Civil War Blog

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 16, 2014

Nathaniel Marsh

While it may have had nothing to do at all with the Great Shohola Train Wreck, three days after the accident, the President of the Erie Railroad died.  The following was reported in Between the Ocean and the Lakes, on page 138:

Nathaniel Marsh died 18 July 1864.  His death came suddenly, although he had been long in failing health. He had been a plodding faithful servant of the Company for many years,  His death was widely regretted.  It is beyond question that President Marsh had stood in the way of the development of ambitious schemes in Erie that lay in the minds of certain speculative members of the Board, and with his death a new era in the history of Erie began.

The following obituary appeared , 21 July 1864, in the Philadelphia  Daily Age:

Nathaniel Marsh, Esq., President of the Erie Railroad, died at his residence on Staten Island on Monday evening, aged fifty years.  He had been unwell for several months past, but a greater portion of the time was able to attend to his duties.  Mr. Marsh was a native of Haverhill, Massachusetts, and was educated at Dartmouth College.  After graduating he studied law for a brief period in Massachusetts, and then removed to New York, where he was engaged for a short time as assistant editor of the Evening Express. He was appointed Assistant Postmaster of the New York Postoffice, under John Lorimar Graham, and subsequently was made Secretary of the New York and Erie Railroad.  He was afterward appointed by the Supreme Court Receiver of the road, and after the financial embarrassments were removed, was elected President.

A more complete biography of Marsh appeared in Between the Ocean and the Lakes, pages 464-465.

NATHANIEL MARSH — Nathaniel Marsh was born 27 November 1815, at Haverhill, Massachusetts.  He entered Dartmouth College at the age of sixteen, graduating at the age of twenty in 1835.  He began the reading of law in the office of the Hon. James H. Duncan, of Haverhill.  He did not take kindly to the law, and went to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he became a school-teacher.  Soon afterward he was appointed clerk of one of the courts of Michigan, and he abandoned his career as an educator to accept the place.  In the fall of 1837, he relinquished his office, went to New York, and joined the staff of the New York Express, then edited by James Brooks and Erastus Brooks.  Mr. Marsh was associate editor of the Express until 1841, having, in May 1939, married Miss Brooks, the only sister of the Express editors.  In September 1841 he was appointed first assistant to the Postmaster of New York City, and in 1845, he was unanimously chosen to be Secretary of the New York and Erie Railroad Company, at the time of its rehabilitation under Benjamin Loder. He remained at his post of secretary under all the trying times of the Loder administration, through the darkening and discouraging events of the Homer Ramsdell administration, and during the futile efforts of Charles Moran to stem the tide of misfortune that circumstances had set upon in Erie; and when the company succumbed, in 1859, to the inevitable, he was appointed receiver.  On the reorganization, 1 January 1862, he was chosen President of the new company.  This he accepted, and before entering upon the new duties he authorized a settlement of his accounts as receiver, in which he voluntarily relinquished more than half of the compensation to which he would have been entitled under the ordinary mode of compensation in such case.  In about a year after the reorganization, he began to show marked signs of failing – signs which he disregarded, notwithstanding the warnings of anxious friends, and he permitted himself to be re-elected President a third time in 1864.  He was at his desk in the Erie offices daily up to a week before his death.  He died 22 July 1864, suddenly and at an unexpected moment, although his death was known to be imminent.  Mr. Marsh was the only Erie president to die in office.  His loss to the Company was fittingly recognized by official action of the Board.

In April 1846, Mr. Marsh lost his first wife.  She left in his charge three small children, one but a few days old.  One of his sons is Samuel Marsh, Esq., a well-known New York lawyer.  He was married a second time in December 1848, to Miss Julia Townsend, a daughter of William Townsend, Esq., of Staten Island, by whom he had four children.

