously injured. There were no photos in that paper that day.
The next day, the Star-Gazette reported that 13 injured passengers were transported to Arnot-Ogden Hospital on the same day. Thirty were on the train, and 20 of them were hurt in some way. There were photos included with this article.
It was mentioned in many local and even national papers. The Cortland Standard gave the best explanation:
Elmira & Cortland Train #322 left Cortland at 9 a.m. and derailed “just east of Fowler’s Crossing and about 400 feet east of the Newtown Creek bridge” at 12:05 p.m. The train was about 30 minutes late, and [it] was trying to make up time. The train was moving at a high rate of speed. Passengers felt a bumping from underneath when the train left the tracks. The baggage car jumped off first, went airborne for a split second, and when it landed, it wasn’t on the tracks.
Then, two coaches, the smoking car, and the last coach jumped. The smoker and the last coach came loose of the others and tumbled down the embankment. The passengers landed in a heap on the ceiling of the cars. Breaking glass and flying pieces of wood. Screaming. Unconscious, bleeding. Nobody was killed outright. A flying seat crushed Mrs. Della Hollenbeck’s face. Uninjured folks ran to nearby farmhouses and telephoned for help.
The first fatality was David Harding of Breesport, who died on May 12. The second was Della Hollenbeck, also of Breesport, who died on the 13th. The third, John Merritt of Breesport, died on the 14th.
In the days following the disaster, an inquest was held. Residents “noted that they often saw the poor condition of the roadbed and ties. No one placed blame on the train crew. Engineman [George] McGrath was deemed competent to handle a train over this end of the division,” according to the Star-Gazette of May 22, 1911.
More: Woman's body found along Norfolk Southern Railway in Elmira. Investigation underway
I’m the kind of historian who needs to know the exact location. The Cortland Standard said, “Just east of Fowler’s Crossing.” That meant nothing to me, so I went to an 1869 Chemung County Atlas looking for the train line between Horseheads and Breesport. I found a piece of property with the name Fowler. Yes, it was next to the railroad tracks and also next to Newtown Creek.
Bingo.
It was much closer to Horseheads than I expected. I googled today’s location and found it. Of course, the tracks are long gone, and the angle of the road changed a bit. The shape of the house matches, but the windows do not. Redfin.com says the house was built in 1880 and refurbished in 1930. Maybe that is when the side windows changed.
Most of the passengers hired lawyers and sued the Lehigh Valley company.
-- Diane Janowski is the Elmira City Historian.
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: A train derailed near Horseheads in 1911. Historian discovers where
