Frederick Lyons Loomis was born in Hallstead, Pennsylvania, on August 10, 1886.
He was the son of Samuel Pettingill Loomis who was born in Sanford, New York on October 5, 1840 and Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis who was born in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania on April 22, 1855.
Fred was baptized Presbyterian on January 29, 1889 in Hallstead, Pennsylvania.
Surviving him besides his widow, Elsie A. Tobey-Loomis, was one son, Herbert Ellis Loomis, and his mother, Mrs. Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis, of Hallstead.
Fred was predeceased by his father Samuel Pettingill Loomis.
On May 20, 1925, Fred married divorcee Coral Evelyn Corey in Jermyn, Pennsylvania. Information was obtained from Lackawanna County PA Marriage License Collection.
Coral was not mentioned in any obituaries at the time. Coral was previously married to Horace Levine Beehler who died in 1944. They had married in 1897.
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A porter who was also on board the ill-fated train with Fred was Oscar O.J. Daniels. OJ, as he was known, helped save many lives before he perished. He was a hero.
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"Loomis Dies at Post
In the wrecked engine, buried beneath twisted coaches, could be seen the bodies of Loomis, his hand still in the throttle, and of his fireman.
Those who reached the wreck first could see the body of Fred Loomis, the engineer, his hand on the throttle together with his firemen
Fred Loomis, the engineer, was thirty-eight years old, and had been in the employ of the Lackawanna for the past eighteen years as a fireman and engineer. A giant in stature, he was one of the most powerful men, physically, in this city.
He was born in Hallstead, Pennsylvania, where he started his railroad career.
Mr. Loomis was a member of the Scranton Forest, No. 78, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, and other Mason orders.
Surviving him, besides his widow, Elsie A. Tobey-Loomis, one son. Herbert Ellis, and his mother, Mrs. Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis, of Hallstead.
At 12:01 a.m. on June 16, Engineer Fred Loomis took over the controls of Lackawanna Engine No. 1104 and the train set off on the last leg of the trip through the Pocono Mountains, crossing the Delaware River near the Delaware Water Gap, and then east into New Jersey.
The train had been scheduled to travel via the Lackawanna Cut-Off, but because of freight traffic on the line the towerman at Slateford Junction rerouted the special over the Old Road of the Lackawanna, an alternate route that was to take the train through the New Jersey towns of Washington, and Hackettstown, before rejoining the main line near Lake Hopatcong. The rerouting of these types of trains on this section of the railroad under these circumstances was not unusual.
The dead engineer of the train had been identified as Fred Loomis, of 1131 Amherst Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
He, along with the fireman, Carl Haen, and the head train master, James Scanlon, of Scranton, were crushed underneath the engine.
"Fred Loomis, the engineer, Charles J. Haen, fireman, and James F. Scanlon, trainman, met instant death.
Nathaniel J. Banker, conductor, was fatally burned and died in the Easton Hospital at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
The bodies were brought to this city on the Lackawanna train No. 7. arriving in this city at 11:22 o'clock last night."
All were veteran railroad men and valued and trustworthy employes. The railroad officially attributes the wreck to the fact that the train encountered an avalanche of mud and dirt which had slid down over the tracks during the storm of the night before."
Scranton Republican ~ Page 1 and 14
Scranton, Pennsylvania Page 14
Wednesday, June 17, 1925
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"THUNDERSTORM CLOGGED A SWITCH WITH SAND CAUSING A DERAILMENT.
Hackettstown, N.J., June 16. -- (UP) -- At least 27 persons had died up to 2:30 p.m., today as a result of the worst accident on an American railway in recent months.
The wreck occurred near Hackettstown, when an excursion train from Chicago, carrying a party of Germans from the middlewest to New York, where they were to embark today for Germany, plunged into a switch which had been clogged with debris during last night's rain and electrical storm.
Three cars and the engine rolled over while steam pipes burst and sprayed with live steam dozens of passengers.
Six dead were taken from the wreckage; 16 others died in a hospital at Easton, Pa.; one died enroute to a hospital; and four died in a hospital at Dover, N.J.; all from injuries and most of them from burns.
Approximately fifty persons were injured while a score of others received first aid treatment on the scene.
The accident occurred during a heavy thunderstorm that had clogged a switch with sand and other debris. The engine plunged down an embankment and was buried beneath three cars.
Coming from the west, the train was crowded with emigrants who were to take a boat at New York for Germany today.
The injured were taken in ambulances and private automobiles to the Easton, Pennsylvania hospital.
The engineer, fireman, and a brakeman were among those reported killed.
The scene of the wreck is in an isolated section. Farmers living in the neighborhood heard the crashing of the cars above the noise of the storm. Investigating, they found men, women, and children many painfully injured, vainly trying to extricate relatives or friends from the tangled, smoldering wreckage.
Several bodies were removed after daylight from the wreckage of the first coach.
Scores of volunteers arrived and assisted in the search for victims who may have been imprisoned as the cars tumbled in a heap.
The switch at which the wreck occurred was broken and a portion of it was bent and stood straight up. After it was derailed the engine bumped along the ties for 20 feet and then dived over the embankment, dragging three cars after it.
One doctor said the death list would be greatly augmented as many of those scalded could not possibly recover.
Those persons were in the first three cars, which filled with steam from broken pipes on the wrecked engine which lay a smoking mass of twisted steel, at the bottom of the heap of wreckage.
Nearing its destination, the train was forging ahead at a fast pace through the blinding storm when the accident occurred. His vision hampered by the pouring rain, the engineer was leaning far out of his cab to keep an eye on the gleaming rails ahead. Lightning flashed with stage-like frequency to an accompaniment of booming thunder.
Suddenly the cars swerved as the wheels dropped from the slippery rails on to the ties. Men, women and children were hurled from their seats. The engine plunged nose first into the rocky border of the roadbed.
Three cars piled up on top of it. Broken pipes of the engine spurted scalding steam on helpless victims as they struggled vainly to extricate themselves from the tangled metal. Women and children were trampled in the mad stampede for safety. Passengers broke through windows, jagged with shattered glass.
At daylight, steam still poured from the broken pipes of the engines, but the wreckage had not taken fire. Railroad workers and volunteers searched the debris, removed six bodies and fifty other victims, some of the latter so seriously injured or scalded that they may die. A score of others were given first aid treatment.
16 MORE HAVE DIED.
Easton, Pa., June 16 -- (UP) -- Sixteen of the 38 persons injured in the train wreck at Rockport, New Jersey have died since admittance to the Easton hospital this morning, physicians reported at noon.
They are:
MARY ZINK, 28.
HELEN WAGNER, 9.
MARTIN HELNIG, JR., 10.
PHILLIP SCHUSTER, 13.
An unidentified girl, 3 years old, and an unidentified woman.
All are from Chicago.
Both of HELNIG'S parents are in the hospital.
EDWIN BRUNNER
MARTIN HELNIG, SR., father of MARTIN HELNIG, JR., who died this morning.
LOUISE TROKIE
ANTONIO ERNST
MRS. BRUNDICI
MRS. ELIZABETH WUNGELMEIN
Two unidentified women.
One unidentified man aged about 40.
One unidentified boy.
The following died in the Dover, N.J. hospital.
GEORGE TAULER, address unknown.
MRS. AUGUSTA ISINAN, Chicago.
MRS. AUGUSTA BERNHARDT, Chicago.
MRS. BARBARA FAHRNER, Chicago.
In addition to those dead in the Easton hospital, the following were among the six bodies taken from the wreckage of the train.
Fireman (unreadable)
(unreadable)
(unreadable)
FREDERICK LOOMIS, engineer, of Scranton, Pa.
The Injured:
W. L. KENNEY, Buffalo, N.Y.
MR. and MRS. EDWIN BRUNNER and their three children.
MRS. ELIZABETH WUNGELMEIN
IRENE WUNGELMEIN, 9, daughter.
MR. and MRS. CHARLES SAYER
MRS. ANTONIO ERNEST
MRS. ELSIE HELNIG
OSCAR J. DAVID
REINHOLD TELSCHKE
MRS. JOSEPHINE SCHMIDT
HELEN KERLING
MRS. JEANNETTE FERGUSON
HENRY STEFFINS
JOSEPH LA FORGE
RUDOLPH TOTOHE
MR. and MRS. GRUNDER
MR. and MRS. PAUL BERNHARDT
CHARLES STOCK
CLARA NESTLEBERGER
MRS. HULDA STAEHNKE
PHILIP SHUSTER
WILLIAM MUENCHENNEN
MRS. GUNDA ROTERMAN
JOHN HEIGEL
MRS. SOPHIA FINNENGER
MARTIN HELNIG
At Hospitals
Morristown, N.J.
MISS BARBARA FARNER, severe burns.
MISS F. BREICHNER, scalded severely.
MRS. ANA MEYERS, badly scalded.
At Warren Hospital, Phillipsburg.