One obvious error in the above biographical sketch of Nathaniel Marsh is the date of death.  Both the biographical sketch and the statement of his death (top of this post) were written by the same person, Edward Harold Mott, who was the author of the official history of the Erie, Between the Ocean and the Lakes.  However, it is unlikely that Marsh died on 22 July 1864, given that the Philadelphia Daily Age printed his obituary on 21 July 1864.  Two other obituaries or death notices were found in Pennsylvania newspapers which also confirm that he died before 22 July 1864:

The death notice (above) from the Philadelphia Inquirer of 20 July 1864 states that Nathaniel Marsh died “this morning” – meaning 19 July 1864.

And, the death notice (above) from the Philadelphia Public Ledger, also agrees with the death date of 19 July 1864.

However, the New York Times of 20 January 1864, probably more reliable since the death occurred in New York, gave the following information:

Nathaniel Marsh… died at his residence on Staten Island on Monday night after a lingering illness of many months…. During a period of more than twenty years devoted himself so zealously to the interests of the great work in which he was engaged as to wear himself out, so that he died an old man a little past middle age….

According to the 1864 calendar, “Monday” was the 18 July 1864.  It is not known why Edward Harold Mott erred in his stating of the death date in the biography of Marsh which appears on page 465 of Between the Ocean and the Lakes, but got the date correct on page 138.

However, the coincidence of the death of Nathaniel Marsh and the Great Shohola Train Wreck occurring so close together in time is something that should be explored further – especially to see if there is any evidence to show that the death of Marsh was hastened by the news of the train disaster.  Although it is clearly stated in the biographical sketches in both the official history of the Erie and in the obituaries that Marsh had been ill for some time, it was also stated that despite his health, he worked tireless to rehabilitate the Erie while he served as receiver and as a result of saving the company, he was rewarded with the presidency.  The news of the train wreck and the accompanying loss of life surely had to reach him and had to have a seriously deteriorating effect on his health in the few days following.

Some further exploration into the affairs of the Erie preceding the presidency of Nathaniel Marsh needs to be done – especially during the presidencies of Benjamin Loder, Homer Ramsdell, and Charles Moran – which are mentioned in Between the Ocean and the Lakes.

The question of why the Erie was in Pennsylvania in the first place also needs to be looked at.  The Erie Railroad line crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania just after the station at Port Jervis, New York, and then traveled through Shohola and Lackawaxen in Pennsylvania on a single track main line before returning to the New York side just after Lackawaxen.  It was on this Pennsylvania part of the line that the train wreck occurred – significantly with a coal train that had entered this part of the main line from one of the feeder lines that traveled north from the upper parts of the Pennsylvania anthracite coal fields.  Throughout the book, Between the Ocean and the Lakes, the schemes of the prior administrations of the Erie are mentioned as the cause of the receivership which Marsh successfully brought the railroad out of.  Did these schemes have something to do with speculation involving the anthracite coal operators and the interest of the Erie management in capitalizing on the transport of coal to the New York market?  Was Marsh supportive of the schemes while he served as company secretary during the presidency of Loder?  What were the views of Marsh in regard to the dual-purpose use of the single-track line in 1864 and was he concerned about safety on that line given the increasing coal traffic during wartime?

Finally, Marsh was the President of the Erie at the time the decision was made to provide to the government the “low cost” alternative to the transport of Confederate prisoners of war via water from Point Lookout, Maryland, to New York and Jersey City, New Jersey, and thence by the New York and Erie Railroad to the newly created prison camp at Elmira, New York.  The other option for the Union would have been to transport the prisoners completely by rail from Baltimore over the Northern Central Railroad – through Harrisburg, Millersburg, Sunbury, and Williamsport in Pennsylvania, to Elmira, New York.  According the maps of the time, the Northern Central Railroad line was located much closer to the site of the prison camp than was the Erie line.  The prisoners de-trained at the Erie station and then had to be marched across Elmira in order to get to the camp, thus creating a security problem.  But for each transport of prisoners, the Union guards returned to Maryland via the Northern Central route rather than by the Erie.

Additional information is sought about Nathaniel Marsh and his management of the Erie Railroad during his time as President with the hope of determining how much the news of the Shohola train wreck affected him and hastened his death.  Additional information is also sought on the Government contract for the transport of prisoners from Jersey City to Elmira.  Readers may add comments to this blog post or may send information by e-mail.

