interurban railroad – Tuscarawas County Stories

A Family Lost: The Swartzwelder Tragedy of 1923

AI generated image depicting aftermath of the striking of the Swartzwelder truck by an NOT&L interurban car, 2025. (Source: ImageFX)

A young family’s hopeful life in Tuscarawas County ended tragically at a rural railroad crossing near Strasburg, Ohio. Charles and Florence Corbett Swartzwelder, a young couple from Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, arrived in Tuscarawas County, Ohio in 1921. Charles was born on September 2, 1897, in Pine Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, the son of William JamesContinue reading “A Family Lost: The Swartzwelder Tragedy of 1923”

The 1903 Battle for Dover’s Wooster Avenue Crossing

AI image depicting a confrontation of competing railroad employees at a railroad crossing in Dover, Ohio in 1903. (Source: Microsoft CoPilot)

The Canton-New Philadelphia Street Railway Company prepared to lay tracks down Wooster Avenue in Dover, Ohio, amidst a heated dispute with the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad. The conflict escalated into a dramatic standoff between railroad workers from both sides. It was January 1903 by the time the interurban Canton-New Philadelphia Street Railway Company was readyContinue reading “The 1903 Battle for Dover’s Wooster Avenue Crossing”