MRS. CAROLINE HOWE
JOHN HANSEN
MRS. LOUISE KAUFFMAN
CLEMONS SCHMIDT
MIKE GETTNER
JOHN NEIMANN
MRS. CATHERINE WYAT
JOHN IRICH
The following injured are in the Dover, N.J. hospital.
MRS. A. BERNHARDT, So. Highland, Chicago.
MRS. KATHERINE HARLING, Chicago.
CARL GANTZ, Chicago.
HANS FOSKE, Chicago.
JOHN ERNICEKITZ, address unknown.
KATHERINE WILGERMEIN, Chicago.
HENRY KARLING
JOSEPH SAUER
MR. TOTZKE
JOSEPH WINTER
MRS. THEODORE JUERGENSEN
CLARA BERNHARDT
RUDOLPH TROSKE
MRS. EMMA RODERNING
JOHN HEIGEL
MRS. WAGNER
JOSEPH SCHMIDT
One unidentified woman.
All are from Chicago.
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CHICAGO GERMANS
Chicago, Ill., June 16. -- (UP) -- Passengers on the Lackawanna train that was wrecked near Rockport, New Jersey early today were members of an excursion party of Chicago Germans according to the Neumanns shipping agents, in charge of the tour. The party was made up of individuals and small family groups, Neumanns' officials said.
Sterling Daily Gazette Illinois 1925-06-16
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Rockport, NJ Train Disaster, June 1925
List of Injured; Survivor Storie
36 Die; 71 Hurt as Train Wrecks
Victims Are Tortured by Steam Scald
Coach Piles on Coach in Fatal Heap on Lackawanna.
Was Special Train
Prosperous Former Immigrants, En Route Abroad, Victims.
By the Associated Press
Hackettstown, N.J., June 16.-Thirty-six are dead, thirty-six in a critical condition and at least thirty-five more are suffering from injuries received early Tuesday, when four cars and the engine of a seven-car special train on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad were derailed and piled upon one another at Rockport, two miles west of here.
One hundred and eighty-two passengers, emigrants of a former day, who had become prosperous in the great corn belt and were on their way to visit homelands across the sea, were hurled into the maelstrom of death and injury as coach pounded upon coach and scalding steam from the bursting engine tortured the victims.
The train left Buffalo, N.Y., Monday at 6 p.m. The train’s entry into New Jersey was heralded by a violent thunderstorm, a storm that weighed a gavel over the tracks at the Rockport crossing, into which the train plunged as it gained momentum for the rise ahead.
Engine is Derailed.
The engine plowed over the ties for 150 yards before it struck a switch and left the tracks.
Two day coaches and a Pullman were piled on top the engine as it toppled over. One other Pullman car was derailed and three remained upright.
By automobile, special train and ambulance the injured were taken to Easton (Pa.) General Hospital the Warren County Hospital at Phillipsburg, Morristown Memorial Hospital at Morristown and Dover General Hospital at Dover.
Eighteen of those taken to Easton are dead. Morristown reported two deaths. Dover five and seven bodies are in the morgue at Hackettstown.
Gives the Alarm.
August Fox was the first man on his feet after the wreck, followed by Henry Steffens, 60; Carl Engle and Reinhart Tscheke, all of Chicago, and all more or less injured. They labored heroically until help arrived from Hackettstown, pulling dead and injured from the twisted steel cars.
Riding above the rumble and thunder and lashing of the storm the crash of the wreck awakened Mrs. Duncan Dunn, who lives at the State game farm, about 500 yards distant. She communicated with Hackettstown over badly crippled wires, arousing physicians, who in turn sent emergency calls to surrounding hospitals. All the dead and injured, with the exception of the train crew are from Chicago and vicinity.
Death List.
The dead include:
GEORGE TAULE, Chicago.
MRS. AUGUSTA ISIMAN, Chicago.
JACOB SCANLON, trainman of Easton.
FRED LOOMIS, engineer, Scranton, Pa.
CARL HAEN, fireman, Scranton, Pa.
A young girl and two unidentified women.
HELEN WAGNER, 9.
MARTIN HENIG JR., 12.
FRANK BENDICH, 50.
MARY CINK, 40.
MRS. ANTONIO BERNHARDT
MRS. BARBARA SAHRNER
MRS. BARBARA FARMER
MRS. GEORGE BRECKNER.
MRS. ANTHONY ERNST
MRS. LOUIS TRIKE
MARTIN HENIG SR.
EDWIN BRUNNER JR.
MRS. WILGEMINER
PHILIP SHUSTER
Among the seriously injured all from Chicago and Elkton, Ill., in the Easton, Pa., hospital are Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Brunner and their three children, Mrs. Elizabeth Wungelmeindt and 9-year-old daughter. Irene; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Sauer, Antonio Ernst, Mrs. Elsie Henig, Oscar L. David, Reinhold Teskhe, Mrs. Josephine Schmidt, Helen Kerling, Mrs. Janette Ferguson, Henry Steffins, Joseph Laforge, Rudolph Totche, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Bernhardt, Mrs. Mary Zink, Charles Stock, Mrs. Theodore Ernst, Clara Nestleberger, Mrs. Hilda Staehnke, Phillip Schuster, William Muenckenhen, Mrs. Gun Rotterman, John Niegel, Mrs. Sophie Finninger and Martin Heineg.
Injured at Morristown included: Mrs. Barbara Farmer, Mrs. F. Beechneer and Mrs. Annie Myers, all of Chicago.
The critically injured at Dover General Hospital include: Catherine Wilgermein, Mrs. Catherine Kerling, Carl Gantz and Hans Toske.
Survivors Set Sail.
By The Associate Press.
New York, June 16.-Eager to see their homeland again but shaken and saddened by the train wreck which claimed fifty-seven of their companions in dead and injured, 125 Germans from the west sailed Tuesday on the U.S. liner Republic from Hoboken.
Rescued from the horror which ensued when their special train from Chicago was wrecked before dawn near Rock Port, N.J., survivors of the homeward bound party were rushed to Hoboken in another special.
All had graphic tales to tell of their experiences while the liner waited for possible late additions to the fortunate saved.
To Mrs. E.B. Haaker of Park Ridge, Ill., a trained nurse who was on the train, many owe their lives. With her first aid kit Mrs. Haaker set up an impromptu hospital in the observation car. Mrs. Lackin R. Deue and Mrs. Freda Metzger of Chicago assisted her.
Trained Nurse Heroine.
Mrs. Haaker was traveling with her husband and a friend. Frederick Oberheid of Chicago. All three were awakened by the crash and by the screams of a member of the train crew who ran through the rear cars with terribly scalded hands, screaming, “For God’s sake, somebody help me!”
Still in her night clothing Mrs. Haaker dressed the man’s hands while her husband and Oberheld hurried ahead, improvised stretchers and brought many of the injured to the observation car. Sheets were torn up for use as bandages and the emergency hospital force worked for hours to relieve the agony of the scalded.
“I could hear, it seemed, a thousand people screaming,” said Mr. Haaker in describing the crash, “and, through their voices, the roar of the escaping steam.
“When we came near the engine the sight was overwhelming. The first two day coaches had been telescoped and were ground together in a mass of wood and steel, and some passengers in the first coach had been thrown bodily into the coal tender. The third coach had ridden up over these two and was lying squarely on top of the engine. The engine’s steam pipes had broken and a fog of steam was pouring into the car perched on top.
“We could see hands waving and then falling back into the car. Those in the tender who were unable to get out because of the car on top of them were lying close against the coal in the hope of avoiding the blistering steam. We could do very little until the flow of steam slackened. When we pulled them out those who were still conscious screamed with the pain. I saw at least twelve dead and twenty-five of those treated were so badly scalded that they will probably die.”
Wanted Hand Cut
Mrs. Annie Jollie, 55 years old, of Chicago, told how she was hurled from her berth amid a shower of glass. Mrs. Dorothy Joy, in the berth opposite, helped her toward the door of the car.
“I saw a poor woman running toward me distracted,” said Mrs. Jollie. “Her hand, held high, was nearly severed just above the wrist. ‘Get scissors and take this off,’ she gasped. Instead I tore my skirt and wit a piece of wreckage made a first aid tourniquet, stanched the flow of blood and led her to a country doctor who was doing fine service.
“I saw women dig a child out of the wreckage and I helped farmer boys dig out a woman with our bare hands. My memory got hazy then and I don’t remember much more.”
Miss Ruth Zitzewitz of Chicago was thrown from her seat but escaped serious injury. She told of seeing the mangled body of a baby taken from the debris. John Kwohl, 61 years old, and his wife, although shaken up, helped in the rescue work. Otto Bauer of Chicago said he slept through it all until his wife awakened him."
Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 17 Jun 1925
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Others who worked for the Lackawanna Railroad who perished with Frederick on the ill-fated train wreck.