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News clippings are from the on-line resources of the Free Library of Philadelphia.  A free download of Between the Ocean and the Lakes is available from the Internet Archive by clicking on the book title.  The portrait of Nathaniel Marsh is from Between the Ocean and the Lakes.

For a listing of all blog posts on The Great Shohola Train Wreck, click here.

ShoholaTrainWreck.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on The Great Shohola Train Wreck – The Strange Coincidence of the Death of the Erie President
Tags: Millersburg, Railroad

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 15, 2014

Jacob Matter

Jacob Matter was born 13 June 1845 in Lykens Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph Joel Matter (1811-1857) and Anna Mary [Yerges] Matter (1815-1893).  His mother’s parents were Michael Yerges (1793-1866) and Hannah [Coleman] Yerges and his mother’s sister was Elizabeth Yerges (1813-1877) who married Martin Rickert (1804-1871) of Specktown, Lykens Township.  Jacob Matter was also a direct descendant of Johannes Adam Matter (1759-1832), Revolutionary War soldier who is honored on the Revolutionary War Monument at St. Peter (Hoffman’s) Cemetery in Lykens Township.

During the Civil War Jacob’s first enrollment was possibly in the 15th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company B, as a Private for a term of three month.  He completed this service between his muster in at Harrisburg on 23 April 1861 and discharge on 8 August 1861.  The only physical information about him as noted on the Pennsylvania Veterans’ Index Card (above, from the Pennsylvania Archives), is his age of 25 – which was clearly not correct if he was born in 1845.

Jacob’s second (or perhaps his first) enrollment was in the 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Company I, as a Private.  He was mustered into service on 27 January 1865 and mustered out with his company on 14 July 1865.  The Registers of Pennsylvania Volunteers give his age at enrollment as 18.  If his date of birth is accepted as 13 June 1845, he was actually almost 20.

Interestingly, the Pension Index Card (above, from Fold3) only notes the service in the cavalry.  Another curious fact is found at the bottom of the card.  The death date matches the known death date, but the place of death is noted as Raleigh, North Carolina.  Until this card was seen, it was assumed that his death occurred in Lykens Township.  After Jacob’s death, his widow, Emma Elizabeth [Maurer] Matter, applied for and received pension benefits.

Click on document to enlarge.

A death certificate for Jacob Matter was found attached to an Ancestry.com family tree and is shown above.  The place of death is clearly given as the Borough of Lykens.  The cause of death is given as “cerebral hemorrhage.”  Jacob’s occupation was given as “laborer in mines”.  In 1910, his occupation was “laborer for town,” meaning he worked for Lykens Borough.

Jacob Matter is buried in the P. O. S. of A. (Patriotic Order of the Sons of America) Cemetery in Lykens Borough.  His grave marker notes that he served in Company I of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry – and also gives his birth year as 1847; both statements are incorrect according to other records.

Jacob Matter‘s name appears on the Lykens G.A.R. Monument as a member of the Heiler Post who joined after its organization.

More information is sought on Jacob Matter and his military service as well as his place of death.  Stories and pictures are always welcome!

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The portrait of Jacob Matter is from a family collection.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on Jacob Matter – War Veteran and General Laborer
Tags: Lykens Borough, Lykens Township, Specktown

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 14, 2014

Today’s post is another installment of a series on the Great Shohola Train Wreck.

On 15 July 1864, at about 2 P.M., a train carrying 833 Confederate prisoners of war and a contingent of Union guards, collided head-on with a 50-car coal train on a single-track main line of the New York and Erie Railroad.  The collision occurred about one-and-a-half miles west of the small village of Shohola, Pike County, Pennsylvania.  The train carrying the prisoners was headed west from Jersey City, New Jersey, to the newly-established prison camp at Elmira, Chemung County, New York.  The coal train was headed east from the Hawley branch railroad and was hauling coal from the vast anthracite coal fields of central Pennsylvania to the  New York area.  It was the greatest railroad disaster of the Civil War – and to that point in time, the greatest recorded railroad disaster in history.  Forty-eight prisoners and seventeen Union guards were killed in the accident and many more were seriously wounded.

