Tragedy on the Diascund - 1930

  Three persons were drowned when a small outboard motor boat capsized in Diascund Creek near the mouth of the Chickahominy River. They were Robert E. Garnett, Jr., who live seven miles from Richmond on the River Road; Raymond Peay of near Seven Pines, and Miss Mable Davis of Richmond. Miss Lowis Owens, the fourth member of the party, was rescued.

-Smithfield Times, 15 May 1930

Dynamite Charge Brings Third Victim of Tragedy In Chickahominy River to The Surface Yesterday. 

RICHMOND, May 13—(AP)—The body of Miss Mable Pearl Davis, 21, was found at 10 o’clock yesterday morning in the Chickahominy River, three days after she and two men were drowned. It will be sent today, for burial, to her family home at Dillwyn. Dynamite brought the body to the surface about 300 yards from the spot where the boat in which she was riding with Raymond Peay, Robert Garnett, Jr., and Miss Lowis Owens, capsized. Miss Owens made her way to a swamp and was rescued.

 Miss Davis, who had resided at 2310 East Broad street, was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Willie W. Davis, of Dillwyn. Besides her parents, four sisters and three brothers survive. One of these sisters, Miss Virgie Davis, lives at 14 East Main street.

 Walter Dawson, deputy motor vehicle commissioner, and Henrico County Officer J.O. Blakenship, who had charge of the searching party which dragged the river night and day to recover the body, turned the body over to Woody’s Funeral Parlor. The body will be shipped from Richmond by the Chesapeake and Ohio at 11:40 o’clock this morning to Bremo Bluff, where relatives will meet the train. The bodies of the drowned men were found Friday night and Saturday morning. Miss Owens was the sole survivor of the tragedy.

 

-Suffolk News-Herald, 13 May 1930

Another Lanexa Train Wreck - 1908

 

 JOHN CHALKLEY RIDE TO DEATH

 Killed on Engine After Applying Brakes When Machine Jumped the Track. 

BAGGAGEMASTER AND FIREMAN BADLY HURT 

Fast Train Coming from Newport News Wrecked Near Lanexa Just Before Noon. All Passengers Uninjured.

 Engineer John R. Chalkley. one of the oldest employees of the Chesapeake and Ohio railway, in charge of one of the fast trains between this city and Newport News, was instantly killed near Lanexa to-day about 11:30 o'clock, while his train was coming to RICHMOND.

 The engine Jumped the track three hundred a mile this side of Lanexa, turning over on its side, crushing the life out of the engineer. The engineer died at his post, and to his rare presence of mind, his duty to those on his train, a Score might have been killed to-day.

 The train is one of the fastest on the road, and Engineer Chalkley, noted for his daring and coolness, has been pulling the train for years. An examination »f the engine shows that when it left the track the engineer shut off the steam and applied the emergency brakes. But it was too late to save himself, and the monster steel pile rolled over and caught him.

 The engine and the baggage car only left the track, the cars coming to a stop in short order. Not one of the passengers received more than a scare and a shaking up, with slight bruises. The fireman, Robert Walkley, was badly injured, and the baggage-master was a so severely hurt, the heavy baggage striking him and inflicting painful injuries. 

RUSHED AID TO SUFFERERS.

 Only the most meagre information of the accident came to the offices of the company for some hours, and this was promptly given out by the railroad people. The first thing done was to get a crew to man the wrecking train and to get coaches to send down to bring the passengers on to this city. Physicians were hurriedly summoned, and in an hour after the news of the accident the train had been made up, the surgeons were aboard and the train was on its way to the scene of the accident. Drs. Brock, Bryan. McCarthy and Taylor were on the train. 

 The train is one of the handsomest that goes out of the city. The cars are modern, heavy built, well appointed and substantial. Their construction is the very best possible, and the fact that the cars are of such build prevented the possible further loss of life when they struck the wrecked engine and baggage car.

 Just what caused the accident is not known. The point where the engine left the track is at a curve this side of Lanexa. The track is constantly watched by track-walkers, and every precaution is taken to prevent any sort of mishap.

 The passengers will reach this city same time during the afternoon, probably about 3 o’clock. The railroad officials say that the track will be cleared in ample time for the trains to pass through at 4 o'clock, when the fast train leaves here for Old Point.

 Engineer "Johnny” Chalkley was about fifty years old. He had been in the employ of the company for thirty years. His home was at 2306 East Broad street. The officials expressed great feeling for the unfortunate man when they heard that he had stuck to his post and gone down to death with his engine in protecting the life of his passengers.

 "He was one of the bravest of men. he was loyal to the company and to the welfare of his passengers,” said one of the high officials of the company today. “If it had been necessary for John Chalkley to have laid his arm across the track to stop the train or to save one of his passengers, he would not have hesitated a moment. I believe that he would have sacrificed his life to prevent injury to the train and passengers. He was a faithful and appreciated employee "

-News Leader, 19 September 1908

The engineer John Randolph Chalkley, 54,  is the same Engineer Chalkley from the train incident in July 1905 that killed two men that was posted here on November 10.

About fifty carriages were used In the funeral procession of John Randolph Chalkley. the engineer of the Chesapeake and Ohio railway who was killed near Lanexa Saturday, the last rites over his body having been held In the family home, 2306 East Broad street, and in Oakwood cemetery yesterday afternoon. It was one of the largest funerals seen In that section of the city In a long time. 

