By Diane Janowski
On July 27, 1891, forty-year-old Reverend Wellington White and family were on sabbatical from their lives as Christian missionaries in China. They were temporarily staying with his parents on Grove Street. Rev. White hired a horse and two-seated canopy-topped carriage from W. A. Gildea, a local liveryman. White took his mother and sister out for a ride. They returned home at 5:30 PM. While he still had "time on the horse," he rounded up his wife Mary, and three daughters, their nanny, and a friend of the children, and left the White home to go on a summer late afternoon ride to Eldridge Park. Everyone was excited about the idea.
All seven rode in a carriage with one horse. The carriage sauntered through Elmira’s northside, and near the Reformatory turned right at Reformatory Road (today's West Thurston Street used to connect to East Thurston Street near the main entrance to Eldridge Park). Now East Thurston connects to Woodlawn Avenue at that point (the railroad tracks). To get to the main entrance of Eldridge Park, it was necessary to cross the Erie tracks as well as several of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western tracks. It had taken about 30 minutes to get from home to this point.
As they got closer to Eldridge Park, Erie train No. 24 was bearing down from the north. "The train was running a terrific rate of speed."
As the group got closer to Eldridge Park, the horse cleared the tracks, but the carriage did not. Mr. White, daughter Lillian, little friend Hattie Hastings, and 14-year-old nanny Susie McCarthy were instantly killed. Mrs. Mary White and daughters, Mabel and Mary, were terribly injured and thrown about. The horse was not hurt. The carriage was in a million splinters.
The train "ran a long distance before it stopped. The train backed up to the scene of the disaster, and in a short time, a large crowd had collected from [Eldridge] park and rendered what assistance they could. The sight which greeted the passengers was horrible. Mr. White lay dead forty rods from where the carriage was struck. Mrs. White lay on the crossing, unconscious while the children lay scattered around, three of them mangled and dead, and the other two maimed and moaning with the pain."
The folks killed were loaded onto the train and brought to the Erie depot. The injured were loaded into a passenger car. Mrs. Mary White and daughter Mary were taken to Erie station’s "private room for ladies." Daughter Mabel, who was the least injured, cried "piteously."
Hundreds of people had gathered at the station. The ambulance arrived at 7:00 PM and took the injured to the Arnot-Ogden hospital. Coroners arrived at the depot and assessed the fatalities. Lillian White died of a fractured skull, as did Hattie Hastings. Mr. White died of a dislocated neck and fractured skull. Susie McCarthy "sustained a complete fracture of the skull."
Conductor Ford and Engineer Wynn were terribly affected. Wynn never engineered again.
An eyewitness, M.J. Murray, came forward, explaining that the carriage was attempting to cross the tracks between an already stopped train that was split for street traffic. As the carriage past through the split train, No. 24 coming down the eastbound track, hit it directly in the middle. Murray did not recall if 24 had blown its whistle. He believed Rev. White did not see the train.
Murray said help was there since the second it happened.
Another witness, Mrs. Mary Baxter, who had been standing at the crossing, did not notice the fast-moving train. She turned at the sound of the crash and saw confusion. She also did not hear a whistle.
At the hospital, doctors could not tell how badly Mrs. White was injured, as her eyes were so very swollen. Little Mary had a "terrible scalp wound and a fractured skull." She was given ether for her pain.
Reverend White and family had only been in Elmira since July 1. They were staying with his parents at 503 Grove Street. The White family was to have gone to China "in a few days" to resume their missionary work.
On August 1, Mrs. White partially regained consciousness. By September 11, she was able to sit up. She remained in the Arnot-Ogden hospital until September 14 when she moved to a special hospital in New York City. On October 3, she came back to Elmira for a visit. On November 9, she was back in New York. Doctors said her "memory is defective" and has problems with train whistles. She remained in New York with her brother.
On August 8, 1891, the official inquest of the situation gave two verdicts - one citing Mr. White "that through the careless actions of the driver of the vehicle [four came to their deaths], and the other verdict [was] that the train was going too fast. It was recommended that the street be lowered and the tracks raised in the future.
The next year on May 9, 1893, Mrs. White's lawsuit against the Erie Railroad began, citing the danger of the 4 or 5 lines non-gated tracks, without a flagman. She also cited that trains were going 40MPH while the city speed limit was 15MPH.
Three days later on May 12, 1893, Mrs. White won the lawsuit and was awarded $5,000 the limit. She planned to sue for each daughter, though I did not
find any more mention of it.
As bad as this accident was in Elmira’s history, an even worse accident occurred at the Erie Railroad’s Pennsylvania Avenue crossing one year later, instantly killing a family of five.
Sources:
Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York) July 28, 1891, Tue Page 5
Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York) August 8, 1891, Sat Page 8
Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York) August 11, 1891, Tue Page 7
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