From the Marion Daily Star, January 15, 1889:
Cleveland, OH, Jan. 15 -- A frightful wreck occurred on the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio railroad near Tallmadge, OH at half past 2 o'clock yesterday morning, an eastbound passenger train colliding with one section of a freight train which had broken in two. Eight persons were killed and a dozen injured. The list is as follows:

The killed are: Robert Huntington, of Galion, OH, Passenger Engineer; William Walters, of Galion, OH, Passenger Fireman; J.F. Rushman, of Galion, Freight Brakeman; William Lundy, of Salamanca, NY, Wells Fargo & Company's Express Messenger; three Chinamen; Mary Ann Lyon, of Idaho, aged six, ticketed second class to Cherry Creek, NY.

The injured are: David Thomas, of Galion, Baggagemaster, badly injured, at first reported killed; Robert Owen, of Kent, Newsboy, one shoulder dislocated and bad cuts and bruises; Sam Douglass, Engineer of Galion, travelling in passenger coach, leg and head cut and bruised, burned about the abdomen; James Boyd, of Paterson, NJ, severely hurt on head and back; George Shaw of Galion, Freight Brakeman, cut and bruised; Thomas Fairfax, colored, of Cleveland, leg broken in two places below the knee and bad cuts on hand. Other passengers, whose names are not learned, received slight injuries.

The freight train had broken in two and the crew resorted to the common expediant of "doubling the grade." The flagman who had been sent to guard the rear section, misunderstood the signals and came in before the track was clear. The freight had barely gotten under motion when the express came along. The passenger engine was crushed into bits and Engineer Huntington and Fireman Walters were terribly crushed. A combination baggage and smoking car and a coach took fire immediately after the crash. In the smoker were eight Chinamen. Five were pulled out alive, but half-dead from fright. Three were seen after the collision. Bones and bits of charred flesh gathered up in a bag were all that were found of them.

A most pathetic scene attended the death of little Mary Lyon. She was an orphan, and was being sent through to a relative in Cherry Creek, NY. Edward Peltzer, a passenger in one of the sleepers, took much interest in the little girl, and when the crash came his first thought was of her. He found her wedged down by a seat, the flames already surrounding her. This so unnerved Mr. Peltzer that he threw himself upon the ground and sobbed. Another eye witness says that the little girl, whose shrieks were heartrending, released herself just before the fire got to her, and for a moment groped wildly about, then fell over choked by smoke, the flames quickly coming up to complete the dreadful work. The passengers in the sleepers were hardly aroused by the concussion.

The track was not cleared until 1 o'clock in the afternoon.