In the official history of the Erie Railroad, Between the Ocean and the Lakes, published in 1903, Edward Harold Mott gave a description of the accident and presented an eyewitness account, that of Frank Evans, who was identified as one of the Union guards on the train.

A copy of Between the Ocean and the Lakes:  The Story of the Erie, is available as a free download from the Internet Archive (click on book title to go to download page, choose format on left and download).

SOME DREADFUL DISASTERS OF THE RAIL IN ERIE’S HISTORY

AT KING & FULLER’S CUT — Frank Evans of New York, a survivor of this terrible catastrophe, recalls for the author these recollections of it:

“It was about the middle of July, in 1864,” says Mr. Evans.  “I was in the Union Army, and was one of a guard of 125 soldiers who were detailed to take a lot of Confederate prisoners from Point Lookout, Virginia, to the prison camp at Elmira, N.Y., which had just been made ready to receive them.  There were 10,000 prisoners in all to be transferred, and this lot was the first installment to be moved.  There were about 800 of them.  We came on the Pennsylvania Railroad to Jersey City, and the prisoners were transferred to the Erie train by boat.  The train was made up of emigrant cars, box cars, and all sorts of odds and ends of cars, and was a long one. Two guards were stationed on the platform at each end of each car.  We got started from Jersey City about 5 o’clock in the morning.  I was one of the guards stationed well back on the train, and a lucky thing for me that I was so stationed.  We passe through the little village of Shohola early in the afternoon, going something like twenty-five miles an hour.  We had run a mile or so beyond Shohola when the train came to a stop with a suddenness that hurled me to the ground, and instantly a crash and roar that rivaled the shock of battle rose and filled that quiet valley.  This lasted but a moment.  It was followed by a second or two of awful silence, and then the air was filled by most appalling shrieks and wails and cries of anguish.

“As soon as I recovered from the confusion caused by the shock and the fall, I did not need to be told that our train had met with some frightful mishap.  I hurried forward.  On a curve in a deep cut we had met a heavy-laden coal train, travelling nearly as fast as we were.  The trains had come together with that deadly crash.  The two locomotives were raised high in air, face to face against each other, like giants grappling.  The tended of our locomotive stood erect on one end.  The engineer and fireman, poor fellows, were buried beneath the wood it carried.  Perched on the reared-up end of the tender, high above the wreck, was one of our guards, sitting with his gun clutched in his hands, dead!  The front car of our train was jammed into a space of less than six feet.  The two cars behind it were almost as badly wrecked.  Several cars in the rear of those were also heaped together.

“In a very short time a score of people arrived from the village, and the work of removing the dead and rescuing the wounded began.  There were bodies impaled on iron rods and splintered beams.  Headless trunks were mangled between the telescoped cars.  From the wreck of the head car thirty-seven of the thirty-eight prisoners it contained were taken out dead.  The remaining prisoner was found alive and uninjured, surrounded by debris, like a nut kernel in its shell.  Three of the four guards on the car were also taken out dead.  The fourth one was the one who sat dead on top of the upturned tender.  From the wrecked cars thirty-three of the guards were taken, twenty of whom were dead.  Fifty or more of the prisoners were killed, at least 100 or more wounded, a number of the wounded dying soon after they were removed from the wreck.  The fireman of the coal train was instantly killed.  His engineer escaped by jumping.  The engineer of our train was caught in the awful wreck of his engine, where he was held in plain sight, with his back against the boiler, and slowly roasted to death.  With his last breath he warned away all who went near to try and aid him, declaring that there was danger of the boiler exploding and killing them.  Taken all in all, that wreck was a scene of horror such as few, even in the thick of battle, are ever doomed to be a witness of.  And, as we heard during the day, it was all called by a wrong order given to the engineer of the coal train by a drunken despatcher somewhere up the road.  Id we could have got at him we would have made short shrift of him.

