Letter from George H. Spooner to his wife, Mary, September 28, 1856 - Coffee Creek, Indiana : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Letter from George H. Spooner to his wife, Mary, September 28, 1856 - Coffee Creek, Indiana / Shook Photos
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| 説明 | Postal Date: September 29, 1856, Coffee Creek, Indiana [letter dated September 28, 1856]Scott Catalog Number of Postage Stamp: 11Collection: Steven R. ShookSENDER:George H. SpoonerCoffee Creek, IndianaRECIPIENT:Mrs. Geo. H. SpoonerPetershamMass.REMARK: The following is a transcription of a letter written by George Herbert Spooner on September 28, 1856, to his wife Mary M. (Thayer) Spooner in Petersham, Worcester County, Massachusetts, from Coffee Creek, Porter County, Indiana. The envelope in which this letter was contained can be viewed here.Note that the letter refers to a railroad wreck that took place on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway during the evening of Saturday, September 27, 1856, very near the small village of Otis, LaPorte County, Indiana - the accident occurred just east of the LaPorte-Porter County line.Coffee Creek Sept 28th 1856Why have I not heard from you on this week. I fear for the ans. I have not had a letter from you dear one for an age it seems to me for I have looked anxiously for a letter. I have been down & suffered much since last Wednesday morning. I worked the Wednesday night & was taken with the billious fever & chill fever besides or something very like it. I was very sick through the night but I have gone to Bently & Will Bently made me stay all night & he gave me eight pills at one dose & then the next day some stuff called Wakefields Fever Specific & then at night I took some more pills & got better immediately only I was very weak from the effects of the pills. & Friday I was so weak that I could not sit up much of the day but the next morning I had a strong appetite & ate a good breakfast & about the middle of the fore I went to work but pretty weak. This was Saturday & I ate a big dinner & a bigger supper & felt as well as ever I did & got out to the door when some one said that there was a smash up on the R R a little way East. I looked over towards the R R & saw two of the men starting on a hand car for the scene of the disaster, two of us ran & headed them off & they [---?---] us to go down & four of us jumped on the hand car & went down there. There were two of the R R bosses & one hand & myself we proceed 8 miles & came to a scene of horror indeed. An engine & two carrs full of Irish laborers on the road & a long freight train of 40 carrs had run into each other & the carrs & engines were piled on top of one another & men and horses lay round dead & wounded & the cries of the wounded rang through the night air. I went through the car where the wounded were & there [were] 5 in there & one of them was dead with his head crushed. & the rest here died since some [of] them had there heads crushed & one had his head crushed & both legs broke & another had a hole through his back big enough to run my arm through. & I left that carr though that was not all of the horrors of that carr. I went down on the flats & there lay a man with his entrails turn out & lying on the ground dead & cold. I went to the other end of the train & there were several carrs of German Emigrants & many of them were injured but none killed. There was one man on his way to Chicago that got left by the passenger train & took the freight & was killed, though he lived til this morning (The accident was last night) he was from New York & was the only American killed. There are seven killed & two more that cannot live & great many wounded some [---?---] & some [---?---] that will not die. [---?---] [---?---] about 5½ in the afternoon & I started down there about 6½ & the night was very dark & [---?---] & the groans of the dying were awful. I took hold & helped carry off some of the wounded but the horrible sights that I had seen sickened me for a while but I got over it & then we went to work to get some of the goods out of the way & out of the ruins of the carrs that were piled up on the side of the embankment for the road was raised up about 15 or 20 feet above the surrounding land. We tore down the fence & thru the Road bosses & their men went to work rolling out bales & boxes of dry goods & they emptied several carrs & the fragments of the wreck [removed?] they burned [---?---] enough to keep a fire all night. There were 15 carrs crushed & broken to fragments & one new engine that that they were taking over the road that now lies down the bank with the wheels up. The other engines were crushed to fragments & Broken off the trucks. The carrs at the farther end of the train were not injured & many of the freight carrs were not. They were mostly loaded with horses & goods belonging to the emigrants. Six horses were killed. As I passed down the train I heard a horse kicking inside of a carr which was afterwards cut open & the horse leaped out & run down the bank & over the fence & off into the fields glad to escape. [---?---] scene of desolation I heard a dog whine & some one took a light & went & found the poor fellow alive & unhurt, but tied to a strop to a wagon wheel & [---?---] in the middle of the [---?---] par of it, the man cut the strop & away went the dog glad enough. About midnight I had seen enough horrors for one night & started back. It was all the way through the woods & not a horse or light between us and home but we did not mind that for we were some excited & yet thoughtful but silently we stept on the car & started home & as we bent to the handles of the machine that we propelled the car with each [---?---] with tremendous energy we swept along at an awful rate for a hand car. No one spoke, we could say nothing but [---?---] on through the woods & reached home in 20 minutes & it was 8 miles down there. I have been down there all the forenoon today & they had a larger gang of men [---?---] & now the track is all clear they have rolled the cars & fragments off on both sides of the track. I can wish no more of that [---?---]. But amid it all I thought of my Mary so you see how firmly you are bound to me darling. O how I longed to have you with me when I was sick, longed for your dear soft hand to put on my burning head though I had a kind & attentive nurse in young W. S. Bently who swore he’d cure me all up in a few days & sure enough he did. Says he you are safe here & shant let you go out if any [---?