The Deadliest Train Wreck In Milton - June 15, 1945

At 1:08 am on June 15 1945, an "ore train", 103 freight cars, was moving east, when one of it's cars buckled  throwing a number of the heavily loaded cars onto the west-bound track, in the area near the former Milton Airport, or slightly south of where the Cameron house in Milton sits.

Just a minute later, before crew members could possibly set up a warning signal, A 14 car passenger train, the Washington to Buffalo Express, approached the same area

. The Express crashed into the freight train at 55 miles per an hour, knocking 20 freight cars from the tracks and pulling seven cards behind it off the rails.

Two express cars and a postal car plunged off the tracks behind the engine. The number four car, a passenger-baggage combination, nosed into the earth. The next coach telescoped the combination car. 

The mail car, was thrown into the air and landed approximately 50 feet in front of the wrecked locomotive. The six mail clerks miraculously escaped injury. 

A.P. Shearer was one of the clerks in the post office car.  As he limped around the scene that morning, a reporter asked him what had happened. Shearer replied:

"What happened to me? you try and tell me you can do it almost as easily.  We hit something, and hit is quick, that's all I know.  I can remember being jolted to the side, then the rood.  Then the floor, and I don't know where else.  Believe me, I was lucky.  DO you see where our car is, clear up here ahead of the locomotive?  Well, it was 3rd in line on the train. We went right over the top of the others, and believe me, it was a ride."

Nearly 50 others were not as fortunate.  Seventeen people died in the initial wreck, and 32 were injured.  Of the injured, only 30 recovered, bringing the total dead to 19.

"The mail clerks, none even slight injured, stepped from the car and assisted in removing the injured and dead from the wreckage."

June 15: “Williamsport, Pa., June 15. (AP)–At least 17 persons were killed and 32 injured early today when the 34th car of a freight train jumped the tracks and fell on adjoining tracks ahead of an onrushing Washington-Buffalo passenger train.

C.E. Gamble, front brakeman, said they were careful as they approached Milton, as they knew train 581 had just stopped for milk cans, and that they would follow the 581 at least to WIlliamsport.  But they got no signal as they passed, and had no indication there was a problem ahead.

"A few seconds later came the crash.  The passenger end of my car went up in the air as the car behind shoveled under it.  I thought at first we had fun into the 581, but that didn't seem possible, as Stratton, our engineer, was one of the best on the road.  There were 12 people int eh car, and three were carried out dead or dying. I heard afterward that there was a fourth.  If the car had not been all steel, none of us would be alive."

"There was a hole knocked in the car through which I got to the top of another car, then to the ground.  I went to the Reading Crossover tower a quarter mile ahead to call for help.  Others went down the airport road to the airport."

When Milton Had An Airport - https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/05/when-milton-had-airport-milton-flying.html

“More than 200 persons were shaken up when the locomotive and the first six cars of the passenger train were derailed at Milton. Many of the passengers were trapped in the wreckage, where they remained until freed by railroad crews. Officials said 21 cars of the freight also left the track. Acetylene torches were being used to cut the passenger coaches and extricate bodies. Officials it would be at least several hours before all the dead were released and ‘maybe longer before they are identified.’

Rescue workers covered the bodies of the dead still in the debris with sheets, while workmen used acetylene torches to reach the dead and to free two of the injured trapped in the wreckage.

Thousands of baby chicks were released by the smashing of an express car, many of them being picked up by survivors.

Pfc. Lester Calvert, who was traveling to the Buffalo area, told the United Press that the crash was louder than anything he had heard on the European battlefields.  The private anxiously watched as the luggage was removed from the wreckage, and breathed a sigh of relief when his duffel was located, undamaged.  It contained $8,500 in war bonds.  

A group of three Milton women, Mrs Dorothy McDowell, Mrs Bessie Yocum, and Mrs D. E. Klinetob were on the scene early with a canteen.  They dispensed hot coffee, sandwiches, and canned baked beans and wieners donated by Chef Boyardee to the uninjured passenger and crewmen, and those who helped with the rescues.

Approximately 50 Civilian Defense members from Milton, along with about 75 servicemen riding the train assisted in the rescue work.

Dale Ranck's Henny Packard Hearse, on the scene

Mrs Cheslock, from Shamokin Pa,  was planning to make a surprise visit to her sister Mrs Gromsky, in Detroit.  She was traveling with Miss Adelle Leonard, and the two women had inteded to leave Wednesday night.  But when they arrived at the station to board the express, they could not open the trunk of the car to retrieve their luggage.  They ended up missing their train, and returning to Shamokin for the night.  The next night they returned to try again, and this time, unfortunately, they were able to board the train in time.   Miss Leonard was injured in the crash, Mrs Cheslock was killed.

The  list  of the dead continually changed, and evolved, each day.  I'm still not certain I have a completely accurate list, but here is what I could find:

The name of Nellie Beaumont of Washington DC originally appeared on the list of the dead, however Miss Beaumont was not on the train.  

Miss Kathleen Quirk, nineteen from Smethport PA was previously listed as killed, but turned up at her home.  Her father had looked through the window of a wrecked coach  and saw a girl whom he thought was his daughter - but apparently he was mistaken.

