Think, Love, and Remember - Memorial Day 2014 St. John's Lutheran, Mahoning Valley

Today is a glorious day. 

We are alive: we have sunlight on our face, we have wind in our hair, and we have dew upon our feet (and sometimes rain that dampens our skin.)   

We have our minds that allow us to think, to love, and to remember. 

It is Memorial Day and to remember is what we must do, to honor those who served America.

Over the course of America’s history, 40 million soldiers have served.

If you could ask any of them, what they missed most while they were away, they’d tell you, they simply missed their home.  They missed things we take for granted: a hot bath, their own comfortable bed, and of course their mother’s home cooking.

We take many things, such as our home and our freedom, for granted.

We have no idea how much these mean to us until they are lost. 

So the next time you are tired, the next time you are hungry, the next time you think you had a rough day, I want you to think about, I want you to remember, the 40 million who have served, think of those who suffered and remember those who died. 

Not all who served died for our freedom, all gave a small, but mighty sacrifice of simply being away from home.

Think of all of them and you will appreciate your freedom all the more. 

This blessed and fertile Mahoning Valley has produced much.  It has produced a wealth of soldiers too.

We have both the living and the dead with us today.

We the living will all eventually join the dead.  It is for us, while we are living, to honor the dead, for their sacrifice, for they too once lived like us, enjoying freedom and all the comforts of home.

We are here to honor all who served our country. 

Look around, there are many among us:

Members of the UVO, Chester Mertz who served in WWII, and many others seamlessly hidden among us.   These men and women know sacrifice.  We the living, promise you, your service will not be forgotten.

Chester Mertz a Navy Veteran of WWII tends to flowers of the grave of
his parents at St. John's Lutheran in the Mahoning Valley.

The dead are also among us, they lay silently here on these grounds:

Oliver Musselman KIA at Antietam,
September 17, 1862.  He was 19.

Oliver Musselman died Sept 17, 1862 at Antietam.  He was only 19.  Jonathan Gombert, also a Civil War Veteran, is buried here too.  He made it home alive.  But he too made a sacrifice at Antietam, giving up his right arm.

The Jonathan Gombert farm today.

Merlin Hollenbach is buried up there.  He was thinking, I’m sure, of his home three days before Christmas.  He landed in Vietnam on his birthday, just a month before.  He was most likely thinking of his mother baking his favorite cookies, wondering how his father was doing setting up the family tree, surely he was thinking of his new wife Irene.  But on December 22^rd, 1967, far from his home, Merlin Hollenbach as a medic among the forward observers, died in an ambush, in the swampy jungles of Vietnam.

Merlin Hollenbach was newly married,
twenty-one, and only in Vietnam a month,
serving as a medic, attached to forward
observers.  He was killed
in an ambush.

A memorial from Merlin Hollenbach's family at St.
John's Lutheran.  Hollenbach died three days before
Christmas in 1967.

But not all died from enemy bullets.  Moses Mertz has rested here for nearly 100 years.  He died in France but he lies right over there. We know he had a weakened heart, we know he was in a hospital in France, and he died far away from his family and loved ones.  It has been said of Moses that he died of a broken heart, from an unbearable homesickness…

Moses Mertz, son of Nathan and Sallie Mertz of Mahoning.  As his draft card below reveals, he was a blacksmith's helper in the Lehigh Valley Railroad Packerton Shops.  He listed an exception to military service as a "weak heart."  Some say he died of a broken, homesick heart in France on October 2, 1918, just days before the end of the war.

Today is a Glorious Day.

We are alive: we have sunlight on our face, we have wind in our hair, and we have the dew upon our feet.  

We have our minds that allow us to think, to love, and to remember. 

