O’Brien, who has made about 700 presentations on the wreck, talked of the dangerously mounting speed as the train started its 10-mile journey down from Sandy Ridge, through mini-horseshoe curves and reverses toward Tyrone; of the inadequate braking for the length and weight of the train; of the five human deaths and the deaths of horses and exotic animals; and of a tiger that killed a cow being milked the next day.

The catastrophic event made international news at the time and involved O’Brien’s ancestors, who lived along that stretch of rural road.

She explained how the people of the region responded to the misfortune of individuals they’d never before encountered.

“What really touched me was the closeness that happened between the circus performers and the local people,” O’Brien said after the ceremony held at the memorial near the accident site off Van Scoyoc Hollow Road, across from where O’Brien lives. The annual ceremony, sponsored by the Tyrone Area Historical Society and the Circus Fans of America, drew about 40 people on the wreck’s 130th anniversary.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Drew Baker of Tyrone offers prayers next to Poppo the Clown of Baltimore during the 130 year anniversary of the Walter L. Main circus train wreck in Vail on Wednesday morning.

Town offered help

At 5:30 a.m. May 30, 1893, the Walter L. Main Circus Train crashed due to inadequate braking and local residents rushed to provide aid.

In those days, people tended not to trust individuals who “didn’t have roots” — and circus performers epitomized that type, O’Brien said, noting they were seen as vagabonds.

But the devastating wreck led local people to “open up their homes and hearts,” she said.

O’Brien’s great-grandfather’s brother Sam befriended a clown who survived the wreck, inviting him back to their farmhouse for meals and coffee — and to stay during the week following the wreck, O’Brien said.

Most of the other circus people stayed in a hotel in Tyrone, she added.

The charity shown by the people of the region included never letting any of the circus people pay for care at Altoona Hospital, for their lodgings, their restaurant meals or the repairs of watches and jewelry the circus people retrieved from the wreck, she said.

Two canvas-men who lost their lives in the wreck, Barney Multany and William “Thomas” Lee, were buried at Grandview Cemetery.

The response to the strangers stranded for a time in the area showed the local people to be kind-hearted and open, O’Brien said.

“I don’t know (that would have been the case) if it would have happened in another town,” she said.

Local residents forged lifelong friendships with the circus people, she said, and Walter Main himself ended up regarding Tyrone and Altoona as his “second home(s).”

‘Neat piece of history’

O’Brien’s cousin Jared Daughenbaugh was a participant in Wednesday’s event, helping his son Brodie, 3, install a wreath in front of the monument.

Brodie’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, Hiram Friday, owned the farm where the tiger killed the cow, as Hiram’s daughter Hannah was milking — after which a neighbor came and shot the big cat.

“It’s a neat piece of history for me,” said Jared, 37.

His father Jim lives in the farmhouse where Hiram once lived, while Jared, Susan and a host of other relatives all live nearby, Jared and Jim said.

The story of the wreck revolves around the family and property, Jared said, noting his grandfather donated the ground for the monument.

Over the years, material salvaged from the wreck has been part of their lives, Jim said.

A now-gone corn crib was built with boards from one of the wrecked boxcars, and the paint from the circus markings remained visible, he said.

A latch from a boxcar was on the smokehouse door, Jim said, and old padlocks from the train, with holes in the center and big brass keys, could be found on the property.

Even now, 130 years later, “(we’re) still part of it,” Jim said.

Circus cars were long

Before the train left Summit at Sandy Ridge for the trip down the mountain on the Tyrone-Clearfield Branch Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the conductor called S.S. Blair, superintendent for the Tyrone district, suggesting the addition of a second locomotive to assist with braking, according to O’Brien and “The Great Circus Train Wreck of 1893” by Fred E. Long, which was included in a booklet distributed by O’Brien at the event.

The branch line descended 1,040 feet in 10 miles, with grades as steep as 2.86%, according to the article.

There were air brakes on seven cars and three brakemen to operate hand brakes on the rest of the cars, according to the article.

But Blair denied the request, based on PRR for 17 cars, telling the conductor that one engine ought to be sufficient, and would save the expense of another engine and crew.

The conductor didn’t tell Blair, however, that the circus cars were 70-75 feet long — about twice the length of standard cars, according to the article.

Blair, who was new on the job, lost that job after the accident, O’Brien said.

An inquest placed the blame for the wreck on the railroad, which was made liable for the $200,000 value of the circus train, O’Brien said.

The PRR shops in Altoona worked double shifts to rebuild the salvageable cars, as partial payment, and reimbursed Main for other costs, so he could resume operations in a reduced capacity for the remainder of the season, she said.

Main retired as a circus impresario in 1937 and died in 1950 at age 88, according to the article.

The Tyrone-Clearfield Branch Line closed in 1970 and the rails were removed in 1975.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.