Circus train wreck service to be held

Memorial set for 10 a.m. May 24 at site of deadly derailment

A memorial service for the five people killed in the Walter L. Main Circus Train Wreck of 1893 will be held next week.

The service marking the 130th anniversary of the derailment will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 24, at the wreck site in Vail, four miles north of Tyrone, on Vanscoyoc Hollow Road, near the Tyrone Sportsmen's Club. The GPS address is 248 Vanscoyoc Hollow Road, Tyrone.

The service is a joint program by the Tyrone Area Historical Society, Adam Forepaugh Tent No. 2, Emmett Kelly-Bello Nock Tent No. 41, John Ringling North II -- Steven Ryan Tent NO. 178 of the Circus Fans of America and Freestate Clown Alley No. 30.

The program will include special guests, the Masonic Lodge, Elks Lodge 212, Tyrone Sportsmen's Club, Snyder Township officers and local dignitaries.

A brief oral history of the circus train wreck will be presented.

A wreath will be laid at the monument marking the 5:30 a.m. May 30, 1893, crash.

After the service, a second wreath will be laid at the graves of the two

canvas-men, Barney Multany and William "Thomas" Lee. Those grave sites are at Grandview Cemetery, Tyrone.