---] [---?---] you [---?---] getting well fast. He I a fine fellow at heart but like every body else west has western ways & habits which in the East we [---?---] make them call them a bad man because he swears & But he is good at heart. He is the one that helped me in [---?---] with Carrie [---?---].I shall start for Minnesota in two weeks from tomorrow. I think I shall go to Winona a landing on the landing on the Miss[issippi] River in Minnesota.I will write you more next Sunday if not before. Friday night I spent a shilling or 12 [?] one to hear one of those white negroes sing & dance.Don’t be frightened about me darling for I am well & strong now & going to work if nothing happens tomorrow. O pet how I want to just touch my lips to your sweet [---?---].✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦George Herbert Spooner was born at Petersham, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on January 16, 1833, the son of Stevens Spooner and Mary Angela (Negus) Spooner. He married Mary M. Thayer at Worcester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, on January 16, 1854. Mary was the daughter of Ephraim Thayer and Adah M. (Mathewson) Thayer and was born November 17, 1836, at Hartford County, Connecticut. Prior to 1860 George and Mary had moved to Clifton, Iroquois County, Illinois.Mary died in 1874 in Clifton and is buried in Clifton Cemetery. George perished in a tragic accident. On December 29, 1876, George was a passenger on Train No. 5 of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, which originated in Buffalo, New York, with a Chicago destination.The train consisted of the locomotive, two baggage cars, two day passenger coaches, two express coaches, a drawing room car, three sleeper cars, and a smoker car. As the train and its 160 passengers crossed the Ashtabula River in Ohio, the iron bridge spanning the river collapsed sending the entire train into the waters below.Oil lanterns and coal-fired heating stoves soon ignited the wooden railcars and many of the passengers perished in the fire. Other victims drowned under debris. Approximately 90 people were killed in the disaster, including George Herbert Spooner, who perished in the car named City of Buffalo. One newspaper column concerning the disaster mentions that George was traveling to California. The wreck ranks as the third deadliest rail disaster in U.S. history. At the time of his death, George was a resident of Petersham, Massachusetts.Note that a woman named Clara Thayer from Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts, was also killed in the Ashtabula disaster. Clara may have been related to George's wife, Mary.The University of Michigan's Clements Library maintains an archive referred to as the George and Mary Spooner Family Collection (1842-1882).Two Coffee Creek post offices existed in Porter County and this letter was posted from the second post office. The first post office operated from Jesse Morgan's inn located along the south side of present day Porter Avenue in Chesterton, slightly east of Dickinson Road. It existed between 1835 and 1849, and when discontinued the mail was routed to the Calumet post office located at New City West (now referred to as the Tremont area northeast of Chesterton).The second Coffee Creek post office operated from 1850 to 1870 and was located near the downtown area of present day Chesterton, Indiana. The community was renamed Chesterton on January 24, 1870.✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦The following is a transcription of a newspaper article specifically referring to this railroad wreck published September 30, 1856, in The Belvidere Standard:SHOCKING RAILROAD CALAMITY.EIGHT MEN KILLED.TWENTY TO THIRTY WOUNDED.TWENTY-FIVE CARS DEMOLISHED.Culpability of the Engineer.A frightful collision occurred on the Michigan Southern Railroad, Saturday evening, near the New Albany and Salem Railroad crossing, about eight miles from this side of Laporte, between a freight train and a construction train, by which eight men were killed outright and twenty to thirty badly wounded.The facts as far as known are, that the construction train consisted of an engine and two caboose cars filled with laborers. It was about half-past six o'clock, and the engineer wished to reach Laporte as soon as possible. Hearing in some way that the freight train then due was behind time, he resolved to run for Laporte. The freight train was on time, however, and a terrific collision occurred, as the construction train was running at great speed.The engineer and fireman of both trains jumped and escaped uninjured. The engineer of the construction trains, who was entirely to blame, fled to the woods and has not bee seen since. The two locomotives were smashed to fragments; the tender on the construction train was driven back thro' both the cars filled with laborers, making frightful havoc with human life. Eight men were killed on the spot and from twenty to thirty dreadfully mangled.Twenty cars on the freight train were broken to pieces and three new locomotives in the train destined for the Rock Island road were demolished, which such force did the two came together. The wounded were conveyed to Laporte as soon as relief could reach them, but we are unable to gain further particulars at this time.Sources:The Belvidere Standard, Belvidere, Boone County, Illinois; September 30, 1856; Volume 5, Number 24, Page 2, Column 3. Column titled "Shocking Railroad Calamity."The Chicago Daily Tribune, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois; January 6, 1877; Volume 31, Page 2, Column 6. Column titled "Ashtabula. The Bodies of Several Additional Victims Identified."Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois; February 13, 1904; Volume 63, Number 38, Page 4, Column 6. Column titled “Obituary. Lyman A. White.”National Republican, Washington, D.C.; January 4, 1877; Volume 17, Number 32, Page 2, Column 5. Column titled "And Still Another."Rutland Herald, Rutland, Rutland County, Vermont; January 5, 1877; Volume 16, Number 157, Page 3, Column 6. Column titled "The Ashtabula Disaster."Copyright 2021. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook. |
| 撮影日 | 2021-06-16 02:01:19 |
| 撮影者 | Shook Photos , Moscow, Idaho, USA |
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