Stephen D. Peet
speaker
928 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 5 Aug
Stephen D. Peet’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.
Appearances
the only access to the gorge was by a long flight of stairs which was at the time of the calamity covered with a deep bank of snow no road existed to it and the spot could be reached by teams only as a track was broken through gardens and down steep banks and across the valley and along the stream a solitary building was in this gorge
it was the engine-house here were the massive boiler and engine which were used for pumping water from the stream to the heights above and so to the tanks at either side of the station-house in the distance
situated close by the river and almost under the shadow of the bridge itself this lone house became to the wrecked travellers a refuge from the fire and storm
on the heights above towards the depot another engine-house was situated it was the place where the lake erie a hand-fire engine stood two cisterns for the supply of water were located near one on either side of the railroad track it is difficult to picture a place more retired and lonely than this gorge
so near the busy station and yet isolated inaccessible and seldom visited its distance from the village and the nature of the surroundings will account for many things which occurred on that awful night
but it is a strange tale we have to tell in the midst of the habitations of men untold sufferings took place and the loss of life and fearful burning the fire department consisted of three companies two at the village and one at the depot
there was only one steamer and that was a mile from the depot these companies were under the control of the chief fireman mr g w knapp who is a tinner by trade and a man slow and lymphatic in temperament and one who
for a long time had been addicted to the constant use of intoxicating liquors a man every way unfit for so trying an emergency the reorganization of the fire department had begun many intelligent and prominent citizens were members of it but these had not been successful in securing the removal of the chief
as several years of association had made many of the firemen satisfied with his services it was unfortunate that the control was at the time in such incompetent hands but no one could have anticipated such an event and no emergency had heretofore shown the necessity for a change chapter one
chapter two of the ashtabula disaster by stephen pete the river and the bridge the ashtabula river is a shallow stream which runs through the county and the town as it approaches the lake it widens and deepens into what constitutes the harbor
the banks lining the valley of it are high and rocky precipices they form in the rear or to the southward of the town a gorge which is called by the inhabitants by the significant name the gulf near the depot this gorge widens and its banks become less precipitous but even at this point
the river flows at least seventy-six feet below the level of the road and is four feet deep here the fatal but far-famed bridge was built a grade on an arched viaduct conveyed the track to the abutments but these stood by themselves
straight from the bottom of the gorge two lofty pillars of stone seventy-six feet high and just wide enough for the two tracks of the road flanking these were the lower and smaller abutments of an older bridge left standing but for a long time unused
the span of the bridge across this gorge from abutment to abutment was the unusual length of one hundred and fifty feet the bridge was very high and loomed up in the distance tall and dark and gloomy
travellers by the wagon road at a distance up the river a mile away would stop and look at this structure apparently built high in air and watch the cars as they passed in bold relief against the sky almost as if a spectre train were traversing the blue vault above
it was a dizzy height there was something almost fearful in the sight the recklessness of danger impressed the observer as the full outline marked itself against the sky the fascination at times almost reached a sense of the sublime
here then was the bridge suspended high in air lofty and tall and dark a mysterious thing it was not an arch lifting high its springing sides it was not a set of beams supported by abutments below it was a web of iron netted and braced and bolted heavy dark and gloomy in appearance
and proving treacherous as death this bridge was erected in the year eighteen sixty five by mr tomlinson according to orders and patterns given by mr amasa stone then president of the road
it was built after the pattern of the howe truss but containing some elements introduced by the president himself it was constructed of wrought iron with long iron braces from lower cord to upper cord twenty feet in height
there were rods stretching from top to bottom and designed to carry the strain from brace to brace the panels were eleven feet long and between these the strength of the cords depended on three iron beams six inches thick and eight inches wide the whole width of the bridge was nineteen and one half feet
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