Conductor James Nathaniel Banker
Trainman James Scanlon
Porter Oscar "O.J." Daniels
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He was the son of Samuel Pettingill Loomis who was born in Sanford, New York on October 5, 1840 and Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis who was born in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania on April 22, 1855.
Fred was baptized Presbyterian on January 29, 1889 in Hallstead, Pennsylvania.
Surviving him besides his widow, Elsie A. Tobey-Loomis, was one son, Herbert Ellis Loomis, and his mother, Mrs. Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis, of Hallstead.
Fred was predeceased by his father Samuel Pettingill Loomis.
On May 20, 1925, Fred married divorcee Coral Evelyn Corey in Jermyn, Pennsylvania. Information was obtained from Lackawanna County PA Marriage License Collection.
Coral was not mentioned in any obituaries at the time. Coral was previously married to Horace Levine Beehler who died in 1944. They had married in 1897.
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A porter who was also on board the ill-fated train with Fred was Oscar O.J. Daniels. OJ, as he was known, helped save many lives before he perished. He was a hero.
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"Loomis Dies at Post
In the wrecked engine, buried beneath twisted coaches, could be seen the bodies of Loomis, his hand still in the throttle, and of his fireman.
Those who reached the wreck first could see the body of Fred Loomis, the engineer, his hand on the throttle together with his firemen
Fred Loomis, the engineer, was thirty-eight years old, and had been in the employ of the Lackawanna for the past eighteen years as a fireman and engineer. A giant in stature, he was one of the most powerful men, physically, in this city.
He was born in Hallstead, Pennsylvania, where he started his railroad career.
Mr. Loomis was a member of the Scranton Forest, No. 78, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, and other Mason orders.
Surviving him, besides his widow, Elsie A. Tobey-Loomis, one son. Herbert Ellis, and his mother, Mrs. Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis, of Hallstead.
At 12:01 a.m. on June 16, Engineer Fred Loomis took over the controls of Lackawanna Engine No. 1104 and the train set off on the last leg of the trip through the Pocono Mountains, crossing the Delaware River near the Delaware Water Gap, and then east into New Jersey.
The train had been scheduled to travel via the Lackawanna Cut-Off, but because of freight traffic on the line the towerman at Slateford Junction rerouted the special over the Old Road of the Lackawanna, an alternate route that was to take the train through the New Jersey towns of Washington, and Hackettstown, before rejoining the main line near Lake Hopatcong. The rerouting of these types of trains on this section of the railroad under these circumstances was not unusual.
The dead engineer of the train had been identified as Fred Loomis, of 1131 Amherst Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
He, along with the fireman, Carl Haen, and the head train master, James Scanlon, of Scranton, were crushed underneath the engine.
"Fred Loomis, the engineer, Charles J. Haen, fireman, and James F. Scanlon, trainman, met instant death.
Nathaniel J. Banker, conductor, was fatally burned and died in the Easton Hospital at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
The bodies were brought to this city on the Lackawanna train No. 7. arriving in this city at 11:22 o'clock last night."
All were veteran railroad men and valued and trustworthy employes. The railroad officially attributes the wreck to the fact that the train encountered an avalanche of mud and dirt which had slid down over the tracks during the storm of the night before."
Scranton Republican ~ Page 1 and 14
Scranton, Pennsylvania Page 14
Wednesday, June 17, 1925
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"THUNDERSTORM CLOGGED A SWITCH WITH SAND CAUSING A DERAILMENT.
Hackettstown, N.J., June 16. -- (UP) -- At least 27 persons had died up to 2:30 p.m., today as a result of the worst accident on an American railway in recent months.
The wreck occurred near Hackettstown, when an excursion train from Chicago, carrying a party of Germans from the middlewest to New York, where they were to embark today for Germany, plunged into a switch which had been clogged with debris during last night's rain and electrical storm.
Three cars and the engine rolled over while steam pipes burst and sprayed with live steam dozens of passengers.
Six dead were taken from the wreckage; 16 others died in a hospital at Easton, Pa.; one died enroute to a hospital; and four died in a hospital at Dover, N.J.; all from injuries and most of them from burns.
Approximately fifty persons were injured while a score of others received first aid treatment on the scene.
The accident occurred during a heavy thunderstorm that had clogged a switch with sand and other debris. The engine plunged down an embankment and was buried beneath three cars.
Coming from the west, the train was crowded with emigrants who were to take a boat at New York for Germany today.
The injured were taken in ambulances and private automobiles to the Easton, Pennsylvania hospital.
The engineer, fireman, and a brakeman were among those reported killed.
The scene of the wreck is in an isolated section. Farmers living in the neighborhood heard the crashing of the cars above the noise of the storm. Investigating, they found men, women, and children many painfully injured, vainly trying to extricate relatives or friends from the tangled, smoldering wreckage.
Several bodies were removed after daylight from the wreckage of the first coach.
Scores of volunteers arrived and assisted in the search for victims who may have been imprisoned as the cars tumbled in a heap.
The switch at which the wreck occurred was broken and a portion of it was bent and stood straight up. After it was derailed the engine bumped along the ties for 20 feet and then dived over the embankment, dragging three cars after it.
One doctor said the death list would be greatly augmented as many of those scalded could not possibly recover.
Those persons were in the first three cars, which filled with steam from broken pipes on the wrecked engine which lay a smoking mass of twisted steel, at the bottom of the heap of wreckage.
Nearing its destination, the train was forging ahead at a fast pace through the blinding storm when the accident occurred. His vision hampered by the pouring rain, the engineer was leaning far out of his cab to keep an eye on the gleaming rails ahead. Lightning flashed with stage-like frequency to an accompaniment of booming thunder.
Suddenly the cars swerved as the wheels dropped from the slippery rails on to the ties. Men, women and children were hurled from their seats. The engine plunged nose first into the rocky border of the roadbed.
Three cars piled up on top of it. Broken pipes of the engine spurted scalding steam on helpless victims as they struggled vainly to extricate themselves from the tangled metal. Women and children were trampled in the mad stampede for safety. Passengers broke through windows, jagged with shattered glass.
At daylight, steam still poured from the broken pipes of the engines, but the wreckage had not taken fire. Railroad workers and volunteers searched the debris, removed six bodies and fifty other victims, some of the latter so seriously injured or scalded that they may die. A score of others were given first aid treatment.
16 MORE HAVE DIED.
Easton, Pa., June 16 -- (UP) -- Sixteen of the 38 persons injured in the train wreck at Rockport, New Jersey have died since admittance to the Easton hospital this morning, physicians reported at noon.
They are:
MARY ZINK, 28.
HELEN WAGNER, 9.
MARTIN HELNIG, JR., 10.
PHILLIP SCHUSTER, 13.
An unidentified girl, 3 years old, and an unidentified woman.
All are from Chicago.
Both of HELNIG'S parents are in the hospital.
EDWIN BRUNNER
MARTIN HELNIG, SR., father of MARTIN HELNIG, JR., who died this morning.
LOUISE TROKIE
ANTONIO ERNST
MRS. BRUNDICI
MRS. ELIZABETH WUNGELMEIN
Two unidentified women.
One unidentified man aged about 40.
One unidentified boy.
The following died in the Dover, N.J. hospital.
GEORGE TAULER, address unknown.
MRS. AUGUSTA ISINAN, Chicago.
MRS. AUGUSTA BERNHARDT, Chicago.
MRS. BARBARA FAHRNER, Chicago.
In addition to those dead in the Easton hospital, the following were among the six bodies taken from the wreckage of the train.
Fireman (unreadable)
(unreadable)
(unreadable)
FREDERICK LOOMIS, engineer, of Scranton, Pa.
The Injured:
W. L. KENNEY, Buffalo, N.Y.
MR. and MRS. EDWIN BRUNNER and their three children.
MRS. ELIZABETH WUNGELMEIN
IRENE WUNGELMEIN, 9, daughter.
MR. and MRS. CHARLES SAYER
MRS. ANTONIO ERNEST
MRS. ELSIE HELNIG
OSCAR J. DAVID
REINHOLD TELSCHKE
MRS. JOSEPHINE SCHMIDT
HELEN KERLING
MRS. JEANNETTE FERGUSON
HENRY STEFFINS
JOSEPH LA FORGE
RUDOLPH TOTOHE
MR. and MRS. GRUNDER
MR. and MRS. PAUL BERNHARDT
CHARLES STOCK
CLARA NESTLEBERGER
MRS. HULDA STAEHNKE
PHILIP SHUSTER
WILLIAM MUENCHENNEN
MRS. GUNDA ROTERMAN
JOHN HEIGEL
MRS. SOPHIA FINNENGER
MARTIN HELNIG
At Hospitals
Morristown, N.J.
MISS BARBARA FARNER, severe burns.
MISS F. BREICHNER, scalded severely.
MRS. ANA MEYERS, badly scalded.
At Warren Hospital, Phillipsburg.
