Monday, Jan. 24, 1881
Editors Courant:
Last night about one o'clock, a freight train on the B. & S. W. branch, while going down the hill between this place and Gowanda was thrown from the track killing the fireman, a young man by the name of Becker, and very seriously injuring the engineer Thomas Griffin. The accident was caused by a land slide from the hill above the track. Men have been working at this hill for two or three months getting earth to fill the trestle just beyond, and twice before has the earth broken and fell on the workmen below, the first time injuring on from the effects of which he died, and the second time killing one and injuring another man. The contractor could not be unaware of the great danger of working near the banks as they have been doing, and yet if this slide had happened when the men were at work, it is doubtful if any would have escaped. Such criminal carelessness, which has amounted in these three instances to manslaughter, should be severly punished.
[Note: The "B. & S. W. branch" is the former Buffalo & Southwestern Railroad between Jamestown and Buffalo which was leased and later merged into the Erie in the 1880 and 1895 respectively.]