-News Leader, 22 September 1908

 

"A Mile a Minute" 1905

 

                                    FAST MAIL TRAIN KILL TWO MEN

          White Farmer and Negro Track Walker Are Instantly Killed.

                               GO TO MEET FLYER ON VELOCIPEDE CAR

Mystery Surrounds the Accident. Track Walker Knew of Approaching Express. Engineer Says Neither Man Made Any Move to Escape Death.

 

 Mr. A.A. Laudell, a farmer, and William Winfred, a colored track walker in the employ of the railroad, were struck by Chesapeake and Ohio train No. 8 on yesterday afternoon and Instantly killed.

 The scene of the accident was one-half a mile east of Windsor Shades. The men were upon the velocipede car belonging to the section master of the division, and, strange as it may seem, were going west to meet the approaching train. 

 The fast flyer of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway left the Main Street station, at Richmond 4 P.M. on his usual race to Newport News. A mile a minute is no unusual speed for No. 8 to make on straight stretches.

 After leaving Windsor Shades the engineer, Mr. Chalkley, on engine No. 71 saw on the straight track ahead of him a hand-car containing two men. It was impossible to stop the fast moving train, and besides he thought the men on the car would certainly jump to save their lives. They made not the slightest movement, however, for safety, and simply advanced to met their death. The straight stretch of track is of some length at this point; the sound of an approaching train can be heard there for a great, distance, and William Winfred, the track walker, was familiar with the train schedules and was aware that the fast train was due at that time. The fact that the men were on the main track and were approaching an express train which was known to be due, lends an air of mystery to the unhappy occurrence. 

            Who the Men Are.

 Mr. A. A. Laudell is a farmer who resides about a mile from Walker's Station, which is about eight miles from Providence Forge.

 William Winfred, the negro track walker, is highly spoken of by railroad men. They say he was a good and careful employee and they cannot understand how he rushed willingly into the very jaws of death. He was familiar they say with the time of passing trains and was a temperate man in his habits.

The accident occurred about 4:40 P.M. 

The bodies of the unfortunate men were turned over to the Coroner, who will summons a Jury this morning. It is said that no blame attaches to the Engineer Chalkley of the railroad.

-The Times Dispatch, July 5, 1905

More on Engineer Chalkey soon

Train-Car Collision 1945

HIGHWAY DEATHS PICK UP WITH HIGH SPEEDS

Richmond, Aug. 28—Virginia’s highway deaths since the wartime speed limit of 35 miles was lifted last Friday rose to a count of 14 today for the five-day period. The most recent fatality occurred at midmorning yesterday at Windsor Shades, where Mrs. W.S. Dunn, of Bland, Va., was instantly killed when she drove across a track where a freight train had passed and was struck by a crack passenger train on the Chesapeake and Ohio line which had been obscured to her. Bystanders said Mrs Dunn had taken her husband and a friend to a bus and that, in order to reach it, the two had circled around the freight train to the other side while Mrs. Dunn waited in her car for the train to pass and that she failed to see the passenger train coming on the adjacent track.

-The Highland Recorder(Monterey), August 1945

Accident on Old Forge Pond- 1869

        Fatal Accident-Man Drowned.

-A few days since a party of five workmen started from Mr. Pearson's farm in New Kent county, to go to their homes. There were among them four white men and one colored man. When they got to Providence Forge mill-pond they were compelled to take a small boat with which to cross. They had proceeded half-way across the pond when suddenly the boat capsized from some cause that cannot be explained. The men were all thrown out, and all, with the exception of one named Phillips, gained a tree in the middle of the pond. Phillips sank immediately after he was thrown into the water, and was seen no more. Strange to say, he was the only man in the party who could swim, and his companions cannot account for the manner of his drowning. The men who succeeded in getting to the tree remained there during nearly the entire night crying for help, which was rendered them early the next morning. Phillips' body had not been found at last accounts. He was an honest, hard-working man, and left a small family.

-The Daily Dispatch, 23 July 1869

The Gilmer map of 1863 above shows the residence of E. C. Person just to the west of the "Forge Mill Stream"(Rumley Marsh).

Death at Rocketts

ROBERT A. CRADDOCK, a young married man, twenty-four years of age, of the county of New Kent, fell overboard from the lighter "Woodbury" Monday night, whilst intoxicated, opposite the Virginia sugar refinery, Rocketts, and was drowned. He is the young man alluded to in The Journal yesterday as having been fatally injured near the sugar refinery, which representation was according to the tenor of existing advices at that time.

-The Daily State Journal(Richmond), August 14, 1873

 Robert A. Craddock is listed as living in the St. Peter's district in the census of 1870 along side his wife Mary, and two sons Gustavus and Albert, 2 years old and a infant respectively.

I assume he is the same "Robt" A. Craddock(though listed as14) of the 1860 Charles City census listed as the son of William H. and Sarah A. Craddock.(Household ID: 357). This would seem to be confirmed by a Robert Craddock marrying a Mollie A. Craddock in Charles City in 1866.

Freak Accident

OLD DOMINION NOTES

 R. M. Wilkinson, of Toano, was killed some time Saturday night near Walkers Station, in New Kent county. He was a sewing machine agent and was driving from Providence Forge, when, it is presumed, his horse ran away, overturning the wagon. A sewing machine fell on him, breaking his back.

-The Washington Post (Washington, D.C.) Feb 6, 1901

Early Automobile Accident for New Kent Physician

From the Daily Press, October 20, 1910