Unknown Russian, B & O Trackwalker, Killed at Rawlings A Russian whose name is unknown and who was employed as a trackwalker on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, was killed at Rawlings yesterday morning, having been struck by accommodation train No. 71. The man's neck was broken, His body was brought to the Butler undertaking rooms here yesterday evening. Cumb. News 19th. Keyser Tribune, June 21, 1912 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted August 14, 2010     TRAIN HITS 5 PERSONS Cumberland Md, Aug 18 Baltimore and Ohio passenger train No 14 due in Cumberland at 6 pm struck an outing party of six on the Western Maryland Railway extension one mile west of Frostburg station, near the Borden water station, this afternoon 5:50 o'clock.   The dead are:   Mrs. Carrie Schneider, 27 years old, wife of Oscar Schneider, of Orlando, Fla., who was visiting her sister, Mrs. Morris Wetmore, of Frostburg.   Miss Jennie Schneider, 22 years old.   Miss Bessie Williams, 32 years old.   The injured are:   Miss Edna Raley, 30 years old.   Miss Minnie Schneider, 30 years old.   John Dixon, a machinist of Baltimore, who was with the party, escaped uninjured. He is employed on the new addition to the State Normal School at Frostburg. The party was on an afternoon jaunt and had a camera. Dixon heroically grabbed Miss Bessie Williams, but was too late to save her. The six persons were walking toward Frostburg, returning home, on a curve with their backs toward the approaching train. A freight train had just passed on the west bound track and the party walked over on the eastbound track when it got by. Passenger Engineer Cunningham saw the danger and blew the whistle, but he was speeding about 30 miles an hour and his train was upon them before he could slow down to any extent. Olin Skidmore was walking along the track with a child in his arms. He knew of the danger to the party ahead and he rushed along frantically and succeeded in pulling Miss Raley from the track. The pilot hit her, however, and her skull is fractured and she is injured internally. Mrs. Schneider, a daughter-in-law of Henry Schneider, shoe merchant of Union Street, was a home-coming week visitor. Her husband is expected from Florida tomorrow. Miss Jennie Schneider lived at home with her father, Henry Schneider. The dead women are sisters-in-law and Miss Minnie Schneider, who is injured, is a sister of the dead girl. She is a clerk in her father's store. Miss Bessie Williams was a daughter of Mrs. Helen Williams and the late Thomas J. Williams. He was a clerk in the store of Weinberg & Abramson. Keyser Tribune, August 30, 1912 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted August 8, 2010     Unknowns DAWSON NEWS Feb 21, 1912 A colored girl, an inmate, of the Mineral County Poor House died Friday night of last week, her remains were taken to Piedmont Sat evening for interment. Keyser Tribune, March 1, 1912 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted July 25, 2010     PATTERSON'S CREEK Jan 10, 1912 Another one of Mr Hart's men was killed at Evitts Creek two weeks ago. He was young and boarded at Walter Chaneys. Keyser Tribune, January 12, 1912 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted July 25, 2010     PATTERSON'S CREEK Three Italians were killed Monday night by No 14, it going down on the westbound track, a broken rail on the eastbound track caused them to walk on the opposite track, they were section hands. Al Short, of Green Spring, was their foreman. One man's head was cut off and one had a leg torn from his body, another had his head cut off across the face; this happened at the culvert at Dan's Run. Monday week a man was killed there by the accommodation that he expected to go on to Cumberland. The last man killed was named Murphy and boarded at Walter Cheny's. Keyser Tribune, November 24, 1911 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted July 25, 2010     While eastbound passenger train No 72, on the B&O was coming through the cut below the Bloomington bridge on Sat evening it struck three Italians, killing one out right and badly injuring the other two. It seems that while the two were going up the westbound track when they heard a freight train approaching and stepping out of the way into the path of the accommodation with the above results. Keyser Tribune, January 26, 1912 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted July 25, 2010     DEATH OF AN ITALIAN An Italian who had been working for a Construction Co on the B&O Seventeen Mile grade was injured so severely that he died last Tues. No one knew the whereabouts of his relatives and the body is being held at the Markwood undertaking parlors. Keyser Tribune, November 10, 1911 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted July 25, 2010     Drowned in a Banter While a party of men employed on the construction of the Western Maryland Railway extension were strolling along the banks of the Casselman river near Fort Hill, they challenged one of their number, an Italian, to swim across the