We have been summoned here,

To think about their sacrifice, to always love our freedom, and

To always, always remember…their sacrifice for us.

~~~~~

More Mahoning Valley Veterans:

WWI: Anthony Dougher was mentioned
in last years Memorial Day address
at St. Peter and Paul Cemetery while
Moses Mertz was mentioned this year.

Daniel Kressley served in Co F of the
132nd PA Regiment.  He was discharged
in January of 1863 due to disability but
re-enlisted in the 202 PA Regiment until
August 1865.

Here is a closeup of the 1907 plaque that stands in the current Mahoning Elementary School built in 1954.  It was originally posted in the wooden one room school house and was erected by friends and classmates of Civil War servicemen who originated from the school.  It contains the following names: Killed: Oliver F. Musselman (Sgt Co F 132nd), Otto Stermer (Co F 132; Antietam), James Eames, John Miller, John Callahan, William Nothstein.  Also listed: Henry Snyder, William H. Fulton (1st Lt, Co G, 132nd), Joseph Acherman, Samuel Eberts (27th), William Stermer, Nathan Stermer, D. W. C. Henline, Thomas Musselman (Co F 132nd; wounded at both Fredericksburg and Antietam), Jacob Nothstein (Co F 132nd; buried at Zimmerman Cemetery), Daniel Houser (Co H 11th), Thomas Strauss, Reuben Reinsmith (Co G 34th), Robert Sinyard, William Sendel, Amon Fritz (75th), Josiah Musselman (Sgt Co A 202nd), Daniel Kressely (Co F 132), Stephen Fenstermacher (Co G 34th), Peter Eberts (4th Sgt Co F 27th Militia), David Eberts (27th), William Eberts (27th), Henry Zellner (Co G 34th), Jacob Strauss, Aaron B. Miller, Moses Neyer (Co F 132), Aaron Snyder (Co A 202nd), Elias Hoppes, John H. Arner (Co F 34th), and James Kresge.  Also listed are teachers Joseph Fulton and James Swank.

Josiah Musselman is buried at the Zimmerman
Cemetery near the old Wos-Wit. 

Josiah Musselman was a seargent in Company A of the 202 Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers.  He was the son of Mary (Miller) and Charles Musselman, born November 5, 1837.  He married Emaline  He died on December 20, 1912 and was buried in the Zimmerman Cemetery, Mahoning Township on Christmas Eve.

Thomas Musselman buried at St. John's Lutheran in
Mahoning Valley.

Daniel Creitz of Co I 176th PA Regiment.

Daniel Creitz was born in May of 1836 and was a farmer from Lynn Township.  He served in Company I of the 176^th PA Infantry Regiment from November 8, 1862 until October of 1863.  He was the husband to Mary Creitz (b. March 1840) and they had twelve children, nine of whom lived to adulthood.  One of their youngest children, Daniel Creitz had a farm near the Jonathan Gombert farm in Mahoning Township.  By 1900, Daniel Sr. and Mary moved onto the farm with their son.  By March of 1879 Daniel was declared disabled and by September 23, 1915 his widow Mary filed for widow’s benefits.

Henry J. Lange/Long was born in Germany February 16, 1833.  He served in Company G of the 132^nd PA Regiment from August 15, 1862 to May 24, 1863.  Henry and many other veterans from the Valley in the 132nd hit a bees hive on the "Bloody Lane" during the Battle of Antietam.  The men had bees covering their bodies and inside their coats while taking hostile fire. He and his wife Sarah farmed the Mahoning Valley and had at least eight children: Henry, Anna, Mary, Alfred, William, Jenetta, George, and Edgar.  He died May 2, 1921.

Henry J. Long's tombstone
reads "Lange" as he was also
known.  His several
great grand son Henry Long
is bugler for the current
Lehighton UVO, and his son,
Kevin "Spike" Long is
commander.

George Arb's grave at St. John's Lutheran.

George Arb enlisted for a three year term on October 15, 1861.  He was wounded and discharged on a surgeon’s certificate.

Jonathan and Anna Gombert.  Jonathan lost his right arm at
Antietam and later became Carbon County Sheriff in 1900.  My
grandfather Zacharias Rabenold was hired as his servant when he was
just sixteen at that time and served as saddler on Gombert's farm as well
as "orderly" at the Carbon County Jail.

Henry Snyder served in Company I of 81^st PA Infantry Regiment.  He enlisted for a three year term on October 15, 1861 and served until the company mustered out at the end of the war  on June 29, 1865.

Henry Snyder of Co I of 81st PA Regiment.

Justus G. Walton of Co I 67th PA Regiment.

Justus G. Walton was a sergeant in Company I of the 67^th PA Infantry Regiment.  He enlisted for three years on October 22, 1861.  At some point he transferred to Company F.  He mustered out with Company F on July 14, 1865.  He was the son of Body and Polly Walton of Mauch Chunk and was second oldest of at least eight children (in order): Thomas, Washington, Wilson, Alfred, Peter, Joseph and Rebecca.  In 1850, his brother Thomas was a machinist and Justus was most likely an iron casting moulder. 

Valentine Newmeyer enlisted in Company F of the 132^nd Infantry Regiment from August 15, 1862 until May 24, 1863.