MRS. CAROLINE HOWE
JOHN HANSEN
MRS. LOUISE KAUFFMAN
CLEMONS SCHMIDT
MIKE GETTNER
JOHN NEIMANN
MRS. CATHERINE WYAT
JOHN IRICH
The following injured are in the Dover, N.J. hospital.
MRS. A. BERNHARDT, So. Highland, Chicago.
MRS. KATHERINE HARLING, Chicago.
CARL GANTZ, Chicago.
HANS FOSKE, Chicago.
JOHN ERNICEKITZ, address unknown.
KATHERINE WILGERMEIN, Chicago.
HENRY KARLING
JOSEPH SAUER
MR. TOTZKE
JOSEPH WINTER
MRS. THEODORE JUERGENSEN
CLARA BERNHARDT
RUDOLPH TROSKE
MRS. EMMA RODERNING
JOHN HEIGEL
MRS. WAGNER
JOSEPH SCHMIDT
One unidentified woman.
All are from Chicago.
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CHICAGO GERMANS
Chicago, Ill., June 16. -- (UP) -- Passengers on the Lackawanna train that was wrecked near Rockport, New Jersey early today were members of an excursion party of Chicago Germans according to the Neumanns shipping agents, in charge of the tour. The party was made up of individuals and small family groups, Neumanns' officials said.
Sterling Daily Gazette Illinois 1925-06-16
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Rockport, NJ Train Disaster, June 1925
List of Injured; Survivor Storie
36 Die; 71 Hurt as Train Wrecks
Victims Are Tortured by Steam Scald
Coach Piles on Coach in Fatal Heap on Lackawanna.
Was Special Train
Prosperous Former Immigrants, En Route Abroad, Victims.
By the Associated Press
Hackettstown, N.J., June 16.-Thirty-six are dead, thirty-six in a critical condition and at least thirty-five more are suffering from injuries received early Tuesday, when four cars and the engine of a seven-car special train on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad were derailed and piled upon one another at Rockport, two miles west of here.
One hundred and eighty-two passengers, emigrants of a former day, who had become prosperous in the great corn belt and were on their way to visit homelands across the sea, were hurled into the maelstrom of death and injury as coach pounded upon coach and scalding steam from the bursting engine tortured the victims.
The train left Buffalo, N.Y., Monday at 6 p.m. The train’s entry into New Jersey was heralded by a violent thunderstorm, a storm that weighed a gavel over the tracks at the Rockport crossing, into which the train plunged as it gained momentum for the rise ahead.
Engine is Derailed.
The engine plowed over the ties for 150 yards before it struck a switch and left the tracks.
Two day coaches and a Pullman were piled on top the engine as it toppled over. One other Pullman car was derailed and three remained upright.
By automobile, special train and ambulance the injured were taken to Easton (Pa.) General Hospital the Warren County Hospital at Phillipsburg, Morristown Memorial Hospital at Morristown and Dover General Hospital at Dover.
Eighteen of those taken to Easton are dead. Morristown reported two deaths. Dover five and seven bodies are in the morgue at Hackettstown.
Gives the Alarm.
August Fox was the first man on his feet after the wreck, followed by Henry Steffens, 60; Carl Engle and Reinhart Tscheke, all of Chicago, and all more or less injured. They labored heroically until help arrived from Hackettstown, pulling dead and injured from the twisted steel cars.
Riding above the rumble and thunder and lashing of the storm the crash of the wreck awakened Mrs. Duncan Dunn, who lives at the State game farm, about 500 yards distant. She communicated with Hackettstown over badly crippled wires, arousing physicians, who in turn sent emergency calls to surrounding hospitals. All the dead and injured, with the exception of the train crew are from Chicago and vicinity.
Death List.
The dead include:
GEORGE TAULE, Chicago.
MRS. AUGUSTA ISIMAN, Chicago.
JACOB SCANLON, trainman of Easton.
FRED LOOMIS, engineer, Scranton, Pa.
CARL HAEN, fireman, Scranton, Pa.
A young girl and two unidentified women.
HELEN WAGNER, 9.
MARTIN HENIG JR., 12.
FRANK BENDICH, 50.
MARY CINK, 40.
MRS. ANTONIO BERNHARDT
MRS. BARBARA SAHRNER
MRS. BARBARA FARMER
MRS. GEORGE BRECKNER.
MRS. ANTHONY ERNST
MRS. LOUIS TRIKE
MARTIN HENIG SR.
EDWIN BRUNNER JR.
MRS. WILGEMINER
PHILIP SHUSTER
Among the seriously injured all from Chicago and Elkton, Ill., in the Easton, Pa., hospital are Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Brunner and their three children, Mrs. Elizabeth Wungelmeindt and 9-year-old daughter. Irene; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Sauer, Antonio Ernst, Mrs. Elsie Henig, Oscar L. David, Reinhold Teskhe, Mrs. Josephine Schmidt, Helen Kerling, Mrs. Janette Ferguson, Henry Steffins, Joseph Laforge, Rudolph Totche, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Bernhardt, Mrs. Mary Zink, Charles Stock, Mrs. Theodore Ernst, Clara Nestleberger, Mrs. Hilda Staehnke, Phillip Schuster, William Muenckenhen, Mrs. Gun Rotterman, John Niegel, Mrs. Sophie Finninger and Martin Heineg.
Injured at Morristown included: Mrs. Barbara Farmer, Mrs. F. Beechneer and Mrs. Annie Myers, all of Chicago.
The critically injured at Dover General Hospital include: Catherine Wilgermein, Mrs. Catherine Kerling, Carl Gantz and Hans Toske.
Survivors Set Sail.
By The Associate Press.
New York, June 16.-Eager to see their homeland again but shaken and saddened by the train wreck which claimed fifty-seven of their companions in dead and injured, 125 Germans from the west sailed Tuesday on the U.S. liner Republic from Hoboken.
Rescued from the horror which ensued when their special train from Chicago was wrecked before dawn near Rock Port, N.J., survivors of the homeward bound party were rushed to Hoboken in another special.
All had graphic tales to tell of their experiences while the liner waited for possible late additions to the fortunate saved.
To Mrs. E.B. Haaker of Park Ridge, Ill., a trained nurse who was on the train, many owe their lives. With her first aid kit Mrs. Haaker set up an impromptu hospital in the observation car. Mrs. Lackin R. Deue and Mrs. Freda Metzger of Chicago assisted her.
Trained Nurse Heroine.
Mrs. Haaker was traveling with her husband and a friend. Frederick Oberheid of Chicago. All three were awakened by the crash and by the screams of a member of the train crew who ran through the rear cars with terribly scalded hands, screaming, “For God’s sake, somebody help me!”
Still in her night clothing Mrs. Haaker dressed the man’s hands while her husband and Oberheld hurried ahead, improvised stretchers and brought many of the injured to the observation car. Sheets were torn up for use as bandages and the emergency hospital force worked for hours to relieve the agony of the scalded.
“I could hear, it seemed, a thousand people screaming,” said Mr. Haaker in describing the crash, “and, through their voices, the roar of the escaping steam.
“When we came near the engine the sight was overwhelming. The first two day coaches had been telescoped and were ground together in a mass of wood and steel, and some passengers in the first coach had been thrown bodily into the coal tender. The third coach had ridden up over these two and was lying squarely on top of the engine. The engine’s steam pipes had broken and a fog of steam was pouring into the car perched on top.
“We could see hands waving and then falling back into the car. Those in the tender who were unable to get out because of the car on top of them were lying close against the coal in the hope of avoiding the blistering steam. We could do very little until the flow of steam slackened. When we pulled them out those who were still conscious screamed with the pain. I saw at least twelve dead and twenty-five of those treated were so badly scalded that they will probably die.”
Wanted Hand Cut
Mrs. Annie Jollie, 55 years old, of Chicago, told how she was hurled from her berth amid a shower of glass. Mrs. Dorothy Joy, in the berth opposite, helped her toward the door of the car.
“I saw a poor woman running toward me distracted,” said Mrs. Jollie. “Her hand, held high, was nearly severed just above the wrist. ‘Get scissors and take this off,’ she gasped. Instead I tore my skirt and wit a piece of wreckage made a first aid tourniquet, stanched the flow of blood and led her to a country doctor who was doing fine service.
“I saw women dig a child out of the wreckage and I helped farmer boys dig out a woman with our bare hands. My memory got hazy then and I don’t remember much more.”
Miss Ruth Zitzewitz of Chicago was thrown from her seat but escaped serious injury. She told of seeing the mangled body of a baby taken from the debris. John Kwohl, 61 years old, and his wife, although shaken up, helped in the rescue work. Otto Bauer of Chicago said he slept through it all until his wife awakened him."
Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 17 Jun 1925
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Others who worked for the Lackawanna Railroad who perished with Frederick on the ill-fated train wreck.
Conductor James Nathaniel Banker
Trainman James Scanlon
Porter Oscar "O.J." Daniels
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Frederick Lyons Loomis was born in Hallstead, Pennsylvania, on August 10, 1886.