river, so in the attempt to win a $5 bet, he plunged in the water and tried hard to reach the opposite bank, but all was in vain and he was drowned. Keyser Tribune, October 20, 1911 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted July 25, 2010     Drowned in Reservoir An Italian who had been working on the T. M. & P. R. R. near Town Spring, was drowned in the new reservoir last Friday afternoon. He had wounded a duck which was floating on the lake. Thinking that the bottom sloped gradually he, though unable to swim, waded in after the fowl. He suddenly stepped over a precipice into water that is twenty feet deep and drowned before aid could reach him. His body was gotten out by means of a grab hook about ten o'clock that night, and taken to Markwood's undertaking parlors and from there will be buried in the Catholic cemetery, of Keyser, tomorrow. Keyser Tribune, October 6, 1911 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted July 25, 2010 PATTERSON'S CREEK July 24, 1911 Another Italian was killed by falling at round Bottom last week. Keyser Tribune, August 4, 1911 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted July 25, 2010   CAVANAUGH, Prof. Clarence MIDLAND Prof. Clarence Cavanaugh yesterday experienced the fickleness of an oil stove with which he heats his handsome music room in the Ward building. Mr. Cavanaugh having business out of his room for a short while yesterday. Carefully adjusted the burner of his heat producer with the hope of keeping his room comfortable and went about his way. Returning within twenty minutes, he was unpleasantly surprised to find his handsome studio a mass of smoke and soot, caused by the unfaithful oil stove, which resulted in ruining the many valuable articles in the room, consisting of music, cabinet statues, books, carpets, curtains and everything so completely and tastefully arranged in the room. The exact loss is not known at the present. The Evening Times - Cumberland, Maryland - Tuesday - December 12, 1905 - Page 2 (Courtesy of Bob Thompson) Posted July 25, 2010     GRADY, L. C. L C Grady, set a trap gun in his barn at Parksley, VA to catch the man writing notes to his daughter, and a negro messenger was killed. NEWS TRIBUNE,  FEBRUARY 24, 1911 (Courtesy of Patti McDonald) Posted July 25, 2010     JACKSON, Henry Former Area Man In Crash: Keyser - Both the Associated Press and United Press International last night, listed H. Jackson of Piedmont as one of the 63 passengers on a Pan-American World Airways Boeing 707 which plunged into a rice paddy in Calcutta, India.  The plane caught fire and 57 persons survived. Henry Jackson is the husband of Phyllis Athey Jackson who formerly lived with her mother Mrs. Olivia Athey at 434 South Water Street, here. Mrs. Athey said she received word from Mr. Jackson that he is all right and survived the crash without injury. Mr. Jackson is a government career employee and has traveled throughout the world for the past 15 or more years.  He and his wife and daughter spent the last three years in the Philippines. The wife and daughter, Mrs. Athey said, were en route home from the Philippines while Mr. Jackson was en route to another assignment.  Mrs. Jackson and her daughter were scheduled to arrive in Keyser last night. Mrs. Athey said she talked to her daughter on the phone from Washington yesterday morning and had advised her that Mr. Jackson was in the crash but was all right. The Jackson's 17 year old daughter graduated from high school in the Philippines just before they left there, Mrs. Athey said. Cumberland Evening times, 14 June 1968: (Courtesy of Lee Deetz Fasnacht) Posted July 3, 2010     Three Deaths in Dwelling Fire LaHUE, Fred; MALONE, Michael [later mentioned as (unnamed) DUGGAN]; McGRAW, Michael "Harrison, W. Va.: As a result of the destruction of a frame dwelling house of James O'Brien, Harrison, W. Va., by fire Christmas Eve, the bodies of three men, believed to be Michael Malone (reported later as Duggan), Michael McGraw and Fred Lahue, were found in the ruins. O'Brien, it is said, was intoxicated and it is thought upset the stove. Malone was an aged man and retired early..." "Cumberland Evening Times" Cumberland, Maryland, 27 Dec 1909 (Courtesy of Shawn McGreevy) Posted January 10, 2010     ECHO OF A GREAT MINE CALAMITY Pathetic Letter From Child of One of the Victims. ILEEN HERMANN'S GRIEF. Lots of Flowers for Pap's Grave.  Will Be Lonesome This Christmas Without Him - Message to Little Friends at Monongah. A year ago yesterday, December 6, the terrible accident in Monongah mine near Fairmont, W. Va., occurred and John Hermann, formerly of Eckhart Mines, was one of the many victims.  His family returned to the old home where they have since resided.  The Fairmont Times, of Saturday, has the following interesting little story relating to the disaster. Coming as an echo to remind us that the first anniversary of the greatest of all local horrors is close upon us is a letter addressed to "Mr. Paper Man," Fairmont, W. Va.," and from little nine-year old Ileen Herman, whose father, John Herman, was one of the Monongah victims.  