One of the railroad employees killed, N.E. Graeff, was not the first in his family to be killed in a train accident.  In 1908,  his father, Edward J. Graeff,  was also killed in a wreck when the train he was piloting plunged from a bridge into a creek near Bellefonte, on the Lewisburg & Tyrone Branch.  Edward may have survived, but his arm was trapped and he did not want rescuers to cut it off.  The water rose around the train and he was drowned.  https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/04/1908-lewisburg-tyrone-railroad-wreck-at.html

A soldier from Buffalo New York was returning home after spending 21/2 years in a German prison camp.  The family was waiting at the central terminal to welcome him home, only to be told he had been killed in the Dominion Express wreck.

 In 1908, Edward J. Graeff, father of the deceased engineer, was also killed in a wreck when the train he was piloting plunged from a bridge into a creek near Bellefonte, on the Lewisburg & Tyrone Branch. https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/04/1908-lewisburg-tyrone-railroad-wreck-at.html

The Last Two Identified:

June 16: “Milton, (AP) — Pennsylvania Railroad officials continued their search for clues to the identities of two of the 19 persons killed yesterday in a freak collision here between a Washington-to-Buffalo express and freight train. A woman with a wedding ring engraved ‘FEC to ARF, 10-20-41’ and a soldier whose clothing bore only a laundry mark were the only persons still unidentified, a railroad spokesman said"

1. PFC Henry Langiewicz, Buffalo NY 
2. Miss Anna Rose Cius Buffalo NY 

Langiewicz had originally been thought to be a Canadian Soldier, named Ostrander, as some of Ostranders personal effects and part of a canadian uniform had been found near the body.  However, it later was found that a representative from the railroad had interviewed Ostrander just a few hours after the wreck, on Friday morning.  The army traced the identity through a laundry mark, and later through fingerprints, confirming that the dead man was PFC Henry Langiewicz, Buffalo NY

The identity of Miss Anna Rose Cius was established when her father read a newspaper account detailing the crash, and describing her ring.  Upon contacting the railroad, the description further confirmed her identity.

Bell From 1945 Crash In Milton Model Train Museum

Bob Izer (Right) presents the bell from the 1945 train crash to Ray Leeser, for the Milton Model Train Museum Collection

Dr Martin, a well known Milton Physician at the time of the crash, obtained the bell from one of the trains, from the railroad company.  When Dr Martin learned that one of those who had died in the train crash, Adelaide Swallow, had been a classmate of Anastasia Izer at the East Stroudsburg State Teachers College, he gave the bell to Mrs Izer.

Today, the bell can be seen in the Milton Model Train Museum.

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Find More History & Stories Of Milton Here:

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And more Local History From Surrounding Towns Here:
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A List Of Those Who Died In The Crash

1. Pvt. WILLIAM T. CHRISTOFF, 19 Penn avenue, Ridgway, Pa.
2. MRS. FRANCIS CHESLOCK, 1312 Hemlock street, Shamokin, Pa.
3. N. E. GRAEFF, fireman, Harrisburg, Pa. **
4. R. C. STRATTON, engineer, 1414 Market street, Camp Hill, Pa.
5. A. R. HOVERTER, brakeman, Harrisburg, Pa.
6. MRS. CATHERINE ENNES, London, Ont., Canada.
7. DOROTHY REYNOLDS, member of the Women's Army corps (no address).
8. Pfc. HERBERT E. SWAN, 135 Orland street, Buffalo.
9. ELDRED P. BOLAND, 249 Tremont street, North Tonawanda.
10. EDWARD J. SEIBERT, 282 Berkshire avenue, Buffalo.
11. WILLIAM A. LAWRENCE, 479 Walck road, North Tonawanda.
12. MRS. W. D. BUTLER, Truemansburg.
13. MRS. H. E. SAYLOR, P. O. Box 54, Montezuma.
14. MISS ADELAIDE SWALLOW, Painted Post, N. Y.
15. *Pvt. William R. Christoff, Ridgway PA
16. *Mrs Catherine Innes, Loneong Ontario
17. PFC Henry Langiewicz, Buffalo NY 
18. Miss Anna Rose Cius Buffalo NY FEC to ARF 10 20 41

* Originally on the list of injured, Pvt. William R. Christoff, Ridgway PA, Mrs Catherine Innes, Loneong Ontario, died of their injuries, at the hospital

** In 1908, Edward J. Graeff, father of the deceased engineer, was also killed in a wreck when the train he was piloting plunged from a bridge into a creek near Bellefonte, on the Lewisburg & Tyrone Branch. https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/04/1908-lewisburg-tyrone-railroad-wreck-at.html

The injured included: (partial list)

Sunbury community hospital - MRS. MIRIAM MACMURRAY, 38, 639 Lloyd street, Williamsport, Pa.; MRS. RALPH MARSHALL, 833 W. Third street, Williamsport, Pa.; Pvt. EDWARD CRAIG, 751 95th street, Niagara Falls; MISS MIRIAM HOEN, twenty, 18 Merremac, Buffalo; DORIS LARKIN, twenty, 73 Chamberlain drive, Buffalo, discharged.

Geisinger Memorial hospital, Danville, Pa. -- JOHN ROHR, thirty-two, 1315 Harlan road, Cheektowaga; DONALD MORRISON, thirty-nine, 718 DuBois street, Elmira; Cpl. RICHARD MEYERS, South Creek road, Hamburg, discharged.

Lewisburg Pa. Evangelical hospital - FRED BONNAT, twenty-nine, 62 Central avenue, Hamburg; FRANK MERCKLENCY, 1436 East Delaware avenue, Buffalo, discharged.

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