More on Fostoria

More on Fostoria 1906

From R/t Jan. 12, 2002

Article by Gene Kinn

Baltimore & Ohio R/R Looking to Build New Depot

Local Fostoria contractors have received invitations from the Baltimore and Ohio railroad to bid for work on erecting the new passenger station in this city. The station will be quite an improvement and is needed to take care of the increased business.

It will contain a general waiting room, 24 by 26 feet, women's waiting room and smoking room. each 12 by 25 feet.

On the other side of the general waiting room will be the ticket office, next to it the baggage room. 18 by 22 feet, with an express room of equal dimensions on the extreme end. Ample toilet facilities will be provided.

The building will be heated by a low pressure steam heating system and will be well lighted by electricity.

From R/t Dec. 20, 2001

Article by Gene Kinn

Two die in train wreck

(at Godsend March 1906)

Probably the worst wreck on this division of the Baltimore & Ohio line, since the historic one at Republic some fifteen or twenty years ago, occurred at Godsend, five miles west of Fostoria, yesterday at about.11:30 (March 11, 1906). There were two freight trains and one passenger train in the wreck, and if the passengers had been ten seconds quicker, some trainmen say five, she would have gone through to Chicago unscathed. As it was, she arrived at just the proper moment to receive all the injury possible. As a result, two men were killed and the Sherwood Hotel is filled with injured passengers. Sixteen out of thirty-one have hurts, although few are serious.

The snow storm, the worst of the winter, was probably the prime cause of the wreck as it not only prevented the trainmen from seeing any distance ahead, it also made the track so slippery that their efforts to stop were in vain.

The word was sent to Fostoria at once, the report being that there were fifty killed and injured, and all the physicians in the city wee asked for. The switch engine was hastily hitched to a box car and six doctors were hastily taken to the scene. By the time the relief train arrived, the killed and injured had been gotten out and placed in the diner which was hitched to the engine, brought to town and taken to the Sherwood, Two ambulance and a number of cabs were awaiting them so they were gotten to bed and the physicians set to work to give such relief as they might.

Finding no other way of reaching the scene and still under the impression that a large number of people had met their death, people hurried to the livery stables and it was but a short time until there was a steady stream of rigs making their way out the ridge road, The snow was

beating in the faces of the drivers, almost blinding them and the roads were in such condition that few would have cared to make the trip for anything less urgent. From 500 to 1,000 people must have visited the scene.

It was a horrifying sight to see the cars piled up and burning, suggesting how near one may be to death when traveling over the country. It was a relief to all bad as it was, to learn that it was so much better than first reported and that none lost their lives by fire.

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The express safe, which Lee Buckingham, of this city, route agent of the United States Express Company, rescued from the burning express car, in the very teeth of the flames, was being shipped from the United States Treasury in Washington, D. C., to the subtreasury in Chicago, and was said to be crammed full of paper money, aggregating several hundred thousands of dollars. It was noted that Mr. Buckingham was carefully guarding the big iron box as it stood on the empty flat car, covered with a tarpaulin, but none of the thousands of people who observed it, had any idea of the value of the contents.

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Local Cigar Factory Sold

W.P. Wickert has sold his cigar factory to Albert Wagner and H. B. Cooper, who will move it from the present location on South Street, to the Wickert block on East North Street. Mr. Wickert has been engaged in the manufacture of cigars for the past 20 years, and finding that it was proving injurious to his health, he determined to sell out. He contemplates moving to Toledo, but not for some months.

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