Somerdale Mourned: The Train Tragedy of 1912

An outing to the Tuscarawas County Fair turned tragic when Somerdale friends unknowingly stepped in front of an oncoming train.

Several residents of the small Tuscarawas County mining village of Somerdale set out for a day at the county fair in Canal Dover in the autumn of 1912. Among them were John Abel (1886–1912) and his wife Grace Faulhaber Abel (1890–1912), a young couple married only that January. Also in the group were Lena Dixon Smith (1888–1912) and her husband Clifford Smith (1888–1979) and rounding out the party was Marie Smith (1897–1912), a girl from a neighboring family, and the young couple John and Cora Dixon Miller; Cora and Lena were sisters.

On their roundabout return trip home in the evening, they arrived at the Wheeling & Lake Erie station in Harmon and learned that the next train to Somerdale would not arrive for more than an hour. They decided not to wait and began walking up the two sets of track toward Brewster, the next terminal. They followed the rails closely, totally unaware that two trains would soon converge on their path. An eastbound freight train rumbled past them, its noise drowning out the sound of a passenger train on the westbound track behind them. Before anyone could react, the passenger train struck the group and cut through them “like grass before a scythe.” Three were killed instantly including John Abel, Lena Smith, and the young Marie Smith, while Grace Abel, Clifford Smith and Cora Miller were injured, Grace fatally. Only John Miller, walking a few feet to one side, escaped the blow.

Miller’s testimony later revealed the full horror of the moment. He recalled seeing his wife Cora turn suddenly as the train struck, her body hurled through the air before landing at his feet. Rushing to her side, he found her alive but injured. Nearby, Lena Smith and Marie Smith lay dead, and John Abel’s body had been decapitated by the train’s wheels. Grace Abel’s legs were severed below her knees and she quickly lost consciousness. Clifford Smith, bruised and bleeding, was still alive but unconscious. In the chaos that followed, Miller ran down the tracks and managed to flag down another train, whose crew raised the alarm. The passenger train that had struck them continued on, its crew apparently unaware of the catastrophe in the growing darkness. A special train was soon dispatched to carry the dead and injured to Massillon.

At the Massillon City Hospital, doctors worked through the night to save Grace Abel, but her injuries were too severe. She died early Friday morning, less than twelve hours after the accident, never regaining consciousness. Clifford Smith remained hospitalized for weeks, suffering from head and body trauma but eventually recovered, as did John Miller’s wife Cora, though she was left paralyzed from the hip down on her right side. Lena and Marie’s bodies were so badly mangled that identification was made only by scraps of their clothing.

News of the accident spread quickly and within hours the small village of Somerdale, just ten miles east of New Philadelphia, was devastated to learn the news. The funerals for all of the victims, attended by hundreds of local residents, occurred in the days immediately after the accident. All of the victims were buried in the Somerdale Cemetery within days of the accident. John Miller was described in a newspaper account as being in danger of going insane as a result of what he witnessed and stayed at the Massillon Hospital for a period of days after the accident to recover.

The accident near the Harmon Station struck at the very heart of Somerdale, a small community built on coal, railroads, and close-knit families. The victims represented some of its most promising young residents, full of youthful ambition and at the beginnings of what they hoped would be long lives. Their sudden and violent deaths left the community stunned and the tragedy was a defining moment in its history. The accident remains a solemn chapter in the story of a village more than a century later.

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© Noel B. Poirier, 2025.