He was the son of Samuel Pettingill Loomis who was born in Sanford, New York on October 5, 1840 and Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis who was born in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania on April 22, 1855.
Fred was baptized Presbyterian on January 29, 1889 in Hallstead, Pennsylvania.
Surviving him besides his widow, Elsie A. Tobey-Loomis, was one son, Herbert Ellis Loomis, and his mother, Mrs. Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis, of Hallstead.
Fred was predeceased by his father Samuel Pettingill Loomis.
On May 20, 1925, Fred married divorcee Coral Evelyn Corey in Jermyn, Pennsylvania. Information was obtained from Lackawanna County PA Marriage License Collection.
Coral was not mentioned in any obituaries at the time. Coral was previously married to Horace Levine Beehler who died in 1944. They had married in 1897.
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A porter who was also on board the ill-fated train with Fred was Oscar O.J. Daniels. OJ, as he was known, helped save many lives before he perished. He was a hero.
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"Loomis Dies at Post
In the wrecked engine, buried beneath twisted coaches, could be seen the bodies of Loomis, his hand still in the throttle, and of his fireman.
Those who reached the wreck first could see the body of Fred Loomis, the engineer, his hand on the throttle together with his firemen
Fred Loomis, the engineer, was thirty-eight years old, and had been in the employ of the Lackawanna for the past eighteen years as a fireman and engineer. A giant in stature, he was one of the most powerful men, physically, in this city.
He was born in Hallstead, Pennsylvania, where he started his railroad career.
Mr. Loomis was a member of the Scranton Forest, No. 78, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, and other Mason orders.
Surviving him, besides his widow, Elsie A. Tobey-Loomis, one son. Herbert Ellis, and his mother, Mrs. Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis, of Hallstead.
At 12:01 a.m. on June 16, Engineer Fred Loomis took over the controls of Lackawanna Engine No. 1104 and the train set off on the last leg of the trip through the Pocono Mountains, crossing the Delaware River near the Delaware Water Gap, and then east into New Jersey.
The train had been scheduled to travel via the Lackawanna Cut-Off, but because of freight traffic on the line the towerman at Slateford Junction rerouted the special over the Old Road of the Lackawanna, an alternate route that was to take the train through the New Jersey towns of Washington, and Hackettstown, before rejoining the main line near Lake Hopatcong. The rerouting of these types of trains on this section of the railroad under these circumstances was not unusual.
The dead engineer of the train had been identified as Fred Loomis, of 1131 Amherst Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
He, along with the fireman, Carl Haen, and the head train master, James Scanlon, of Scranton, were crushed underneath the engine.
"Fred Loomis, the engineer, Charles J. Haen, fireman, and James F. Scanlon, trainman, met instant death.
Nathaniel J. Banker, conductor, was fatally burned and died in the Easton Hospital at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
The bodies were brought to this city on the Lackawanna train No. 7. arriving in this city at 11:22 o'clock last night."
All were veteran railroad men and valued and trustworthy employes. The railroad officially attributes the wreck to the fact that the train encountered an avalanche of mud and dirt which had slid down over the tracks during the storm of the night before."
Scranton Republican ~ Page 1 and 14
Scranton, Pennsylvania Page 14
Wednesday, June 17, 1925
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"THUNDERSTORM CLOGGED A SWITCH WITH SAND CAUSING A DERAILMENT.
Hackettstown, N.J., June 16. -- (UP) -- At least 27 persons had died up to 2:30 p.m., today as a result of the worst accident on an American railway in recent months.
The wreck occurred near Hackettstown, when an excursion train from Chicago, carrying a party of Germans from the middlewest to New York, where they were to embark today for Germany, plunged into a switch which had been clogged with debris during last night's rain and electrical storm.
Three cars and the engine rolled over while steam pipes burst and sprayed with live steam dozens of passengers.
Six dead were taken from the wreckage; 16 others died in a hospital at Easton, Pa.; one died enroute to a hospital; and four died in a hospital at Dover, N.J.; all from injuries and most of them from burns.
Approximately fifty persons were injured while a score of others received first aid treatment on the scene.
The accident occurred during a heavy thunderstorm that had clogged a switch with sand and other debris. The engine plunged down an embankment and was buried beneath three cars.
Coming from the west, the train was crowded with emigrants who were to take a boat at New York for Germany today.
The injured were taken in ambulances and private automobiles to the Easton, Pennsylvania hospital.
The engineer, fireman, and a brakeman were among those reported killed.
The scene of the wreck is in an isolated section. Farmers living in the neighborhood heard the crashing of the cars above the noise of the storm. Investigating, they found men, women, and children many painfully injured, vainly trying to extricate relatives or friends from the tangled, smoldering wreckage.
Several bodies were removed after daylight from the wreckage of the first coach.
Scores of volunteers arrived and assisted in the search for victims who may have been imprisoned as the cars tumbled in a heap.
The switch at which the wreck occurred was broken and a portion of it was bent and stood straight up. After it was derailed the engine bumped along the ties for 20 feet and then dived over the embankment, dragging three cars after it.
One doctor said the death list would be greatly augmented as many of those scalded could not possibly recover.
Those persons were in the first three cars, which filled with steam from broken pipes on the wrecked engine which lay a smoking mass of twisted steel, at the bottom of the heap of wreckage.
Nearing its destination, the train was forging ahead at a fast pace through the blinding storm when the accident occurred. His vision hampered by the pouring rain, the engineer was leaning far out of his cab to keep an eye on the gleaming rails ahead. Lightning flashed with stage-like frequency to an accompaniment of booming thunder.
Suddenly the cars swerved as the wheels dropped from the slippery rails on to the ties. Men, women and children were hurled from their seats. The engine plunged nose first into the rocky border of the roadbed.
Three cars piled up on top of it. Broken pipes of the engine spurted scalding steam on helpless victims as they struggled vainly to extricate themselves from the tangled metal. Women and children were trampled in the mad stampede for safety. Passengers broke through windows, jagged with shattered glass.
At daylight, steam still poured from the broken pipes of the engines, but the wreckage had not taken fire. Railroad workers and volunteers searched the debris, removed six bodies and fifty other victims, some of the latter so seriously injured or scalded that they may die. A score of others were given first aid treatment.
16 MORE HAVE DIED.
Easton, Pa., June 16 -- (UP) -- Sixteen of the 38 persons injured in the train wreck at Rockport, New Jersey have died since admittance to the Easton hospital this morning, physicians reported at noon.
They are:
MARY ZINK, 28.
HELEN WAGNER, 9.
MARTIN HELNIG, JR., 10.
PHILLIP SCHUSTER, 13.
An unidentified girl, 3 years old, and an unidentified woman.
All are from Chicago.
Both of HELNIG'S parents are in the hospital.
EDWIN BRUNNER
MARTIN HELNIG, SR., father of MARTIN HELNIG, JR., who died this morning.
LOUISE TROKIE
ANTONIO ERNST
MRS. BRUNDICI
MRS. ELIZABETH WUNGELMEIN
Two unidentified women.
One unidentified man aged about 40.
One unidentified boy.
The following died in the Dover, N.J. hospital.
GEORGE TAULER, address unknown.
MRS. AUGUSTA ISINAN, Chicago.
MRS. AUGUSTA BERNHARDT, Chicago.
MRS. BARBARA FAHRNER, Chicago.
In addition to those dead in the Easton hospital, the following were among the six bodies taken from the wreckage of the train.
Fireman (unreadable)
(unreadable)
(unreadable)
FREDERICK LOOMIS, engineer, of Scranton, Pa.
The Injured:
W. L. KENNEY, Buffalo, N.Y.
MR. and MRS. EDWIN BRUNNER and their three children.
MRS. ELIZABETH WUNGELMEIN
IRENE WUNGELMEIN, 9, daughter.
MR. and MRS. CHARLES SAYER
MRS. ANTONIO ERNEST
MRS. ELSIE HELNIG
OSCAR J. DAVID
REINHOLD TELSCHKE
MRS. JOSEPHINE SCHMIDT
HELEN KERLING
MRS. JEANNETTE FERGUSON
HENRY STEFFINS
JOSEPH LA FORGE
RUDOLPH TOTOHE
MR. and MRS. GRUNDER
MR. and MRS. PAUL BERNHARDT
CHARLES STOCK
CLARA NESTLEBERGER
MRS. HULDA STAEHNKE
PHILIP SHUSTER
WILLIAM MUENCHENNEN
MRS. GUNDA ROTERMAN
JOHN HEIGEL
MRS. SOPHIA FINNENGER
MARTIN HELNIG
At Hospitals
Morristown, N.J.
MISS BARBARA FARNER, severe burns.
MISS F. BREICHNER, scalded severely.
MRS. ANA MEYERS, badly scalded.
At Warren Hospital, Phillipsburg.
