A newspaper description of the train crash that killed Samuel Zimmerman in Hamilton, ON at the Desjardins Canal, March 13, 1857 Toronto, Friday, March 13. We learn the following particulars of the railroad accident at Hamilton from a gentleman who left the scene of disaster this morning. The accident occurred on the Great Western Railway, at the bridge over the Des Jardines Canal, which is elevated some sixty feet above water. The bridge swings, and it is supposed that the train which passed for the East a short time before had sunk the Bridge so much that the locomotive of this train was obstructed by the atutments to such a degree that the passenger cars were raised up and thrown into the canel. The train was the local accommodation from Toronto to Hamilton, and left Toronto at 4 oclock yesterday afternoon. The number of passengers was estimated at from seventy-five to one hundred, of whom only fifteen were taken alive from the wreck, and of these five have since died. The water in the canal is eighteen feet deep, and all those not immediately killed were drowned. The engine and tender, with the engineer and fireman, were pitched headlong into the canal, and are buried twenty feet below the surface. The baggage car and two passenger cars are completely shattered and one of the latter turned bottom side upwards and nearly submerged. When our informant arrived this morning the parties were still busy in extricating the bodies from the wreck. In an outhouse adjoining the station-house at Hamilton about fifty or sixty corpses of men, women and children were lying on one floor. No inquiry into the cause of the accident had yet been held. Most of the passengers were from Hamilton, Toronto, and the adjoining towns. SAMUEL ZIMMERMAN, of Niagara Falls, ISAAC BUCILANAN, of Hamilton, Vice-President of the Road, and Captain TWOLEY, a popular commander on Lake Ontario, are among the victims. Only one of the lady passengers was saved, and she was much cut and bruised. A German lad in the hind car, seeing the conductor hastily retreating to the back door, took alarm and followed him, and he, the conductor and three others were the onlyones who escaped with trifling injuries. MR. C. J. BRYDGES, the managing director of the Railway, DR. MACKLEM, of Canada West, and THOMAS C. STREET, of Chippewa, were on the train, and although considerably injured, escaped with their lives. The following is a list of the bodies recognized up to this morning: DONALD STUART, of Toronto. REV. A. BOOKER, the father of Mayor BOOKER, of Toronto. ERASTUS W. GREEN, of Toronto. A Little Girl, the Daughter of MR. J. R. CLARKE, of Toronto. JAMES GANNON, of Port Hope. THOMAS BENSON, of Port Hope. JOHN SHARP, book-binder, of Brantford. A. GRANT, of Brantford. MR. RUSSELL, of the firm MELLEST, MERREL & RUSSELL, of Brantford. JOSEPH BARR, of Niagara. JOHN C. HENDERSON, of Hamilton. In one of the Companys buildings lay the bodies of sixteen men, two women and one child, and of these but three were recognized -- EDWARD DUFFIELD. REV. DR. HEISAK. JOHN MORLEY. The remains of MR. ZIMMERMAN will be taken to his residence at Niagara Falls this afternoon. He was in the baggage car at the time of the accident.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 13:54:40 +0000
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