THE LATE TERRIBLE DISASTER ON THE ERIE RAILWAY.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 604, 2 December 1869, Page 4

THE LATE TERRIBLE DISASTER ON THE ERIE RAILWAY.

The Port Jervis correspondent of the Neio Yvrk Times, -writing on 17th. Aug., 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 the author of the' terribje disaster at Carr's Rook, which/ occurred on the morning of the 15th of April, 1868, thereby 9 score or more souls were hurled into eternity in an instant, and 50 or 6Q persons were badly wounded, seven pf whom afterwards died from the effects of those injuries, The perpetrator of thip hellish crime has been lying in jail at Milford, Pennsylvania, on a double charge of having torn up the railroad track with the intention of throwing off trains, arid of perjury, to fasten the guilt thereof on an innocent man. About five months ago the Erie Railway Company offered a reward of 2000dols for the detection of any persons who should put obstructions on the track or tamper with the fastenings of the rails of the road for the purpose of throwing off the trains. On the 28th of May last, on a dajk night, Bowen reported to the company's watchman at Stairway, seyen miles west of Port Jervis, that he had just caught a man at. work near by tampering with the rails. The watchman went with Bowen to the spot designated and found the rail loosened, Bowen was sent for to New York, and on. the strength of his statements caused the arrest of a farmer named James Knight as the author of the deed, Knight was tried and fcdly exonerated, and it ended in. Bowen's arrest and incarceration in the jail at Milford, Perm,, where he made a confession acknowledging himself to be the guilty party, and exonerating Knight, He stated the motives of the crime to be to secure the reward of 2QoQdola. which had been offered, Ever since the disaster at Carr's Bock it haa been the opinion of Borne that the accident was occasioned by parties intent on plunder, and not by the simple breaking of a rail. Accordingly, representations were made to this effect by the company, who p|ace.A skilful detectives on the watch, and the result has been (as before stated) the incarceration in jail of John Bowen, on a charge of tearing up the railroad track at divers times, and committing perjury by charging James Knight with the offence. Yesterday, Bowen sent word to the Division Superintendent, Qeo, S, Bedington, that he. had something important to reveal in relation to the accident at Carr's Bock. He then made, the following con? fessiori : — I reside in Orange County. I have read the -&ble and prayed lately, and hope to gel some of ray 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 Qut,l was going alorg (I was not working for the company} one day, and I kicked a atone 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, thtre 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 it at that, and along came a freight tiajn, and, broke it off, and the train ran off down the bank. About th§ Js.th, a year ago last March (April), at 3 o'clock in the morning, I came ao^n the track (I left my place early), and had been a,t Lackawaxen. I went to see about a silver mine I had binning out there. I dropped a stone on my foot, which hurt me, so I walked' slowly down the track until 1 came to Carr's Bock. A freight train passed me there, going west. j stepped aside till it passed. I saw (on the side) a rail (crooked), which was working up and down as the train passed. J took a piece of the cap off 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 spike under the quarter tie, in order to make it come straight to its place again. I didn't think it was going to do any damage at all. I travelled on from half a mile to three quarters down the track, then I heard a great noise. I thought it was the stones slipped down into the water. Instead of the. qtones it was a train going east, and in two or three days I heard it was, the train instead of stones. That was the Carr's Rock calamity ! I felt very B,orry from that time to this. Since J have been here I don't sleep nights. I was not then in the employ of the Erie Company. Before any of the occurrences I had been employed by the Erie Company, an,d J\ad been discharged by the company and sent to- jail by the company under a charge of forgery! ' I knew when I put the spike under that rail if a heavy train came upon that rail afterward it would t>rea,k that rail but if a. train had come from the east it would have drove it down. I didn't know from which way the next train was coming. BoWEfl. The confession was made by- J,ohn Bowen, Aug. 15, 1869, at the MiKord jail, Pike County, Perm., where he is confined to answer the double crime pi tearing up raiload track, and committing, perjury by changing one James Knight with the offence. The crimes for which he is confined w.ere committed in the spring of this. year. John D. Bijexjdis, Attorney-at-Law. - Mflford, Aug. 16, 1869,