Following The Great Fire of 1918 T. L. Hanway and J. H. Gibson sued the railroad over the loss of their business after not one, but two trains ran over and cut the fire hoses being used to douse the blaze on the building.

What had started as a small fire in the eaves, which a witness testified could have been put out with a couple of buckets of water, ended up completely consuming the Hanway and Gibson mercantile. It was the only building destroyed on that side of West Bel Air Avenue.

Invoices and books show that Hanway and Gibson lost $19,845.50. To put things in perspective, that would be about $317,000.00 in 2011.

This account is taken from a Brief for Appellees of the Court of Appeals, October Term, 1919, General Docket No. 80. The original document may be viewed at The Aberdeen Room Museum.

This is how events unfolded on the frigid morning of Feb. 5, 1918.

The Aberdeen railroad station agent, Morgan E. Pritchard, was “at the crossing when the hose was being put over the tracks and told the firemen that they need not send men up the tracks to flag the trains because he had notified the railroad of the fire, and the trains would watch out.”

Witness H. P. Strausbaugh testified that Pritchard had told him that he had notified the railroad tower, so there was no need to send men along the tracks with lanterns to stop the trains.

Henry E. Aaronson testified that he was given the go ahead to lay the hose over the tracks by Strausbaugh and that Pritchard was “10-15 feet away.”

In addition, “there was also a watchman at the crossing who knew the hose was across the tracks, but did nothing to stop the trains, though he knew an express train was due and ten minutes late.”

Witness Walter Hartzell, testified that he “saw a train come along and it came nearly to a stop after it crossed the crossing. It went real slow, did not stop still. It went slow and then went off again.”

Station Agent Pritchard testified that he did notify the railroad tower man at Oakington station, 2.5 miles northeast of Aberdeen, and was transferred to Wilmington.Pritchard then “secured an engine at once off the road to pull the railroad cars out of danger between the plaintiff’s store and the railroad.”

Why the trains were not stopped never came to light.

In fact, the railroad claimed that it was not responsible for anything because the station agent had no authority to stop the trains, along with a few more farcical allegations.

This comedy of errors continued in the courtroom as the railroad put forth its defense as to why it was acceptable to have trains twice cut the fire hose.

Join me in the next installment of The Wayback Machine and learn about the railroad’s creative version of events that morning.