Why the Ashtabula, Ohio Train Disaster of 1876 is Ranked 5th In U.S. History

 
By Donna Wichelman

Among America’s most horrific train accidents in history, the Ashtabula, Ohio, train disaster of December 29, 1876 ranks fifth. It was the worst of the nineteenth century.

Present-day Ashtabula Lift Bridge Over the Ashtabula River: ID 390769547 | Ashtabula Ohio © Ralf Broskvar | Dreamstime.com

The Ashtabula train disaster caught my attention when I was conducting research for Book Two in my Silver Singing Mine Series, Rhythms of the Heart, which comes out later this year. I wanted an event in my protagonist’s life that would compel her to leave Hudson, Ohio to live in the mining town of Georgetown, Colorado. In Chapter One, we discover that her husband and two children perished in the train disaster, which propels her to join her parents in Colorado.

What events occurred on the night of December 29, 1876 that caused ninety-two people of one hundred sixty passengers and crew to perish and sixty-four others to sustain critical injuries?

Hindsight is often twenty-twenty, as they say. But in the case of the Pacific Express making its way west from Buffalo, New York to Cleveland, Ohio, the men who designed and built the bridge over the Ashtabula River should have foreseen their errors in judgment. Apparently, they ignored them.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ashtabula_bridge.jpg

The Pacific Express consisted of two engines to drive eleven cars and a full complement of people. So, when a frightful driving snowstorm ensued that night, some might have had the impression that the tremendous amount of snow on the tracks affected the train’s approach to the one-hundred-fifty-seven-foot-long bridge.

However, as the train began to cross the bridge, the man driving it heard a tremendous crack. Fearing the train wouldn’t make it across the bridge, he picked up speed. Unfortunately, only the first engine made it safely to the other side. The second engine and all eleven cars plunged into the ravine. 

Drawing of the Ashtabula Train: Disaster: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ashtabula_Bridge_disaster.jpg

Initially, most of the people onboard survived the crash. But they were trapped in the twisted wood and metal. The oil lamps that had provided them with light now became a raging inferno as the snowstorm’s winds swirled around them.

Two prominent people were among the passengers who perished. Mary Roxana Birchard, the first cousin of Rutherford B. Hayes—the next president of the United States—should have received a $5000 inheritance from her deceased uncle in Sandusky, Ohio. She was an autograph collector and compiled an album of signatures from famous people, including her cousin, Rutherford B. Hayes, Oliver Wendell Holmes Senior, Herbert Hoover, and Daniel Webster. The album was at auction for between $2,000 - $3,000 in 2013. 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:President_Rutherford_Hayes_1870_-_1880_Restored.jpg">Mathew Benjamin Brady</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Serving as governor of Ohio at the time of the train disaster, Hayes instigated the investigation of the cause of the accident. He wrote in his diary: "Our cousin Mary Birchard, of Fayetteville, Vermont, was lost in the fearful railroad accident at Ashtabula, Friday evening. We have learned none of the particulars as to her fate beyond the general facts of the catastrophe. The accident was the most dreadful that has ever occurred on any railroad in Ohio and has rarely been equaled in the number of victims and other circumstances of horror anywhere. Poor dear Mary! She was a kind-hearted, lovable woman."

The other well-known person onboard was composer and evangelist Philip Bliss. Repudiated to be the second most famous hymn writer in history, perhaps to surpass Fanny Crosby if he had lived long enough, he wrote hymns like Hallelujah, What a Saviour!, Jesus Loves Even Me, Almost Persuaded, and It Is Well with My Soul just to name a few. He survived the crash. But when he couldn’t find his wife, he returned to the train car to find her, and neither was seen afterward.

Philip Bliss: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ppblisscdv.jpg

The investigation ordered by Hayes used a coroner’s jury, which discovered several factors that caused the disaster. While the industry used almost exclusively wood in its construction of bridges during the early days because it was cheap and easy, wood had its issues. Over time, the industry began to use more steel and concrete. The Lakeshore and Michigan Southern Railway, under the leadership of Director Amasa Stone, constructed an iron truss bridge designed by Charles Collins across the river. But the design was flawed, and maintenance on the bridge was nonexistent. In addition, a deadly snowstorm with accumulated depths of twenty inches and fifty-four-mile-an-hour winds complicated matters. Altogether, given these factors, the passengers of the Pacific Express had little hope on that fateful night.

On the day Charles Collins testified before the jury, he went home and took his life. Two years later, Amasa Stone took his life.

Mausoleum of Charles Collins' Family: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashtabula_River_railroad_disaster 

Amasa Stone: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amasa_Stone.jpg

In the late nineteenth century, train accidents were common. Many reasons contributed to this. Chief among them was financial. Railroad foreman felt pressure from the companies to rush workers to complete their projects, resulting in shoddy workmanship.

The other train disasters falling in order from fourth to first include: the Wellington Avalanche Train Wreck of 1910, the Malbone Street Wreck, the Great Train Wreck of 1918, and the Eden Train Wreck of 1904 in Pueblo, Colorado.

Weaving history and faith into stories of intrigue and redemption grew out of Donna's love of travel, history, and literature as a young adult while attending the United World College of the Atlantic--an international college in Wales, U.K. She enjoys developing plots that show how God's love abounds even in the profoundly difficult circumstances of our lives. Her stories reflect the hunger in all of us for love, belonging, and forgiveness.

Donna was a communications professional before writing full-time. Her short stories and articles have appeared in inspirational publications. She has two indie-published romantic suspense novels, Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor, in her Waldensian Series. Her Gilded Age historical romance, A Song of Deliverance, released in December 2024.

Donna and her husband of forty years participate in ministry at their local church in Colorado. They love spending time with their grandchildren and bike, kayak, and travel whenever possible.