The 1895 Kreamer Sleigh Tragedy

Sleigh parties were popular forms of wintertime amusement in the Victorian Era.

The village of Kreamer in Snyder County was the scene of a horrible tragedy in the early hours of January 25, 1895, when a sleigh carrying sixteen prominent citizens of Selinsgrove was smashed to pieces by a speeding freight train.

Just hours before, a party of Selinsgrove socialites belonging to the Owl Club had been dancing the night away at a ball in Middleburg (the Owls were a Masonic group founded in 1890, not to be confused with the Order of Owls secret society, which was founded in 1904). In attendance were Albert W. Potter, a prosperous lawyer who had once been a Republican candidate for Congress and was married to a descendant of Selinsgrove's founder; Charlotte "Lottie" Eby and her beau, Professor Robert Nelson Hartman, who was a 24-year-old chemistry professor at Susquehanna University; Miss Mollie Burns, a 21-year-old society belle whose mother was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution; wealthy lumber dealer Edward Hummel and his wife; Miss Bertie Hamilton, daughter of the president of the Shamokin-Mt. Carmel Electric Railway; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ulrich; Mr. and Mrs. A.W. Smith and R.L Shroyer, Roscoe North, and Carrie Hendricks.

Shortly after two o'clock in the morning the guests left the dance in Middleburg in a merry mood and piled into a sleigh owned by Isaac Romig and driven by his son, Charles. The return trip to Selingrove required the party to make ten railroad crossings. The tenth and final crossing was over the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks at Kreamer. Romig's four mules had little difficulty making the other crossings, but as the sleigh crossed the tracks at Kreamer an hour later its icy runners, coming into contact with the frosty steel rails, brought the sleigh to a screeching halt.

The passengers weren't overly concerned; as Charles Romig got out of the sleigh to cut the ropes from the exhausted mules, the passengers were singing loudly and merrily, their voices and sleighbells drowning out the approach of westbound Engine No. 113 as it pulled its freight around the curve along Middle Creek. Buildings and houses concealed the train's approach, and it was only when the engine's headlight bathed the revelers in an ominous white glow did the songs and laughter turn to shrieks of terror. But before anyone could move, the locomotive struck the sleigh directly behind the driver's box.

Charles Romig was and his father were killed instantly. Newspapers reported that Charles was ground to pieces, and his remains had to be gathered up in a sack. Isaac Romig's body was found on the locomotive's cowcatcher without a scratch; it appeared that he had either died of fright or from the knowledge that his son was about to be cut to ribbons.

Newspapers initially reported that Albert Potter had been killed in the accident, but this proved to be untrue, although both of his arms had been cut off. Miss Mollie Burns' right leg was crushed and her arm broken. Professor Hummel received a ghastly scalp laceration, and was bleeding so heavily that it was expected that he would die by sunrise, while Mrs. Ulrich suffered several broken ribs and internal injuries. Lottie Eby suffered terrible gashes in her legs. Mrs. Potter had a miraculous escape from death as the wheels of the train cars cut the clothes from her body; she later said that she could feel the wheels rubbing against her torso. Amazingly, she had the presence of mind to lie still until the train passed. If she had moved just an inch, she, too, would've been ground to pieces.

Residents of the village dragged the bleeding, broken bodies away from the tracks and the injured were taken to the Kreamer Hotel, where Mollie's leg was amputated at the knee and Albert Potter's arm was amputated at the elbow.  The others were treated for minor injuries and lacerations. Some would show evidence of their misfortune for the rest of their lives by way of scars and limps, but all would recover.

As for the Romigs, their bodies were placed on the early morning train to Sunbury and delivered to Selinsgrove for burial. On Tuesday, January 29, after a funeral service at city hall, Isaac and his son were laid to rest at Union Cemetery in Selinsgrove. Unfortunately, even the funeral was marred by horror; as Charles' coffin was being lowered into the grave one of the straps broke, and the glass lid was shattered after the casket fell to the bottom of the grave at an awkward and precarious angle. As Charles had been cut into several pieces by the train, chunks of his body spilled out of the coffin, and one can only imagine the revolting scene at the cemetery as the gravediggers hopped into the hole and put what was left of Charles Romig back into the casket.

The tragedy of the Owl Club's last sleigh ride struck such a blow in the community that schools in Selinsgrove were closed for a week after the accident. After his recovery, Albert Potter brought lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Railroad for damages, and even though it's difficult to see how the railroad was at fault for the unfortunate accident, a sympathetic jury awarded the Selinsgrove attorney $13,300. Professor Hartman was one of the key witnesses called to testify. The professor and Lottie Eby, who also made a full recovery from her injuries, were married shortly after. The professor would die in Colorado just a few years later; in 1903, he met his demise in his laboratory at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, after being overcome by toxic hydrogen sulphide gas in front of a classroom of students.





Sources:
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, Jan. 25, 1895.
Harrisburg Telegraph, Jan. 26, 1895. 
Lewisburg Journal, Jan. 30, 1895.
Harrisburg Telegraph, Jan. 31, 1895.
Perry County Democrat, Jan. 30, 1895.
Chambersburg Valley Spirit, Sept. 2, 1896.
Snyder County Tribune, May 15, 1903.