Jonathan Gombert gave up his right arm at the Battle of Antietam.  He was born on June 19, 1835 to Philip (1792-1880) and Salome (1794-1878) Gombert He enlisted in Company H of the 81^st PA Infantry Regiment.  He married Anna Loucile (Hontz) Gombert.  Her parents were Jonas and Sarah (Reinsmith) Hontz and lived from October 4, 1842 to June 7, 1920.  Three of their children were Sarah, Andrew, and Ella.  (Andrew would die in a tragic accident with his hay tedder at the age of  He died January 16, 1911.

 

William Grow of the 34th PA Militia most likely died in
June 1888, but little else is known of this veteran
buried alone at St. John's Lutheran.

William Grow 34^th PA Militia served until August 24, 1864.  It appears on his government burial card that the granite company was contracted on June 9, 1888.

Henry Wehrstein was the son of John and Catharina Wehrstein.  In 1860 he was a twenty-one year old tailor living in Mauch Chunk. He served in Company F of the 132^nd PA Regiment from August 1862 to May 1863.   After the war he and his wife Elizabeth settled in Mahoning Valley and raised a son James, where Henry continued on as a tailor.

Henry Wehrstein Company F 132nd PA Regiment.

Jacob Hoffman, born July 3, 1848 was able at a young age to serve in Co C of the 54th PA Regiment.  He died in 1909 leaving a wife, four daughters, and a son.  

Jacob Hoffman Comapany C 54th PA.

Moses Hontz/Hantz (1843 to 1907) served in Co. G of the 81st PA Regiment.  He was married to Sarah Hontz and they had eight of their eleven children grow to adulthood.  Of them alive and living with them in 1900 were: Carrie (age 17), Lizzie (12) and Raymond (10).  They also had their grandson Willie Eberts living with them too.  Moses was a well-known boatman on the canal as well as farming in the Valley.  Moses enlisted for three years on September 16, 1861 and discharged September 15, 1864.  His brother Amon Hontz also served in Company G. 

Moses Hantz also known as Moses Hontz, brother to
Amon Hontz.  Both were said to be born in Weissport
but are buried at St. John's Lutheran in Mahoning
Valley.

Amon Hontz took a minnie ball at the Battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse.  Both brothers also fought at the Battle of Antietam. 

 

Ammon and his brother Moses were born in Weissport
but are buried in Mahoning.  Ammon took a minnie
ball at the Battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse, VA.

Nathan Gombert

Nathan Gombert was born on October 5, 1847.  He died on December 1, 1925.

Samuel Mertz lies in Lehighton Cemetery and is pictured
below.

Daniel Kressley was born in Lynnport on January 18, 1844.  His parents moved to a farm in the  Mahoning Valley when he was just six years old.  He enlisted in Co F of the 132nd PA Regiment.  He was at the Battle of South Mountain and at Antietam where he was wounded at the "Bloody Lane."  After discharge for typhoid fever in Jaunary of 1863, Daniel re-enlisted and served out the war with the 202nd PA Regiment.  He returned to the Mahoning Valley where he taught school for thirteen seasons.  He also farmed, worked for the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company and the Lehigh Valley Railroad in between sessions.  He and his wife, the former Mary Dilcher had eight children, two sons and six daughters.  Both sons became ministers Clement Daniel and Thomas M, both serving in Schuylkill County.      

This 1914 veterans reunion in front of Lehigh Fire Co No. 1 marked the 50th Anniversary of the last year of the war.  Daniel Kressley is incorrectly identified as the second from left and is the third from left.  These photos appear
courtesy of the Thomas Eckhart "History of Carbon County" Volume IV, page 196.

Daniel Kressley, though sickened with typhoid fever in
Jaunary of 1863 and discharged, he later re-enlisted in the
202nd PA Regiment and served to the end of the war.

Merlin Hollenbach KIA December
22, 1967.

Mud Run Train Disaster - "A name of terror for all time" - Wrecks of Penn Haven Post 3 of 3

Ocotber 10, 1888 – Wednesday evening -Temperance Excursion Train Disaster at Mud Run: “A name of terror for all time.”

Please view a companion piece to this story of the "Great Fire" of 1875 that tore through Mud Run and the surrounding area.

The most costly wreck in early Pennsylvania and Lehigh Valley Railroad history took roughly sixty lives.  The passengers had attended a Temperance Parade in Hazleton earlier that day.  There were men, women and children of all ages aboard the seven separate passenger trains boarded in Hazleton around 6:30 pm.  The special orders from the L.V.R.R. included the spacing of the trains at ten minute intervals.  This interval was considered more than sufficient since five minute intervals was standard practice.

The three passenger cars, borrowed from the Jersey Central, were telescoped together just above the Mud Run