MRS. CAROLINE HOWE
JOHN HANSEN
MRS. LOUISE KAUFFMAN
CLEMONS SCHMIDT
MIKE GETTNER
JOHN NEIMANN
MRS. CATHERINE WYAT
JOHN IRICH
The following injured are in the Dover, N.J. hospital.
MRS. A. BERNHARDT, So. Highland, Chicago.
MRS. KATHERINE HARLING, Chicago.
CARL GANTZ, Chicago.
HANS FOSKE, Chicago.
JOHN ERNICEKITZ, address unknown.
KATHERINE WILGERMEIN, Chicago.
HENRY KARLING
JOSEPH SAUER
MR. TOTZKE
JOSEPH WINTER
MRS. THEODORE JUERGENSEN
CLARA BERNHARDT
RUDOLPH TROSKE
MRS. EMMA RODERNING
JOHN HEIGEL
MRS. WAGNER
JOSEPH SCHMIDT
One unidentified woman.
All are from Chicago.
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CHICAGO GERMANS
Chicago, Ill., June 16. -- (UP) -- Passengers on the Lackawanna train that was wrecked near Rockport, New Jersey early today were members of an excursion party of Chicago Germans according to the Neumanns shipping agents, in charge of the tour. The party was made up of individuals and small family groups, Neumanns' officials said.
Sterling Daily Gazette Illinois 1925-06-16
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Rockport, NJ Train Disaster, June 1925
List of Injured; Survivor Storie
36 Die; 71 Hurt as Train Wrecks
Victims Are Tortured by Steam Scald
Coach Piles on Coach in Fatal Heap on Lackawanna.
Was Special Train
Prosperous Former Immigrants, En Route Abroad, Victims.
By the Associated Press
Hackettstown, N.J., June 16.-Thirty-six are dead, thirty-six in a critical condition and at least thirty-five more are suffering from injuries received early Tuesday, when four cars and the engine of a seven-car special train on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad were derailed and piled upon one another at Rockport, two miles west of here.
One hundred and eighty-two passengers, emigrants of a former day, who had become prosperous in the great corn belt and were on their way to visit homelands across the sea, were hurled into the maelstrom of death and injury as coach pounded upon coach and scalding steam from the bursting engine tortured the victims.
The train left Buffalo, N.Y., Monday at 6 p.m. The train’s entry into New Jersey was heralded by a violent thunderstorm, a storm that weighed a gavel over the tracks at the Rockport crossing, into which the train plunged as it gained momentum for the rise ahead.
Engine is Derailed.
The engine plowed over the ties for 150 yards before it struck a switch and left the tracks.
Two day coaches and a Pullman were piled on top the engine as it toppled over. One other Pullman car was derailed and three remained upright.
By automobile, special train and ambulance the injured were taken to Easton (Pa.) General Hospital the Warren County Hospital at Phillipsburg, Morristown Memorial Hospital at Morristown and Dover General Hospital at Dover.
Eighteen of those taken to Easton are dead. Morristown reported two deaths. Dover five and seven bodies are in the morgue at Hackettstown.
Gives the Alarm.
August Fox was the first man on his feet after the wreck, followed by Henry Steffens, 60; Carl Engle and Reinhart Tscheke, all of Chicago, and all more or less injured. They labored heroically until help arrived from Hackettstown, pulling dead and injured from the twisted steel cars.
Riding above the rumble and thunder and lashing of the storm the crash of the wreck awakened Mrs. Duncan Dunn, who lives at the State game farm, about 500 yards distant. She communicated with Hackettstown over badly crippled wires, arousing physicians, who in turn sent emergency calls to surrounding hospitals. All the dead and injured, with the exception of the train crew are from Chicago and vicinity.
Death List.
The dead include:
GEORGE TAULE, Chicago.
MRS. AUGUSTA ISIMAN, Chicago.
JACOB SCANLON, trainman of Easton.
FRED LOOMIS, engineer, Scranton, Pa.
CARL HAEN, fireman, Scranton, Pa.
A young girl and two unidentified women.
HELEN WAGNER, 9.
MARTIN HENIG JR., 12.
FRANK BENDICH, 50.
MARY CINK, 40.
MRS. ANTONIO BERNHARDT
MRS. BARBARA SAHRNER
MRS. BARBARA FARMER
MRS. GEORGE BRECKNER.
MRS. ANTHONY ERNST
MRS. LOUIS TRIKE
MARTIN HENIG SR.
EDWIN BRUNNER JR.
MRS. WILGEMINER
PHILIP SHUSTER
Among the seriously injured all from Chicago and Elkton, Ill., in the Easton, Pa., hospital are Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Brunner and their three children, Mrs. Elizabeth Wungelmeindt and 9-year-old daughter. Irene; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Sauer, Antonio Ernst, Mrs. Elsie Henig, Oscar L. David, Reinhold Teskhe, Mrs. Josephine Schmidt, Helen Kerling, Mrs. Janette Ferguson, Henry Steffins, Joseph Laforge, Rudolph Totche, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Bernhardt, Mrs. Mary Zink, Charles Stock, Mrs. Theodore Ernst, Clara Nestleberger, Mrs. Hilda Staehnke, Phillip Schuster, William Muenckenhen, Mrs. Gun Rotterman, John Niegel, Mrs. Sophie Finninger and Martin Heineg.
Injured at Morristown included: Mrs. Barbara Farmer, Mrs. F. Beechneer and Mrs. Annie Myers, all of Chicago.
The critically injured at Dover General Hospital include: Catherine Wilgermein, Mrs. Catherine Kerling, Carl Gantz and Hans Toske.
Survivors Set Sail.
By The Associate Press.
New York, June 16.-Eager to see their homeland again but shaken and saddened by the train wreck which claimed fifty-seven of their companions in dead and injured, 125 Germans from the west sailed Tuesday on the U.S. liner Republic from Hoboken.
Rescued from the horror which ensued when their special train from Chicago was wrecked before dawn near Rock Port, N.J., survivors of the homeward bound party were rushed to Hoboken in another special.
All had graphic tales to tell of their experiences while the liner waited for possible late additions to the fortunate saved.
To Mrs. E.B. Haaker of Park Ridge, Ill., a trained nurse who was on the train, many owe their lives. With her first aid kit Mrs. Haaker set up an impromptu hospital in the observation car. Mrs. Lackin R. Deue and Mrs. Freda Metzger of Chicago assisted her.
Trained Nurse Heroine.
Mrs. Haaker was traveling with her husband and a friend. Frederick Oberheid of Chicago. All three were awakened by the crash and by the screams of a member of the train crew who ran through the rear cars with terribly scalded hands, screaming, “For God’s sake, somebody help me!”
Still in her night clothing Mrs. Haaker dressed the man’s hands while her husband and Oberheld hurried ahead, improvised stretchers and brought many of the injured to the observation car. Sheets were torn up for use as bandages and the emergency hospital force worked for hours to relieve the agony of the scalded.
“I could hear, it seemed, a thousand people screaming,” said Mr. Haaker in describing the crash, “and, through their voices, the roar of the escaping steam.
“When we came near the engine the sight was overwhelming. The first two day coaches had been telescoped and were ground together in a mass of wood and steel, and some passengers in the first coach had been thrown bodily into the coal tender. The third coach had ridden up over these two and was lying squarely on top of the engine. The engine’s steam pipes had broken and a fog of steam was pouring into the car perched on top.
“We could see hands waving and then falling back into the car. Those in the tender who were unable to get out because of the car on top of them were lying close against the coal in the hope of avoiding the blistering steam. We could do very little until the flow of steam slackened. When we pulled them out those who were still conscious screamed with the pain. I saw at least twelve dead and twenty-five of those treated were so badly scalded that they will probably die.”
Wanted Hand Cut
Mrs. Annie Jollie, 55 years old, of Chicago, told how she was hurled from her berth amid a shower of glass. Mrs. Dorothy Joy, in the berth opposite, helped her toward the door of the car.
“I saw a poor woman running toward me distracted,” said Mrs. Jollie. “Her hand, held high, was nearly severed just above the wrist. ‘Get scissors and take this off,’ she gasped. Instead I tore my skirt and wit a piece of wreckage made a first aid tourniquet, stanched the flow of blood and led her to a country doctor who was doing fine service.
“I saw women dig a child out of the wreckage and I helped farmer boys dig out a woman with our bare hands. My memory got hazy then and I don’t remember much more.”
Miss Ruth Zitzewitz of Chicago was thrown from her seat but escaped serious injury. She told of seeing the mangled body of a baby taken from the debris. John Kwohl, 61 years old, and his wife, although shaken up, helped in the rescue work. Otto Bauer of Chicago said he slept through it all until his wife awakened him."
Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 17 Jun 1925
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Others who worked for the Lackawanna Railroad who perished with Frederick on the ill-fated train wreck.
Conductor James Nathaniel Banker
Trainman James Scanlon
Porter Oscar "O.J." Daniels
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He was the son of Samuel Pettingill Loomis who was born in Sanford, New York on October 5, 1840 and Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis who was born in Lanesboro, Pennsylvania on April 22, 1855.