“We were until night getting the dead and wounded out of the wreck and things in shape to proceed on our journey.  A coroner held an inquest, and the dead were all buried in one great trench dug by order of the railroad officials, between the railroad and the river, which was a few hundred yards distant.  The bodies were put into pine boxes, each dead Union soldier having a box to himself.  The dead prisoners were buried four in a box.  We did not get on our way until the next morning, and left many of the wounded at Shohola, taking a number of them with us.”

That frightful accident occurred about 2 P.M., Friday, 15 July 1864.  The cause of the accident was a drunken telegraph operator at Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, four miles west of the scene of the disaster.  His name was Duff Kent. He had been carousing the night before, and was under the influence of liquor at his post when Conductor John Martin, of a coal train that had come in off the Hawley Branch of the Erie, eastbound, asked him if the road was clear for him to go ahead.  Kent said it was, although the train that carried a flag ahead of the extra having the prisoners aboard had left the station on its way west but a short time before, and Kent had been informed that the train bearing the prisoners was on the road.  The train should have left Jersey City at 4:30 A.M., Friday, 15 July, but was delayed an hour or more by the captain of the Union guard returning to the vessel on which the prisoners had been brought from City Point, to look for three of the prisoners who had escaped.

When Conductor Martin got the word from Kent, his train started east.  It consisted of fifty loaded cars.  At King & Fuller’s cut (so called from the contractors who made it), a mile west of Shohola, the train was going at the rate of twelve miles an hour, and in that cut met the extra train, with its load of 833 Confederate prisoners and 150 Union guards, traveling twenty miles an hour.  The cut is a long one, on a curve.   Neither engineer could see the track fifty feet ahead of him.  Neither knew of the other’s presence there until they came face to face.  The engineer of the coal train, Samuel Hoitt, had time to jump from his locomotive.   He escaped with but slight injury.  His fireman, Philo Prentiss, was crushed to death.  The engineer of the passenger train was William Ingram, whose cool bravery in the face of a horrible death is described above by Mr. Evans.  His fireman was Daniel Tuttle.  Both were buried in the debris of the locomotive, the fireman being instantly killed.  G. M. Boyden, a brakeman on the coal train, was also killed.

An inquest was held at Shohola, by Justice Thomas J. Ridgway and a jury.  It exonerated every one from any blame, although the criminal carelessness that had caused the slaughter was well known.  Kent was not molested; but on the very night following the accident, and while scores of his victims lay dead, and while scores more were writhing in agony, he attended a ball at Hawley, and danced until daylight.  Next day, however, he disappeared, the voice of popular indignation becoming ominous, and he never was seen or heard of in that locality again.

The trench in which the dead were buried was seventy-six feet long, eight feet wide, and six deep.  The official report of the killed that were buried places the number at fifty-one Confederates and nineteen Union soldiers.  The wounded, some of whom died later, numbered 123.  This, at that time, was the most horrible and disastrous railroad accident on record.  The common grave of the unfortunate victims was in time washed away by floods, and the bones of those it contained were carried along, year by year, until at last the ground was left tenantless of its dead.

This series of posts will continue in a few days.

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To see all the posts in this series, click on ShoholaTrainWreck.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on The Great Shohola Train Wreck – As Told in the History of the Erie
Tags: Railroad

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 13, 2014

The question of the importance of the location that Elmira, Chemung County, New York, had to the Union war effort can best be answered by examining a regional map from the time period.  The above map is adapted from an 1868 railroad map and shows the major points of interest to a study of the Great Shohola Train Wreck.  Railroads are shown in black lines of various thicknesses to indicate major traveled routes as well as lesser traveled routes.  By clicking on the map, it will enlarge.

Legend:

#1 – Top left corner, is Elmira, New York.  North from Elmira was the route to Canada.  South from Elmira was the route connecting with the Northern Central Railroad which terminated at Baltimore, with connections to Washington, D.C.  East from Elmira was the Erie route which terminated at Jersey City, New Jersey, which is #3 on the map.  Elmira was also the western muster point for New York troops before they headed south to the war.

#2 – Lower left corner, is Harrisburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  Harrisburg was known as the “Crossroads of the Union.”  Harrisburg was also the location of Camp Curtin.