station on October 10, 1888.  There were seventy-eight cars needed to haul the roughly 5,500 temperance attendees from the annual parade in Hazelton back to their homes in the Wilkes-Barre area.   Roughly 70 people were loaded into each car.  Some say the Central cars were of "flimsy" construction and led to the unnecessary death.  The Valley had to borrow cars from the Central because of the unusually high-volume of passengers that day.  Over work and lack
of sleep may have contributed.

The company also took the precaution of posting all the special orders associated with this huge undertaking and had all involved employees sign that they read them after they had been “studied for several days,” having been posted on all the bulletin boards.

Penn Haven - Carbon County's Most Desolate Place - The Reds O'Donnell Story

Post 1 of 3 on Lehigh Gorge Train Wrecks from 1874 to 1910 - Civilians and Workers hit and runover, including two murders.

Post 2 of 3 on Lehigh Gorge Train Wrecks from 1874 to 1910 - Derailments and collisions

The Lehigh Gorge - Former Valley and Central Lines Rails-Trails Virtual Tour

Verbal instructions were also given to the engineers to “be careful.”  It would appear legally, the Valley Railroad did everything in its power to avoid the unthinkable.  But in the final analysis lack of sleep and over work seemed to play the most significant role.

All the special orders, signatures, and ten minute intervals were for naught.  The unthinkable indeed happened, killing at least sixty-four.

The victims were members of the Father Mathew Society.  Many were Irish Catholic coal miners relatively new to this country.  It was reported that there were seventy-eight car loads of people, of over 5,500 loaded onto the eight different trains, which would be about seventy people per car.

This broad sweeping curve shows the entry of Mud Run into the river.
The station would have been about one half mile toward the left.  The
train that was struck was sitting just above the station.  This would be one
of two curves the approaching train passed through before the collision.

The ill-fated sixth train was stopped at the Mud Run Station because the lights signaled that they were too close to the fifth train running ahead of it.  The rear of the sixth train was parked at the edge of a curve.

Brakeman James Hanighan later testified that the train stopped “a short distance above the station” at Mud Run.  He said he immediately took a red and a white light “as far back as the depot.”

The Mud Run as it flows into the Lehigh today
beneath the Valley bridge still in use today.

He went on to say he signaled with his red light and was on the platform when the last train went past him “at a lively rate.”  He estimated the speed to be twenty-five miles per hour, nearly twice the speed sworn by one of the engineers, Henry Cook.

This said train, the seventh, was pulled by Engine #466 (Engineer James Sharkey) and assisted by Engine #452 (Engineer Henry Cook assisted by his fireman Hugh Gallagher). 

According to rail officials of the Valley, it is alleged that lookouts aboard the #452 should have seen the flagmen and yielded to the red signal light.  However, it was the crew of the #466, not the #452, who had control of the air brake system. 

Engineer Cook’s testimony was at odds with Hanighan’s.  First, he estimated his train’s speed at “twelve to fourteen” miles per hour.  Other expert testimony supported this to be a safe speed under the circumstances.

Cook also said that he was alert, leaning out the right side of the cab and slowed to ten miles per hour when he approached the platform at Mud Run.  At this point, he noticed the “violent swinging of a white light.”

“I immediately whistled down brakes,” he said.  However, the engine behind him, the #466, had “charge of the train” and had the control over the air brakes.

Other witnesses said Cook had been on duty for several days “with but little sleep.”  Cook claimed to be still “fresh and wide awake.” 

Thomas Major of East Mauch Chunk had never run a passenger train before.  He thought one engine was enough to pull the train, and besides, had they had just one, the engineer would have had a better view. 

Major also said he had been on duty since Monday night at nine o’clock (a near twenty-four hours) with but six hours of rest.  Despite this, he said he “did not feel sleepy.”

Fireman Joseph Pohl testified from his hospital bed in Bethlehem, where he was recovering from leg injuries sustained in the accident.  He had been on duty since five o’clock that morning, a more than twelve hour shift.  He said he saw the white target and told the engineer everything was alright. 

He just then momentarily rested his head in his hands when the next thing he knew, he heard the “whistle for down brakes.”  He saw the engineer’s hand go to the lever, but had no recollection as to whether he was able to turn it or not.

Engineer Cook’s main defense was that he never saw or heard any danger signal, “when such should have been exposed.”  He also asserted, and no one disagreed, that there were no “torpedoes” deployed onto the tracks. 