She in her childish simplicity of manner, asks us to allow her space in which to reach her little chums at Monongah and to tell them how she and her mother, brother, and sister, miss their father, whose life was snuffed out with that of his fellow workers in the terrible disaster. It is her first letter, she writes and it shows that the greatest of all sorrows which follow such calamities is the loss of the parent, felt by the widow and her little flock.  Pathetic in the extreme is where Ileen tells about keeping the grave of her father strewn with flowers.  She has a little brother buried at Monongah and she appeals to her former playmates to put flowers on the little mound "just like you do the graves of your papas."  Here is the letter: "Eckhart, Md., Dec. 3 Dear Mr. Paper Man- Will you put my letter in the paper so all my chums will read it.  I want to tell that that Sunday is a year since our papas were all killed.  I will never forget the 6th day of December, 1907. Our papa was good to us and we miss him.  Won't it be lonesome this Christmas?  We are going to have a tree but we won't have our poor Papa to help Santa Claus to help him this time.  Mama wil have to help him this time.  Will all of you have a tree? We will not get candy here like in Monogah last Christmas.  We are going to school, but they have no tree.  Willie he did work on the Company farm and gets 75 cents a day.  He works all day.  Santa is going to send me and Stella a doll, Willie a pair of skates and James Reidy a tedy[sic] Bear.  Our baby is called after Dr. Reidy.  He will be one year old a year and a week after the explosion.  Doctor brought him to us to work for Papa.  We put lots of flowers on Papa's grave and it is a better gravyard[sic] than at Monongah.  Did they get all of your papas? We are very near the mines here and when Mama hears the blasts she get scared.  Mrs. Hesse gave us lots of new dresses, when we came here, and Mama says she is very thankful to everybody for their kinness[sic] to her. My Papa's name was John Herman.  He was killed in No. Six Monongah mine.  I will tell you a sad story, little boys and girls, about all the Hermans.  Uncle Jake's wife died first, then his baby and then our Papa.  Then Uncle Frank and his wife died inside the same years.  Uncle Jake has six children.  Uncle Frank four and there are four of us.  That is a lot of cousins who have got no Mama.  We have a little brother dead in a Monongah cemetery.  Will some one of you put some flowers on his little grave just like you do on your papa's graves? Me and Stella are going to school.  Willie will go when it get[sic] too cold.  He likes to work but will never work in the mines.  There is no snow here, is there any out there?  We used to slay-ride down by the Ruckmans and the Deans.  When it snows here will "slay-ride" down the pike. This is all. Good-bye.  Lots of fun and a happy Christmas to all from                                                                                                           ILEEN HERMAN                            Eckhart Mines, Allegany Co., Md." The Cumberland Evening Times, December 7, 1908 (transcribed as written ~ Genie) See "Mine Explosion"  for details of Monongah Mine catastophe, the worst mining disaster in American history. For a short video regarding this mining disaster, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4244458261387667011#     Three Injured In Explosions In Home, Mine                    Garrett County Woman and Daughter Badly Hurt When Dynamite Cap Is Discharged "Three persons, all residents of Garrett county, are in Memorial Hospital today, as a result of dynamite explosions yesterday and last night. All were reported "somewhat improved" today, but are in serious condition. Mrs. Anna Friend, 38, wife of C. Andrew Friend, and her daughter, Christina, aged nine, were injured last night at their home near Deer Park, when a dynamite cap exploded in the home while the mother was looking for a needle. Carrying a lamp, she was searching in a large box when the dynamite cap exploded. She suffered severe injuries about the hands and abdomen, while the child, who had been standing nearby, was injured about the face. Both were taken to an Oakland physician and removed to the local hospital in an ambulance. The woman's husband is a timberman. Clyde Shaffer, 24, of Freeport, was taken to the hospital following a dynamite explosion yesterday afternoon in the mine of the Nordeck Coal Company, ten miles from Oakland, where he is employed. It was reported that Shaffer had set a small charge to dislodge a coal seam and started to investigate when it did not go off within the regular period of time. As he was bending over, the dynamite exploded, and he was hurled several yards. Shaffer suffered injuries about the face and shoulders. He was treated at the office of Dr. Clift P. Berger in Oakland and removed here in an ambulance." Source: The Cumberland Evening Times; Cumberland, Maryland; May 10, 1940; page 13. (Courtesy of Wendy Mammoliti)