Just a reminder that this Saturday there are tours featuring the darker stories of East Cleveland Township Cemetery’s residents. Tours are scheduled for 7 pm and 8:30 pm. Come out, have a good time, and support the efforts to preserve this historic cemetery.
Archive for October 28th, 2010
The Ashtabula Horror
Posted in Haunted memorials, tagged ashtabula, ashtabula horror, ashtabula train disaster, cause of death, chestnut grove cemetery, epitaphs, fire, ghost, ghost stories, haunted, haunting, history, lake shore and michigan railway, ohio, pacific express, train on October 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Visitors and caretakers at this cemetery have reported families in 19th century clothing wandering around this obelisk with their luggage. It seems that the victims of the Ashtabula Train Disaster, ripped so suddenly from life, do not realize they are dead and continue their travels in eternity
On December 29, 1876, the Lake Shore and Michigan Railway’s No. 5 Pacific Express train traveling from Erie, Pennsylvania, was approaching Ashtabula, Ohio. Despite the bitter cold outside, the interior of the train was warm and bright courtesy of oil lamps and coal-burning stoves, and the passengers were cheerful and in the holiday spirit. Crossing a bridge that spanned a deep gorge, the engineer of the first engine felt a ominous pull as the cars behind him began to fall with the failing iron truss bridge bridge. Somehow, he managed to uncouple the engine but watched helplessly as the passenger cars plunged into the freezing water. Passengers who weren’t killed by impact faced new threats as they struggled to escape the sinking cars: the paralyzing freezing water filled their voluminous winter clothes while fires erupted from the now-broken oil lamps and overturned coal stoves. Help was slow in arriving at the water’s edge down the steep embankment, and an estimated 90 to 100 people lost their lives that night. The exact number of deceased could never be determined due to the lack of passenger records and the fires that burned many bodies past the point of recognition, but scholars believe at least 160 people were on the train.
The monument in Chestnut Grove Cemetery stands specifically in memory to those unrecognized dead. The names of those known to be among them are engraved on the base of the obelisk. Perhaps they are the warmly clad wanders out of time that can be seen milling around the monument some days, seemingly uncomprehending of their fate.
-
Archives
-
Join 147 other subscribers
Categories
- angel ashtabula babies blogroll buffalo calvary cemetery carlisle cause of death celtic crosses cenotaph cenotaphs chestnut grove cemetery chicago child children cincinnati civil war clergy cleveland cleveland history cross Crosses dayton donegal donegal abbey dublin east cleveland east cleveland township cemetery epitaphs erie street cemetery euclid euclid cemetery flowers forest lawn cemetery gettysburg ghost stories grave art harrisburg harrisburg cemetery haunted haunting history hudson illinois ireland kirtland lakeview cemetery lake view cemetery links names new york occupation ohio old carlisle cemetery old carlisle graveyard oxford pennsylvania porcelain portrait portrait revolutionary war sculpture soldier spring grove cemetery st. patrick's cathedral statues strongsville strongsville cemetery symbolism tombstone tales unsolved veteran woodland cemetery wordless wednesday world war ii wwii
-
A Grave Concern by Ashley D. Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
A Grave Concern 