(Torpedoes are small explosives/metal encased fireworks that detonate when a train approaches a disabled train.  See the accidental death received by a young woman from a prank torpedo left on a trolley track in Mauch Chunk – click here.)

Henry Cook alleged that no flagman or light was placed east, or below, the Mud Run Station.  Other witnesses alleged brakeman Hanighan was inside the station and not on the platform as he claimed to be.

The crash according to one survivor of the seventh train occurred at 7:45 pm.

Even at such a low speed as twelve miles per hour, the force of the impact was deadly.  The rear three cars of the sixth train were telescoped together, mangling and trapping people in a mass of flesh, blood, iron and steam.

Besides those killed outright, others were scattered about and pinned under the engines.  The trapped and wounded “could put their heads out of the windows but could get no further, as their lower limbs were held in the wreckage like a vice.”

On the scene was James J. McGinty who was the recorder of deeds in Luzerne County.  He estimated the speed of the train at fifteen miles an hour.  He said, “I have read thrilling accounts of railroad disasters, but never pictured in my mind anything like this.”

He went on to say, “The injured would say, “Oh, lift that iron and take me out; for God’s sake help me.”  Another would say, “My leg is fast, cut off my leg; get an axe and cut it off.”  Every few minutes another of the poor victims would die.  Some were scalded by escaping steam, some were crushed to death, and some dying slowly of their awful injuries.”

Directly beneath Engine #452 lay four young boys, mangled and severely burned.  They were members of the “Father Mathew Cadet Society” and were so ravaged that they were barely recognizable as human forms.

Some of these survivors, pinned in contorted positions, suffered fatal scalding burns from the escaping steam of the engines.  A man known only as “McGinty,” “risked all danger,” got inside the wrecked engine and “pulled out the fire.”

In the hope to free those trapped, a trainman attached a locomotive to the rear of the merged telescoped cars and engine, and tried to pull them apart.  The first tug brought “such cries of distress that the surrounding friends ordered the engineer to desist on pain of his life.”

One group attending the parade was known as the "St. Francis Pioneer Society."  One of the trademarks of their attire is to carry broad axes.  In the mayhem that ensued after the wreck, many sprung to action to help the suffering and dislodge the entangled.  The Pioneers soon discovered their largely decorative axes were of little use, breaking apart in demolition work.

Friends and relatives in most cases could do nothing to help in the agony of their trapped loved ones.

John Lynch was hanging outside the car, his legs trapped inside.  He screamed in such agony his friends supported his weight on their backs to help alleviate his suffering.  He was burned about his arms and shoulders and was in serious condition.

Another woman was also pinned by her legs.  The men with axes were able to free her one leg, but a misdirected swing severed her other leg from her body.  She calmly accepted her fate, withdrew a gold watch from her pocket, and directed those attending her to give it to her friend back home.  Her friends accompanied her to a hospital car where it was said she died en route home.

News of the Mud Run Disaster took on a national scope when Frank
Leslie's Illustrated newspaper of New York picked up the story.  The above
illustration most likely drawn from eye-witness accounts does bear
scrutiny to actual some of the nuances that unfolded just after the collision.

Some of the papers seemed happy to report that “many temperance pledges were quickly forgotten” as the survivors boarded trains away from the disaster.

Within thirty minutes, a train with the Valley superintendent and physicians was dispatched from Bethlehem.  Bonfires were built to give light to the rescue efforts. 

Though quite remote, there were a few homes in the area.  Soon these homes were lit up and converted into temporary shelter for the wounded who could be gathered there.

At 6:30 the following evening, “a funeral train arrived in Wilkes-Barre bearing fifty-seven bodies partially prepared for burial.”  The bodies were lain “upon boards across the backs of seats, each covered with a white cloth.”

Frantic friends boarded the cars despite officials asking for them to show some restraint.  They began tearing off the sheets in search of their loved ones, revealing the “gay uniforms of the St Aloysius’s men, cadets and other members of societies.”

Two special trains carried the wounded to hospitals at Bethlehem and Wilkes-Barre.  Forty doctors were said to be on the ground at daybreak.

The initial reports had the death toll ranging from the upper fifty’s to the low sixty’s.  An article in the following day’s Philadelphia paper recorded from a dispatch from Easton that fifty-six were killed outright and another forty injured could die. 

