May 6, 1921: Couple Killed in Train Accident on Rainy Night

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

May 6, 1921: A woman, who has not been identified, was killed immediately and her companion, John Cummings, died a few minutes later, after the car he was driving was hit by an express train and dragged for more than a half mile before the train was brought to a stop.

Blinded by the rain, Cummings didn’t see the train approaching at the grade crossing at Douglassville, and the engineer was also prevented from seeing more than a few feet ahead by the raging storm. When Mrs. Cummings was reached by phone following the accident, she had no idea who the dead woman with her husband might have been.

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