1894 NJ Train Wreck

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western train wreck of 1894 is largely forgotten today, but claimed at least 14 lives, 4 of which were from the Somerset Hills.

The wreck occurred Jan. 15, 1894 at 8:20 am in the Hackensack meadows just west of the tunnels that go under Jersey City toward Hoboken, NJ.  Three cars of the Dover express were rear-ended and crushed by a train out of South Orange. Many of the dead and injured were Gladstone branch passengers because two cars from Gladstone were joined to the Dover express at Summit.

The reporting of the dead and injured in newspapers over the next days was chaotic and names were often garbled.  Known dead from the Somerset Hills included:

William J. Turner (1858-1894) of Basking Ridge who was a bookkeeper for Field, Chanler & Seymour.  He left a wife and four children and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Basking Ridge.  His grandson Kenneth A. Turner became president of the Basking Ridge Historical Society (now THSSH).

Edmund Kinsey (1855-1894) of Bernardsville is buried a few yards from William Turner, both gravestones bear the sad Jan. 15, 1894 death date.  Edmund was also married and was a father of two.  An inscription on the stone reads “Dearest Papa thou has left us and thy loss we deeply mourn.”

Edward M. Clark (b. 1858), died of his injuries on Jan. 25, 1894 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Hoboken.  Clark manufactured agricultural equipment on Madisonville Road near where the county club now is.  He had come to Madisonville in 1893 from Brooklyn.  He left two children and a wife, Lillian, who after his death sold the Madisonville property. Clark was buried at Rockville Centre on Long Island.

William E. Barcliff (b. 1877) of Gladstone was burned by steam from the locomotive and died of injuries Jan. 27, 1894.  He was buried in Holy Name Cemetery, Jersey City.

The injured from the Somerset Hills were reported as:
• Ernest H. Schafer, fractured thigh, Basking Ridge. This may have been Ernest H. Shafer (1874-1958), a lifelong resident of Basking Ridge.
• Harry S. Cornish, 28, Basking Ridge, a director of the Fort Morris Land and Improvement Co.
• Rev. Nicholas Bowers (d. 1908), Lyons.

A Dr. John or James Doty of Basking Ridge was first listed as dead, but then dropped from list.  James Doty, M.D., of Basking Ridge died in 1903 “after long illness of paralysis.”  He was buried in Evergreen in Basking Ridge.

As a result of a coroner’s jury investigation, an improved signal system was installed along the line.  The railroad accepted responsibility for the crash and settled all claims for injury and death out of court.