#3 – Center right side, is Jersey City, New Jersey, the location where the steamer Crescent discharged the prisoners and Union guards as they continued on their journey to Elmira.

#4 – To right of center at bottom, is Philadelphia, with rail connections to New York, Harrisburg, Baltimore and Washington, D.C.

#5 – On the route between Jersey City (#3) and Elmira (#1), the location of the Great Shohola Train Wreck.

#6 – On the route between Harrisburg (#2) and Elmira (#1), the location Millersburg, on the Susquehanna River and the Lykens Valley of Dauphin County, through which rail traffic passed on the Northern Central Railroad.

#7 – On the route between Harrisburg (#2) and Elmira (#1), is Sunbury, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

#8 – On the route between Harrisburg (#2) and Elmira (#1) is Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania.

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To see all the posts in this series, click on ShoholaTrainWreck.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on The Great Shohola Train Wreck – The Geographic Context
Tags: Railroad

Posted By Norman Gasbarro on May 12, 2014

David Brown

Previously, in a post entitled David Brown – 177th Pennsylvania Infantry, two photos of David Brown of Pillow, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, were presented.  Now, another photograph has come to light which shows David Brown (1837-1902) later in life with his four grown children:

David Brown is seated in center, between his son John Adam Brown (1865-1902) and wife Catherine “Kate” [Gottshall] Brown (1836-1907).  Standing, left to right, are Charles Monroe Brown (1868-1940), Magdalena “Maggie” Brown (1866-1921), and Sarah J. Brown (1862-1927).

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Samuel E. Brown & Mary Brown

Also found among the family photo collection was a picture of David Brown‘s brother Samuel E. Brown (1844-1911) and his wife Mary.  It is highly probable that this is the same Samuel E. Brown who served in the 210th Pennsylvania Infantry, Company H, as a Private, from 14 September 1864 through honorable discharge on 31 May 1865.  Samuel was an apprentice shoemaker in 1860 and living in the household of Edward Reedy, a master shoemaker in Lykens Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.  At the time, Edward Reedy, one of the sons of Leonard Reedy of Gratz, gunsmith, was married to Sarah Brown, the sister of David Brown and Samuel E. Brown.  Some time after serving in the Civil War, Samuel E. Brown moved to Brookville, Ogle County, Illinois, and from there to Forreston, also in Ogle County.  The Pension Index Card from Fold3 (below) notes that he died in Forreston, Illinois, on 2 February 1911.

Samuel E. Brown is buried at the White Oak Cemetery in Forreston, along with his wife, Nancy A. Brown (see Findagrave) Was this a second wife? The Pension Index Card (above) notes that a widow applied for pension benefits on 8 February 1911.

 The similar record, from Ancestry.com (above) names the widow as Nancy A. Brown.

The 1880 Census for Brookville, has the wife as Mary A. Brown, with two children in the household:  Anna A. Brown, born about 1868; and John W. Brown, born about 1877.  There is no census available for 1890.  However, the 1900 Census for Forreston, has the same children with the wife named as Nancy Brown – and both Samuel and Nancy married for 33 years!  This leans toward the conclusion that Mary and Nancy are the same person.

A second mystery involving Samuel E. Brown centers on his military service.  A record in Bates states that there were two men named Samuel E. Brown who were enrolled in the 210th Pennsylvania Infantry.  The first, named above and verified by the Pension Index Card, served in Company H.  However, there is a second entry for a Samuel E. Brown who served in Company B and who deserted the same day he was mustered into service.  Could this be the same person and a clerical error resulted in him not being properly transferred to Company H?

The Registers of Pennsylvania Volunteers note that on 10 September 1864, a 22-year old Samuel Brown was mustered into Company B and then deserted the same day.  Then, on 14 September 1864, a 20year old Samuel Brown was mustered into Company H, and served until discharge in 1865.  for some insight into the desertions that occurred in the 210th Pennsylvania Infantry, see:  Desertions in Company H – 210th Pennsylvania Infantry.

Category: Research, Resources, Stories | Comments Off on The Brothers David Brown and Samuel E. Brown – Family Photos
Tags: Gratz, Lykens Township, Pillow