The train known as the Pacific Express (No. 5, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway) pulled out of Erie, Pennsylvania on the afternoon of December 29, 1876, headed toward Chicago. Two locomotives, christened “Socrates” and “Columbia,” towed its two passenger cars, three sleeper cars, two baggage cars, two express wagons, a smoker, and the caboose.
The Pacific Express reached Ashtabula, Ohio, early on that snowy evening. When it pulled out of the Ashtabula station, 159 passengers and crew members were aboard.
The train had gone only about 100 yards from the station when, at 7:28 p.m., it reached the iron bridge over the Ashtabula River. “Socrates” had just crossed the bridge when bystanders and passengers heard a terrible cracking sound. The bridge collapsed, and “Columbia,” with all eleven following cars, plunged 70 feet into the river. Within moments, the train cars – all built of wood – were set afire by the kerosene heaters and lamps in use aboard. Would-be rescuers rushed to the ravine, but could only stand at the edge gazing in horror at the inferno in the water below.
In 1909, after months of preparation, Ben E. Rich of the Eastern States Mission (with headquarters at New York) and German E. Ellsworth of the Northern States Mission (with headquarters at Chicago), jointly published a tract to be used as a missionary tool.