The Late Terrible Disaster on the Erie Railway.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 7, 22 December 1869, Page 2

The Late Terrible Disaster on the Erie Railway.

The, Port Jorvis correspondent of the New York Times, writing on the 17th of August, says .-—One of the most fiendish crimes which it has been our lot to record has just come to light, in the confession of one John Bowen that he was tho author of the terrible disaster at Carr's Rock, which occurred on the morning of tho 15th April, 186b, whereby a score or more souls were hurried into eternity in an instant, and 50 or 60 persons wore badly wounded, seven of whom afterwards died from the effects of their injuries. The perpetrator of this hellish crime has been lying in gaol at Milford, Pennsylvania, on a double charge of having torn up the railroad track with the intention of throwing off trains, and of perjury in attempting to fasten the guilt on an innocent man. About five months ago, the Erie Railway Company offered a reward of S2OOO for the detection of any one who should put obstructions on the track or tamper with the fastenings of the vails of the road for the purpose of throwing off the trains. On the 28th of May last, on a dark night, Bowen reported to the Company's watchman at Stairway, seven miles west of Port Jervis, that he had just caught a man at

work near by tampering with the rails. The watchman went with Bo wen to the spot designated, and found the rail loosened. Bo wen was sent for to New York, and on the strength of his statements, a farmer named James Knight was arrested, on suspicion of being the author of the deed. Knight was tried, and fully exonerated ; and it ended in Bowen being arrested and incarcerated in the gaol at°Milforcl, Pennsylvania, where lie made a confession acknowledging himself to be the guilty party, and exonerating Knight. H(m stated the mptives £f the crime to be to secure the reward of S2OOO which,had beenoffered. _ Ever since the disaster at Carjgp&ock, it has been the opinion of some that the accident was occasioned by parties intent on plunder, and not by the simple breaking of a rail. Representations were accordingly made to this effect by the Company, who placed skilful detectives on the watch, and the result has been (as before stated) the incarceration in gaol of John Bowen on a charge of teariug up the railroad track at divers times, and committing perjury by charging James Knight with the offence.

i Yesterday, Bowen sent word to the | Division-Superintendent, G. S. Bedington, , that he had something important to reveal ; in relation to the accident at Carr's Rock. He then made the following confession : " I reside in Orange County. I have read the Bible and prayed lately, and hope to get some of my sins pardoned. I may not live long and don't like to die with so much on my conscience. I wish to lighten it a little. About between summer and fall, three years ago, on the Erie Railway, between the Delaware Bridge, at Sawmill Rift, and Kennedy's cut, I was going along (I was not working for the Company) one day, and I kicked a stone from the middle of the road to the edge of the track against the chair ; there it lodged. I didn't think it would do any damage ; but it did ; it started two or three cars off the track. Sometime in February, one year ago, there was a crooked rail at Rosa's Switch, near the chair. I took a piece of iron and pushed the rail out of the chair, and raised it up and put a spike under it at the bended place on a second quarter tie. I shoved it back into the chair, but it wouldn't go in without something heavy to force it in. I left at that, and along came a freight train and broke it off, and the train ran off down the bank. About the 15th, a year ago last March (April), at three o'clock in the morning, I came down the track (1 left my place early, and had been at Lackawaxen). I went to see about a silver mine I had burning out there. I dropped a stone on my foot, which hurt me, so I walked slowly down the track, until I came to Carr's Rock. There a freight train passed _ me. It was going west, and T stepped a ide until it passed me. I saw a crooked rail on the riverside, which was working up and down as the train passed. I took a piece of the cap of a rail, and tried to fix it as well as I could. I shoved the rail out of the chair and put a block under it to raise it. I put a spiko under the quarter tie, in order to make it come straight in its place again. I didn't think it was going to do any damage at all. I travelled on from htlf-a-mue to threequarters down the track, when I heard a great noise. I thought it was the stones slipping down into the water. Instead of the stones, it was a train going east, and in two or three days I heard; it was the" train that slipped down, not s the stones. That was thp Carr's Rock calamity ! I felt very sorry from that time to this Since I have been here, I don't sleep at nights. Before any of these occurrences, I had been employed by the Erie Company. I waa sent to gaol by the Company, under a charge of forgery. I knew when I put the spike under the rail that if a heavy train came upon the rail it would break it, but that if the train came from the east it would drive it down. I didn't, know from which direction the next train was comm*-.- { "John lidwEx." 1