A Wilkes-Barre paper reported on the following day of forty-six dead names and also stated that there were still ten unidentified bodies.  It went on to say that two of the victims died overnight in the hospital with “six or eight more” expected to die.

On October 12, a New York Times reprint of a Scranton newspaper listed the dead and wounded.  There were seventy names listed under the killed column.  Of the wounded, several there were listed as “serious” and others listed as “will die.”  The small town of Pleasant Valley (today’s Avoca) had thirty-one names alone.

Reporters of the 1880s were perhaps more impetuously aggressive than one could imagine.  One reporter was able to track down engineer Henry Cook as he tried to sleep in his bed in Wilkes-Barre on the very night of the wreck.  The reporter noted with plain unspoken disdain of his only injury being “a bruised ankle.”

Despite his reluctance to talk, the reporter assailed Cook with provocative questions such as: “Were you asleep?...Were you drunk?...Rumor has set out some ugly stories about you.”

The New York Times of October 12, 1888 published Cook’s reply to his thoughts on the enormity of the accident.  They wrote, “Yes,” Cook said with a groan, “and I suppose the blame will be fixed on someone, and railroad companies don’t usually take such blame themselves.”

The alleged transcript between Engineer Cook and the
reporter on the night of the accident.

The coroner’s jury investigation cited the engineers of both the #452 and the #466 for negligence.  Also, the brakeman of the sixth train was cited for only going 400 feet instead of the proper distance of one half mile.  They also found fault with the conductors of the sixth train for not personally seeing to it that the brakemen protected the rear of their train.

A later trial acquitted all the defendants.

 Some debate was held over the use of the Jersey Central cars which according to one person interviewed then said that if Valley cars had been used, there wouldn’t have been as much loss of life.  The Valley cars were said to be of a sturdier construction.  The cars were on loan to the Valley due to the large number of excursionists signed up for the annual parade.

The Lehigh Valley Railroad took the lead in the court of public opinion by posting what they felt was a fair monetary settlement number in the papers.  Mr. William Connell, a coal operator was appointed by the L.V. R. R. as an impartial administrator for victim’s claims.  He was said to “not have interest in the Lehigh Valley Company.”

“He finds that nearly all the claimants want $5,000 each.  The company desires to avoid litigation, and is anxious for an amicable settlement…the general feeling is averse to going to law in case there can be a reasonable settlement outside the courts.”

It seemed like all the papers at once began to throw around the same numbers: $5,000 per adult and $1,000 per child killed.  A meeting of the St. Aloysius Society held a meeting of over 500 people in Scranton and passed a resolution authorizing Rev. Father Crave of Pleasant Valley (Avoca) to draw upon them for $500 or $1,000 to be at his disposal to help in cases of need for the “sufferers” of the Pleasant Valley parishioners.

The above list was printed in the New York Times the next day.  Of those listed here, at least two were said to be near death while another three were listed as "serious."  It is unknown how accurate these lists were, but these early reports listed 64 dead outright with several more not expected to live.

March 11, 1889 – Monday - One Last Mud Run Death –

The coroner’s jury inquest trial was conducted over three days in late October of 1888.  But other civil cases related to the trial were on-going into March of 1889.  Many witnesses, defendants, and concerned family members of the sixty-odd victims were flocking to town on both foot and rail.  

One man named Ottoman Schmidt had been in town and was walking the track home when he was struck and instantly killed at the Mud Run Station.  The paper reported that there were a “number of cases similar to that of Schmidts” at this terribly famous spot.   

One article describing the Mud Run Disaster from October 27, 1888.

This is a 64-person list of dead as of the next day's papers.  There are bound to be omissions and additions and other errors in this list.  Names from the above list of Annie Curran, John Coleman, and Owen Kilcullen appear both on the list and their graves are pictured below.

Also buried at St. Mary's is 15-year-old
Patrick Curran.  Also killed was Annie Curran of
Minooka

John Coleman rests in Avoca's St. Mary's
Cemetery, a vicitim of the Mud Run Disaster.
Also killed were Michael and Patrick Coleman.
He was 40 years old at the time.

A native of Castle-Connor, County Silco Ireland was Owen Kilcullen thirty-five, vicitm
of the Mud Run Disaster.

 is