From the July 25, 1875 Issue of the New York Times:

3 Trainmen Killed, One Man Found in a Tree Over a Thousand Feet Away
Port Jervis, NY, July 24, 1875 -- A firghtful locomotive boiler explosion occurred on the Delaware Division of the Erie railroad last night, eight miles west of Port jervis, resulting in the instant death of three men and the destruction of many thousand dollars' worth of property.

The engine was attached to extra coal train No. 4 from Honesdale, Jefferson Fuller, engineer. When the train reached the point named above it was flagged by a train ahead of it and came to a stop. The flagman of the leading train, Joseph Bonnell, jumped on the pilot of the engine he had flagged for the purpose of riding down some distance toward his train. Fullers train was kept at a standstill for a few minutes, when the signal was given to go ahead. A brakeman who was on the twelfth car was looking at the engineer, and says that when he placed his hand on the throttle the explosion took place. The firebox was blown out and the engine lifted bodily from the track and thrown backward, lighting on the tender, bottom side up. The air was filled with flying fragments for some time; heavy pieces of iron fell all along the train, demolishing cars and endangering employees. As soon as possible after the explosion, a trainman started on foor for Port Jervis to announce the accident at headquarters. He was only an our walking the eight miles, and gave the alarm. Superintendent Thomas at once ordered the wrecking train to the scene of the disaster, and it carried Dr. Sol Van Etten and others.

During the interval the remaining men on the train endeavored to extricate their companions from the wreck, but, although they could see two of them struggling to free themselves, they could render no aid, and before the arrival of the wreckers they had died. Beneath the ruins were found the bodies of James Stevenson, the fireman, and Joseph Bonnell, the flagman. They were removed as soon as possible, but were quite dead and badly mangled. The body of the engineer could not be found, and it was not until after midnight that it was discovered in a tree over one thousand feet away from the locomotive, on the summit of a hill which is seventy feet above the railroad. His watch hung on a limb by his aide, stopped at 8 o'clock. Every bone in his body was broken, but his face was not injured in the slightest. The three bodies were placed in a car and brought to Port Jervis as soon as possible.

By the explosion the east-bound track was torn up for some distance, the rails being bent in all conceivable shapes. The flues in the locomotive boiler were nearly all torn out. The sand-box and dome were thrown a distance of 500 feet into the middle of the Delaware River, and a portion of the grate and fire-box, weighing hundreds of pounds, was hurled back 200 feet, and buried in the side of the mountain. Pieces of the engine were thrown nearly a mile, and every wheel on it was torn off, and one cannot be found. Not a particle of the cab in which the engineer and fireman were standing at the time of the explosion has been discovered. The noise of the explosion was heard five miles away. Several telegraph poles were broken down, and telegraphic communication was cut off for some time. The explosion took place at the time when the great movement of freight and coal over the division and branches begins to approach and leave Port Jervis, and before the news was generally known the tracks were jammed for miles with both east and west bound trains. The jam lasted until this forenoon. Passenger trains were delayed three hours.

Coroner D.T. Cox, of this place, summoned a jury to hold an inquest on the bodies of the victims, but had not proceeded far with the deliberations when the fact that the accident occurred in Pennsylvania and could not be investigated in this State was discovered. Word has been sent to the Pike County Coroner, but he has not yet appeared to take charge of the case.

The cause of the explosion is unknown. The deceased trainmen all leave families. The loss to the company by the explosion will not be less than $20,000.