2012 Portland Area Historical Society calendar

2012 calendars are now available for $15. Calendars can be purchased online at lulu.com and locally at the New China Buffet and the Rivertown Bookstore in Raffaele's Marketplace.

The story behind this year's cover....

19 HEAD OF LIVESTOCK WERE KILLED

Pere Marquette Wreck Sunday Morning At Portland

Nine Cars Ditched When Switch Jumped After Engine and Several Cars Had Passed Safely Over, At Newman Siding

A disastrous wreck took place at Newman's crossing near Portland near the bridge over the Looking-glass river Sunday morning at 8:10 o'clock, when a local freight train running from Grand Ledge to Ionia was involved in a smashup owing to a defective switch.

The train was carrying over thirty head of livestock, and several of the cars were filled with tile, automobile parts, and other freight commodities. The engine and two of the cars had passed the intersection of the switch with the main track, when the switch opened, owing to a bolt dropping out and the remaining number of the cars went down the other track, crashing into two side-tracked and Asa Newman's coal sheds near the track, and tearing up some of the track.

Fifteen of the cattle were killed outright in the collision and four in five others so badly injured and mutilated that they had to be killed by the train crew. Nine of the freight cars were smashed and wrecked and their contents mixed up in the general debris.

The estimated loss occuring in the loss of the livestock and contents of the cars, and the other damage incurred, is figured at several thousand dollars. The cattle were consigned to I.E. Rogers, living southeast of Ionia.

The engineer on the wrecked freight was Hugh Dobbins and the fireman John Lehmann. After being held there several hours for an investigation, they reached Ionia by automobile Sunday afternoon. A wrecking crew was sent from Ionia to the scene of the disaster.

Ionia Daily Standard
15 October 1917

21 DEAD CATTLE

In Freight Train Wreck at Portland - Seven Cars Leave Track

Zana P. Smith lost 21 head of cattle in a freight wreck at Portland on Sunday morning, and ten cars were badly smashed up, the total loss being computed at $5,000, though it is likely to amount to more than that before the matter is settled. Mr. Smith had a car load of cattle coming from East Jordan, 33 in all, and only 12 are now left, those being brought to Ionia today. There were 15 of the animals killed immediately, and the others had to be killed on account of their mutilated condition. Mr. Smith occupies the old Ed S. Townsend farm south of the Country Club.

The wreck was the result of trouble with a switch. The claim is that bolts were loose on a rail plate, so that the passing of the engine, coal car and first freight car threw the rails open. The rails spread and the following seven were thrown off completely, one or two others being damaged. The cattle car was among the first, the others containing automobile parts, lumber, tiling and other building materials.

Among freaks of the wreck was the sliding out of the trucks from underneath two of the cars, leaving them undamaged and standing directly on the tracks with no wheels under them. A small warehouse was shoved along on its own foundation by the impact of one of the cars, and one of them stood out on the grass, but had not been smashed.

Hugh Dobbins was the engineer on the wrecked train, and John Lehman was fireman. The smash-up occurred at 8:10 in the morning, and tied up the tracks all day, and even the streets to some extent. It was ten hours before the "Louie", Speckin's wrecking crew cleared the tracks, though they worked steadily throughout the day.

The Ionia Daily Standard
15 October 1917

 (The "trucks" are the mechanical units under the train cars that hold the wheels. Look here to see a photo showing some trucks.)

The photo on the cover is the front of a postcard. It was fairly common in the first half of the 20th Century for notable incidents to be memorialized by local photographers, both professional and amateur, with a photo printed onto postcards. The postcard in the PAHS collection was actually used and mailed to a Mrs. J.L. Horner in Mulliken.

The message reads: