Edmund L. DuBarry

The Last To Escape
What stories will we tell our grandchildren? Many people struggle to come up with just one story that might hold a child’s interest, but Edmund DuBarry had at least two tales to keep any possible little ones entertained.

Edmund was born in Washington, DC on March 17, 1842.¹ He spent nearly all of his life in the railroad business and his work led to some amazing experiences.² He was the superintendent for Norfolk & Western’s Eastern Division and just a few minutes before passenger train Number Two plunged into the washout at Thaxton, DuBarry had settled into his berth on the Pullman sleeper car called Beverly. He spent over an hour trapped in the wreckage before several men freed him and he was one of the last people they saved before the train was engulfed in flames.³

If the story of his terrifying night at Thaxton wasn’t enough to keep an audience on the edge of their seats, DuBarry could go back exactly eight years earlier to the day when he was an eyewitness to the assassination of President James A. Garfield. DuBarry saw the assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, fire his second shot at the president and testified during the trial of Guiteau.⁴ ⁵

After a life no doubt filled with many other stories, DuBarry died on December 4, 1908. A number of railroad officials attended his funeral in Norfolk, Virginia. Several of those officials traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, with DuBarry’s wife Laura and his daughter, Louise for his burial. In his obituary, he was described as a “man of large ability and stood high in the estimation of the management of the Norfolk and Western Railroad.”⁶ ⁷

Do you have more information about Edmund DuBarry? If you think he might have been an ancestor of yours, or if you have some additional information that you would like to share, I’d love to hear from you. Thanks!

Sources

Passport Application for Edmund L. DuBarry, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Passport Applications, 1795-1905; Collection Number: ARC Identifier 566612 / MLR Number A1 508; NARA Series: M1372; Roll #: 373.
“Edmund L. DuBarry”, The Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA), December 5, 1908, Number 17730: p. 2. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038615/1908-12-05/ed-1/seq-2/
Fourteenth Annual Report of The Railroad Commissioner of the State of Virginia, J.H. O’Bannon Superintendent of Public Printing, Richmond, VA, 1890: p. xlv. http://books.google.com/books?id=CFopAAAAYAAJ
“Taking Testimony”, The Harrisburg Daily Patriot (Harrisburg, PA), November 19, 1881, pg.1.
“Pertinent Paragraphs.”, The Harrisburg Daily Patriot (Harrisburg, PA), October 6, 1881, pg.4.
“Funeral Services”, The Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA), December 6, 1908,Number 17731: p. 2. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85038615/1908-12-06/ed-1/seq-2/
See note 2 above.

I was greatly surprised to hear that an accident had occurred at this culvert, as I regarded it as one of the safest on the line.

The wrecked cars burned with a fierceness that could not have been equaled if every stick of timber had been soaked in oil.

In the morning we found that there were four or five houses around the wreck. We screamed and the men yelled, but nobody seemed to have come to our relief. With all the noise I don’t see why those people could sleep, anyhow

I will not leave, ladies, until I see you all safe; I am a Virginian.

The shrieks and groans of the imprisoned victims could be distinctly heard from the bank.

I have stood on the battlefield, and heard shot and shell rattling around me, and seen my comrades falling like leaves in autumn, but I have never seen anything that curdled my blood with horror or moved me to deeper depths of compassion than the scenes of that dreadful night.

There never was such a rain fell on me to my recollection. Yes, sir, it was a scary time.

Little pieces of bodies could be seen, and were gathered in, and in some cases ashes, though most of the burned bodies in the shape of ashes had been washed away.

We have no knowledge of Mr. H. B. Wheeler whatsoever. If he was on the train that was wrecked he has not been accounted for, and I presume has been lost. His body has not been recovered, but may have been burned in the wreck.

It rained so it looked like it would take my breath away.

When I visited the scene you could not find wood enough to make a door, so complete had been the wash away and consumption by fire.

We may not know where their ashes slumber, but God himself will keep a faithful watch over their sacred dust.

The air was very still when I came out and the rain was coming down very steadily, but from the direction of the mountain, I heard very distinctly a very loud noise, a heavy rumbling in the clouds, that sounded something like an earthquake.

I just stayed there and did not know what to do, but just think on the Lord and asked him to spare me.

It was different from any rain I ever saw in its violence, and duration.

I never passed through a more terrible experience in my life, and I assure you I have no desire to participate in such another.

It was the most horrible thing I ever witnessed.

The first I recollect when I came to my senses I was halloing for help.

Oh, to see the wounded—all is a picture before me continually, and I never will again travel in the night.

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