Amasa Stone - Ashtabula Train Disaster - Chestnut Gove Cemetery - Lake View Cemetery | Paranormal Database | PANICd

On April 3, 2015, members from PANICd.com traveled to the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio for a photographic research trip. On this trip, one of the goals was to find the cemetery marker for Amasa Stone. Amasa Stone was one of the designers of the bridge at the Ashtabula Train Disaster.

Amasa Stone – Railroad President and Bridge Designer

Amasa Stone
(April 27, 1818 - May 11, 1883)

The Ashtabula bridge designer, Amasa Stone, was President of the Lake Shore Michigan Southern Railroad – Cleveland and Erie Division from 1856 to 1867. During his Presidency, he decided to take a well-established wooden bridge pattern (the Howe Truss) and use it as the pattern for an all iron bridge. He built this bridge with protests and arguments over the design by the engineer who was hired to draft the drawings, Joseph Tomlinson. Tomlinson quit the project approximately two months before construction was to start. Pushing the limits of design standards of the day it was the longest all iron Howe Truss he had ever built. It was 154ft long from abutment to abutment, making it an even riskier endeavor since the iron braces were so heavy.

Blame and scorn for this disaster would forever stain Amasa Stone’s professional reputation and haunt him for the rest of his days. Many believe it was one of the reasons he would commit suicide (gun shot to his chest at his residence on Euclid avenue see New York Times article) seven years after this horrifying crash.

In 1910, his stone mansion on millionaires row was torn down to make way for a Euclid Avenue department store.

source (http://engineeringtragedy.com/The_Story.html)

While researching the Chestnut Grove Cemetery and the Ashtabula Train Disaster, we got the lead on Amasa Stone being buried at the Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. This started our search for the location of his monument and burial, which is located at section 10, plot 63. Mr. Stone's monument is similar to the one for the Ashtabula Train Disaster at Chestnut Grove Cemetery.