Road accidents didn’t just start with automobiles

While you consider it, vehicles My Amend are simpler to govern than horses; your Ford Mustang isn’t going to get spooked through a teach. The December 4, 1877 York Gazette said two accidents, one pretty harrowing, close to Smith’s Station in Heidelberg Township.

No longer being as familiar with the southwestern part of York County as with the southeastern component, I compared a current Google terrain map with the 1876 Pomeroy, Whitman Atlas of York County. I might guess the Watson family twist of fate passed off on Thoman RRoad just east of which it connects with Locust Avenue. The railroad tracks run very near the street at the same stage now. However, there is a steep embankment on the other aspect of the tracks. I assume the music degree could have been raised to the street stage sometime after the 1877 incident said below. Accident–On Wednesday, says the Hanover bring in, as Mrs. Watson and her two children have been coming to town in a spring wagon, a twist of fate happened which would possibly have proved maximum disastrous.

A mile under Smith’s Station, the railroad and wagon road run parallel and near together, the latter being on an embankment 30 toes high, with a facet as steep as a roof. The horse became frightened at a coming near train and subsidized down over a wall. HOWEVER, Mrs. W. jumped out to catch the horse butbut could not, and down went youngsters, horse, and wagon. The educate turned within 30 or 40 yards; however, the engineer reversed the engine and brought it to a prevent inside a few feet of the kids lying on the track. Had Engineer Miller no longer been prompt, or the machine no longer supplied with an air brake, the youngsters and horse would, in all likelihood, all have been killed. One of the children had a simple fracture of an arm–the alternative became uninjured. The horse turned into an entire. However, the wagon was wrecked. Dr. Alleman set the broken arm. The other said the mishap wasn’t as dazzling, but it additionally resulted in accidents:

Accident–AAt some point recently, while Mr. Daniel Carter of Hanover was riding a horse attached to a buggy, in which a woman, Mrs. C. Smart, changed into also sitting, the pony became fearful at a teach of automobiles in the neighborhood of Smith’s station, provoking the buggy and injuring Mr. Carter slightly approximately his shoulders, and spraining the left wrist of Mrs. wise.

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Studebaker spring wagon

In searching out an example for a spring wagon, I discovered an additional tie-in to the York County location. The image above is from an eBay list closing 12 months for a partially restored Studebaker spring wagon, for which the vendor was asking close to $ 5,000, plus shipping. As summarized in the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission historic markers quoted below, the Studebaker family manufactured wagons on this region earlier than they went west and grew into a big manufacturing corporation.

John Studebaker area: Oxford Rd. (SR 1015), just off PA 234, half of mile E of Heidlersburg Marker textual content: Had his wagon works 2.5 miles SE of right here, 1830 to 1836 when he moved west. In 1852, his sons formed the Studebaker business enterprise, the sector’s largest maker of horse-drawn vehicles and, in 1897, a pioneer in the car industry. Studebaker domestic region: two hundred W. King St. (PA 234) W of Abbotts town St. (PA 194), East Berlin Marker text: built ca. 1790 through David Studebaker, wood worker, farmer, and minister. He became associated with his family, who later constructed wagons and cars. The residence is privately maintained as a museum.