Fred was baptized Presbyterian on January 29, 1889 in Hallstead, Pennsylvania.
Surviving him besides his widow, Elsie A. Tobey-Loomis, was one son, Herbert Ellis Loomis, and his mother, Mrs. Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis, of Hallstead.
Fred was predeceased by his father Samuel Pettingill Loomis.
On May 20, 1925, Fred married divorcee Coral Evelyn Corey in Jermyn, Pennsylvania. Information was obtained from Lackawanna County PA Marriage License Collection.
Coral was not mentioned in any obituaries at the time. Coral was previously married to Horace Levine Beehler who died in 1944. They had married in 1897.
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A porter who was also on board the ill-fated train with Fred was Oscar O.J. Daniels. OJ, as he was known, helped save many lives before he perished. He was a hero.
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"Loomis Dies at Post
In the wrecked engine, buried beneath twisted coaches, could be seen the bodies of Loomis, his hand still in the throttle, and of his fireman.
Those who reached the wreck first could see the body of Fred Loomis, the engineer, his hand on the throttle together with his firemen
Fred Loomis, the engineer, was thirty-eight years old, and had been in the employ of the Lackawanna for the past eighteen years as a fireman and engineer. A giant in stature, he was one of the most powerful men, physically, in this city.
He was born in Hallstead, Pennsylvania, where he started his railroad career.
Mr. Loomis was a member of the Scranton Forest, No. 78, Tall Cedars of Lebanon, and other Mason orders.
Surviving him, besides his widow, Elsie A. Tobey-Loomis, one son. Herbert Ellis, and his mother, Mrs. Hattie E. Holdridge-Loomis, of Hallstead.
At 12:01 a.m. on June 16, Engineer Fred Loomis took over the controls of Lackawanna Engine No. 1104 and the train set off on the last leg of the trip through the Pocono Mountains, crossing the Delaware River near the Delaware Water Gap, and then east into New Jersey.
The train had been scheduled to travel via the Lackawanna Cut-Off, but because of freight traffic on the line the towerman at Slateford Junction rerouted the special over the Old Road of the Lackawanna, an alternate route that was to take the train through the New Jersey towns of Washington, and Hackettstown, before rejoining the main line near Lake Hopatcong. The rerouting of these types of trains on this section of the railroad under these circumstances was not unusual.
The dead engineer of the train had been identified as Fred Loomis, of 1131 Amherst Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
He, along with the fireman, Carl Haen, and the head train master, James Scanlon, of Scranton, were crushed underneath the engine.
"Fred Loomis, the engineer, Charles J. Haen, fireman, and James F. Scanlon, trainman, met instant death.
Nathaniel J. Banker, conductor, was fatally burned and died in the Easton Hospital at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
The bodies were brought to this city on the Lackawanna train No. 7. arriving in this city at 11:22 o'clock last night."
All were veteran railroad men and valued and trustworthy employes. The railroad officially attributes the wreck to the fact that the train encountered an avalanche of mud and dirt which had slid down over the tracks during the storm of the night before."
Scranton Republican ~ Page 1 and 14
Scranton, Pennsylvania Page 14
Wednesday, June 17, 1925
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"THUNDERSTORM CLOGGED A SWITCH WITH SAND CAUSING A DERAILMENT.
Hackettstown, N.J., June 16. -- (UP) -- At least 27 persons had died up to 2:30 p.m., today as a result of the worst accident on an American railway in recent months.
The wreck occurred near Hackettstown, when an excursion train from Chicago, carrying a party of Germans from the middlewest to New York, where they were to embark today for Germany, plunged into a switch which had been clogged with debris during last night's rain and electrical storm.
Three cars and the engine rolled over while steam pipes burst and sprayed with live steam dozens of passengers.
Six dead were taken from the wreckage; 16 others died in a hospital at Easton, Pa.; one died enroute to a hospital; and four died in a hospital at Dover, N.J.; all from injuries and most of them from burns.
Approximately fifty persons were injured while a score of others received first aid treatment on the scene.
The accident occurred during a heavy thunderstorm that had clogged a switch with sand and other debris. The engine plunged down an embankment and was buried beneath three cars.
Coming from the west, the train was crowded with emigrants who were to take a boat at New York for Germany today.
The injured were taken in ambulances and private automobiles to the Easton, Pennsylvania hospital.
The engineer, fireman, and a brakeman were among those reported killed.
The scene of the wreck is in an isolated section. Farmers living in the neighborhood heard the crashing of the cars above the noise of the storm. Investigating, they found men, women, and children many painfully injured, vainly trying to extricate relatives or friends from the tangled, smoldering wreckage.
Several bodies were removed after daylight from the wreckage of the first coach.
Scores of volunteers arrived and assisted in the search for victims who may have been imprisoned as the cars tumbled in a heap.
The switch at which the wreck occurred was broken and a portion of it was bent and stood straight up. After it was derailed the engine bumped along the ties for 20 feet and then dived over the embankment, dragging three cars after it.
One doctor said the death list would be greatly augmented as many of those scalded could not possibly recover.
Those persons were in the first three cars, which filled with steam from broken pipes on the wrecked engine which lay a smoking mass of twisted steel, at the bottom of the heap of wreckage.
Nearing its destination, the train was forging ahead at a fast pace through the blinding storm when the accident occurred. His vision hampered by the pouring rain, the engineer was leaning far out of his cab to keep an eye on the gleaming rails ahead. Lightning flashed with stage-like frequency to an accompaniment of booming thunder.
Suddenly the cars swerved as the wheels dropped from the slippery rails on to the ties. Men, women and children were hurled from their seats. The engine plunged nose first into the rocky border of the roadbed.
Three cars piled up on top of it. Broken pipes of the engine spurted scalding steam on helpless victims as they struggled vainly to extricate themselves from the tangled metal. Women and children were trampled in the mad stampede for safety. Passengers broke through windows, jagged with shattered glass.
At daylight, steam still poured from the broken pipes of the engines, but the wreckage had not taken fire. Railroad workers and volunteers searched the debris, removed six bodies and fifty other victims, some of the latter so seriously injured or scalded that they may die. A score of others were given first aid treatment.
16 MORE HAVE DIED.
Easton, Pa., June 16 -- (UP) -- Sixteen of the 38 persons injured in the train wreck at Rockport, New Jersey have died since admittance to the Easton hospital this morning, physicians reported at noon.
They are:
MARY ZINK, 28.
HELEN WAGNER, 9.
MARTIN HELNIG, JR., 10.
PHILLIP SCHUSTER, 13.
An unidentified girl, 3 years old, and an unidentified woman.
All are from Chicago.
Both of HELNIG'S parents are in the hospital.
EDWIN BRUNNER
MARTIN HELNIG, SR., father of MARTIN HELNIG, JR., who died this morning.
LOUISE TROKIE
ANTONIO ERNST
MRS. BRUNDICI
MRS. ELIZABETH WUNGELMEIN
Two unidentified women.
One unidentified man aged about 40.
One unidentified boy.
The following died in the Dover, N.J. hospital.
GEORGE TAULER, address unknown.
MRS. AUGUSTA ISINAN, Chicago.
MRS. AUGUSTA BERNHARDT, Chicago.
MRS. BARBARA FAHRNER, Chicago.
In addition to those dead in the Easton hospital, the following were among the six bodies taken from the wreckage of the train.
Fireman (unreadable)
(unreadable)
(unreadable)
FREDERICK LOOMIS, engineer, of Scranton, Pa.
The Injured:
W. L. KENNEY, Buffalo, N.Y.
MR. and MRS. EDWIN BRUNNER and their three children.
MRS. ELIZABETH WUNGELMEIN
IRENE WUNGELMEIN, 9, daughter.
MR. and MRS. CHARLES SAYER
MRS. ANTONIO ERNEST
MRS. ELSIE HELNIG
OSCAR J. DAVID
REINHOLD TELSCHKE
MRS. JOSEPHINE SCHMIDT
HELEN KERLING
MRS. JEANNETTE FERGUSON
HENRY STEFFINS
JOSEPH LA FORGE
RUDOLPH TOTOHE
MR. and MRS. GRUNDER
MR. and MRS. PAUL BERNHARDT
CHARLES STOCK
CLARA NESTLEBERGER
MRS. HULDA STAEHNKE
PHILIP SHUSTER
WILLIAM MUENCHENNEN
MRS. GUNDA ROTERMAN
JOHN HEIGEL
MRS. SOPHIA FINNENGER
MARTIN HELNIG
At Hospitals
Morristown, N.J.
MISS BARBARA FARNER, severe burns.
MISS F. BREICHNER, scalded severely.
MRS. ANA MEYERS, badly scalded.
At Warren Hospital, Phillipsburg.
