While it did not have a high body count, many people were seriously injured in this 1907 train wreck.
Terrible Railroad Accident Near Flemingsburg Yesterday
Two are dead, ten seriously and four slightly injured in the worst wreck in the history of the Cincinnati, Flemingsburg and Southeastern Railroad, which occurred three miles East of Flemingsburg, when the narrow-gauge combination passenger and freight train went through a 50-foot double-check trestle over Fleming Creek.
The cause of the wreck is said to be rotten timbers in the bridge. As the engine entered from the East side the structure commenced to sway, and before Engineer Moore could check the train the bridge crashed down, and the engine, passenger coach and freight car dropped in a pile in Fleming Creek, a distance of 50 feet.
There were seventeen persons on the train and all were injured. Those slightly injured were brought to Flemingsburg, where the homes of the residents were thrown open, and they were so scattered that it was impossible to secure a list of those slightly injured.
In 20 minutes after the wreck occurred 300 people from Flemingsburg hastened to the scene, the women volunteering as nurses. Physicians from Elizaville, Ewing, Mt. Carmel and Poplar Plains were summoned to Flemingsburg to relieve the suffering.
Lake Dudley, general manager of the road, was one of the first at the scene, and with the assistance of the farmers living near the wreck, the dying and injured were brought to Flemingsburg without delay.
The trestle where the wreck occurred was regarded as one of the most dangerous places on the road, and it frequently has been predicted that it was only a matter of time until it would give way.
One of the most striking features of the wreck was that the ill-fated train was a funeral train, bearing the corpse of Mr. Rankins’ brother to Hillsboro to be interred. The body was mangled almost beyond identification.
Young Duley was a nephew of Mr. John Daley of Maysville.
Undertaker Thomas and wife arrived in Maysville yesterday on No. 2 over the C. and O. with the body of Mr. Rankin; and the funeral party was composed of many from Covington en route to Hillsboro with the remains.
Source: Daily public ledger. (Maysville, Ky.), 11 May 1907.
