Old Railroad Pictures

Bad Railroad Accident in Seneca Falls

By Richard Palmer

Prior to the merger of the Auburn and Rochester and Auburn and Syracuse railroads on August 1, 1850, to form the Rochester and Syracuse Railroad Company, the so-called “Auburn Road” was the main line between the two cities.

The Auburn road carried a significant amount of traffic, or at least five daily freight and express trains in each direction; an undoubtedly many freight trains not normally listed on a public timetable.

Even after the mainline was built, traffic continued heavy on the Auburn road until well into the 20th century. The railroad put significant into keeping the line safe. But it was a single track line with turnouts and accidents were inevitable, largely through human error.

One occurred near the passenger station at Seneca Falls on October 3, 1850. An eastbound mail train collided with a westbound emigrant train which resulted in the death of Peter B. Boots of Waterloo, a railroad laborer. He was standing on the platform of a mail car when two trains collided. Several others were injured. The mail train entered the occupied siding to allow an express train to pass. Three coaches were heavily damaged in the accident.

The accident was detailed in an article in the Rochester Democrat of Friday, October 4, 1850:

" Three trains on the Rochester & Syracuse Railroad met at Seneca Falls on Thursday morning, about 4 o'clock, and a collision occurred between the Emigrant train coming west, and the night mail train going east, by which one man was killed and several injured severely.

"They all arrived nearly at the same time. The Emigrant train reached the Falls within thirty minutes of the time when the Express train from this city was due there, and ran off upon the branch to await its arrival. Soon after the mail train east came up, and passing on backed upon the branch, just in time to escape the Express train, which passed by doing some little injury to the locomotive attached to the mail train.

"The latter was somewhat behind time, and the engineer being aware of the close proximity of the Express train, feared he should not escape a collision with it, and reversing his engine he jumped off and the train running onto the branch, came in violent contact with the rear of the Emigrant train standing there.

"Three cars were badly damaged, one of the mail train completely overtopping the last of the Emigrant train. A man named Peter B. Boots, of Waterloo, a laborer for the Company, was standing on a platform on the mail train, tried to apply the brakes and was crushed to death between the cars. He was so badly injured that he subsequently died from the effects of his injuries. (1) Several others were badly hurt, and one other man, who was a passenger on the Emigrant train, from Vermont, may not survive.

"Boots, seeing the danger of collision, endeavored to apply the brakes to check it, and was caught between the cars and crushed to death.

Wreck occurred near Seneca Falls railroad station. This is the second one on the

same site erected about 1870.

Seneca Falls Historical Society

"A lady named McNalty, who with her four children, one of them an infant, was on her way from New Hampshire to join her husband in Wisconsin, was hurt pretty severely in the shoulder and ankle. She was brought on by the emigrant train, and Dr. Beckwith gave his professional assistance in her case. Six of the cars were so injured that they could not be used. These are the circumstances of the case, so far as we are able to ascertain them."

"LATER. - Mr. Harry Dutton. conductor of the Emigrant train, has arrived from the scene of the disaster and reports that only one person is yet dead - Mr. Boots, a carpenter in the employment of the company. There were several others considerably injured, one of them an Irishman who came up in Mr. Dutton’s train.

"We have also conversed with James S. Bush,Esq., of this city, who was on the Express train at the time of the accident. He thinks a large number of persons must have been move or less injured. Mr. B. informs us that several passengers in the Express train which was out of place, seems to have been the Mail train going east, and with the conductor and engineer of that train seems to rest the responsibility of the accident."

The editor of the Waterloo Observer of October 10, 1850 said the engineer of the mail train should have remained in Waterloo until the emigrant train had cleared Seneca Falls and the accident could have been avoided. He said the Seneca County Grand Jury, which was to meet in Ovid the following week, hopefully would have taken up the matter and held the engineer of the mail train accountable. But no record of such action has been found.

Noted in the company annual report of the railroad for 1850:

"October 13, 1850. - The mail train, in backing on the branch at Seneca Falls, ran into the emigrant train then standing there, killing one man, (who was in the employ of the company, and was standing upon the platform at the time,) also injuring three passengers slightly." (2)

1. Peter Benjamin Boots was born July 14, 1815 in the town of Potter, Yates County, and died October 10, 1850 and is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in the village of Waterloo. He was the son of Benjamin and Susan Basom Boots. Photo by RD Calhoun-Eagan.

2. Page 119, Annual report of the Rochester & Syracuse Railroad, September 30, 1851.

Map of train wreck scene by David Hanna

The Auburn Road, by Richard F. Palmer and Kenneth E. May, traces the history of the Auburn Branch of the New York Central Railroad and its predecessor lines. The railroad started as the Auburn & Syracuse Railroad in 1834 and the Auburn & Rochester Railroad in 1836. They merged with each other and later became the Auburn Branch of the mighty New York Central. This book covers the 190-year story of the Auburn Road, from its crude beginnings, when horses drew modified stagecoaches over wooden rails, through today’s modern and aggressive Finger Lakes Railway, which rescued what was left of the line from oblivion. Instead of a trackless right-of-way, we now see 2,000-horsepower diesel locomotives, decked out in the classic New York Central “Lightning Stripe” paint scheme, busily serving both old and new freight customers. It is a railroad determined to survive and thrive.