MRS. CAROLINE HOWE
JOHN HANSEN
MRS. LOUISE KAUFFMAN
CLEMONS SCHMIDT
MIKE GETTNER
JOHN NEIMANN
MRS. CATHERINE WYAT
JOHN IRICH
The following injured are in the Dover, N.J. hospital.
MRS. A. BERNHARDT, So. Highland, Chicago.
MRS. KATHERINE HARLING, Chicago.
CARL GANTZ, Chicago.
HANS FOSKE, Chicago.
JOHN ERNICEKITZ, address unknown.
KATHERINE WILGERMEIN, Chicago.
HENRY KARLING
JOSEPH SAUER
MR. TOTZKE
JOSEPH WINTER
MRS. THEODORE JUERGENSEN
CLARA BERNHARDT
RUDOLPH TROSKE
MRS. EMMA RODERNING
JOHN HEIGEL
MRS. WAGNER
JOSEPH SCHMIDT
One unidentified woman.
All are from Chicago.
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CHICAGO GERMANS
Chicago, Ill., June 16. -- (UP) -- Passengers on the Lackawanna train that was wrecked near Rockport, New Jersey early today were members of an excursion party of Chicago Germans according to the Neumanns shipping agents, in charge of the tour. The party was made up of individuals and small family groups, Neumanns' officials said.
Sterling Daily Gazette Illinois 1925-06-16
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Rockport, NJ Train Disaster, June 1925
List of Injured; Survivor Storie
36 Die; 71 Hurt as Train Wrecks
Victims Are Tortured by Steam Scald
Coach Piles on Coach in Fatal Heap on Lackawanna.
Was Special Train
Prosperous Former Immigrants, En Route Abroad, Victims.
By the Associated Press
Hackettstown, N.J., June 16.-Thirty-six are dead, thirty-six in a critical condition and at least thirty-five more are suffering from injuries received early Tuesday, when four cars and the engine of a seven-car special train on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad were derailed and piled upon one another at Rockport, two miles west of here.
One hundred and eighty-two passengers, emigrants of a former day, who had become prosperous in the great corn belt and were on their way to visit homelands across the sea, were hurled into the maelstrom of death and injury as coach pounded upon coach and scalding steam from the bursting engine tortured the victims.
The train left Buffalo, N.Y., Monday at 6 p.m. The train’s entry into New Jersey was heralded by a violent thunderstorm, a storm that weighed a gavel over the tracks at the Rockport crossing, into which the train plunged as it gained momentum for the rise ahead.
Engine is Derailed.
The engine plowed over the ties for 150 yards before it struck a switch and left the tracks.
Two day coaches and a Pullman were piled on top the engine as it toppled over. One other Pullman car was derailed and three remained upright.
By automobile, special train and ambulance the injured were taken to Easton (Pa.) General Hospital the Warren County Hospital at Phillipsburg, Morristown Memorial Hospital at Morristown and Dover General Hospital at Dover.
Eighteen of those taken to Easton are dead. Morristown reported two deaths. Dover five and seven bodies are in the morgue at Hackettstown.
Gives the Alarm.
August Fox was the first man on his feet after the wreck, followed by Henry Steffens, 60; Carl Engle and Reinhart Tscheke, all of Chicago, and all more or less injured. They labored heroically until help arrived from Hackettstown, pulling dead and injured from the twisted steel cars.
Riding above the rumble and thunder and lashing of the storm the crash of the wreck awakened Mrs. Duncan Dunn, who lives at the State game farm, about 500 yards distant. She communicated with Hackettstown over badly crippled wires, arousing physicians, who in turn sent emergency calls to surrounding hospitals. All the dead and injured, with the exception of the train crew are from Chicago and vicinity.
Death List.
The dead include:
GEORGE TAULE, Chicago.
MRS. AUGUSTA ISIMAN, Chicago.
JACOB SCANLON, trainman of Easton.
FRED LOOMIS, engineer, Scranton, Pa.
CARL HAEN, fireman, Scranton, Pa.
A young girl and two unidentified women.
HELEN WAGNER, 9.
MARTIN HENIG JR., 12.
FRANK BENDICH, 50.
MARY CINK, 40.
MRS. ANTONIO BERNHARDT
MRS. BARBARA SAHRNER
MRS. BARBARA FARMER
MRS. GEORGE BRECKNER.
MRS. ANTHONY ERNST
MRS. LOUIS TRIKE
MARTIN HENIG SR.
EDWIN BRUNNER JR.
MRS. WILGEMINER
PHILIP SHUSTER
Among the seriously injured all from Chicago and Elkton, Ill., in the Easton, Pa., hospital are Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Brunner and their three children, Mrs. Elizabeth Wungelmeindt and 9-year-old daughter. Irene; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Sauer, Antonio Ernst, Mrs. Elsie Henig, Oscar L. David, Reinhold Teskhe, Mrs. Josephine Schmidt, Helen Kerling, Mrs. Janette Ferguson, Henry Steffins, Joseph Laforge, Rudolph Totche, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Bernhardt, Mrs. Mary Zink, Charles Stock, Mrs. Theodore Ernst, Clara Nestleberger, Mrs. Hilda Staehnke, Phillip Schuster, William Muenckenhen, Mrs. Gun Rotterman, John Niegel, Mrs. Sophie Finninger and Martin Heineg.
Injured at Morristown included: Mrs. Barbara Farmer, Mrs. F. Beechneer and Mrs. Annie Myers, all of Chicago.
The critically injured at Dover General Hospital include: Catherine Wilgermein, Mrs. Catherine Kerling, Carl Gantz and Hans Toske.
Survivors Set Sail.
By The Associate Press.
New York, June 16.-Eager to see their homeland again but shaken and saddened by the train wreck which claimed fifty-seven of their companions in dead and injured, 125 Germans from the west sailed Tuesday on the U.S. liner Republic from Hoboken.
Rescued from the horror which ensued when their special train from Chicago was wrecked before dawn near Rock Port, N.J., survivors of the homeward bound party were rushed to Hoboken in another special.
All had graphic tales to tell of their experiences while the liner waited for possible late additions to the fortunate saved.
To Mrs. E.B. Haaker of Park Ridge, Ill., a trained nurse who was on the train, many owe their lives. With her first aid kit Mrs. Haaker set up an impromptu hospital in the observation car. Mrs. Lackin R. Deue and Mrs. Freda Metzger of Chicago assisted her.
Trained Nurse Heroine.
Mrs. Haaker was traveling with her husband and a friend. Frederick Oberheid of Chicago. All three were awakened by the crash and by the screams of a member of the train crew who ran through the rear cars with terribly scalded hands, screaming, “For God’s sake, somebody help me!”
Still in her night clothing Mrs. Haaker dressed the man’s hands while her husband and Oberheld hurried ahead, improvised stretchers and brought many of the injured to the observation car. Sheets were torn up for use as bandages and the emergency hospital force worked for hours to relieve the agony of the scalded.
“I could hear, it seemed, a thousand people screaming,” said Mr. Haaker in describing the crash, “and, through their voices, the roar of the escaping steam.
“When we came near the engine the sight was overwhelming. The first two day coaches had been telescoped and were ground together in a mass of wood and steel, and some passengers in the first coach had been thrown bodily into the coal tender. The third coach had ridden up over these two and was lying squarely on top of the engine. The engine’s steam pipes had broken and a fog of steam was pouring into the car perched on top.
“We could see hands waving and then falling back into the car. Those in the tender who were unable to get out because of the car on top of them were lying close against the coal in the hope of avoiding the blistering steam. We could do very little until the flow of steam slackened. When we pulled them out those who were still conscious screamed with the pain. I saw at least twelve dead and twenty-five of those treated were so badly scalded that they will probably die.”
Wanted Hand Cut
Mrs. Annie Jollie, 55 years old, of Chicago, told how she was hurled from her berth amid a shower of glass. Mrs. Dorothy Joy, in the berth opposite, helped her toward the door of the car.
“I saw a poor woman running toward me distracted,” said Mrs. Jollie. “Her hand, held high, was nearly severed just above the wrist. ‘Get scissors and take this off,’ she gasped. Instead I tore my skirt and wit a piece of wreckage made a first aid tourniquet, stanched the flow of blood and led her to a country doctor who was doing fine service.
“I saw women dig a child out of the wreckage and I helped farmer boys dig out a woman with our bare hands. My memory got hazy then and I don’t remember much more.”
Miss Ruth Zitzewitz of Chicago was thrown from her seat but escaped serious injury. She told of seeing the mangled body of a baby taken from the debris. John Kwohl, 61 years old, and his wife, although shaken up, helped in the rescue work. Otto Bauer of Chicago said he slept through it all until his wife awakened him."
Dallas Morning News, Dallas, TX 17 Jun 1925
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Others who worked for the Lackawanna Railroad who perished with Frederick on the ill-fated train wreck.
Conductor James Nathaniel Banker
Trainman James Scanlon
Porter Oscar "O.J." Daniels
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Family Members
Children
