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Obituary · primary-source record

Peter Ritz Gatchee

circa 1804 (computed from age at death) – 11 May 1855 ("Friday morning" per the Ashtabula Gazette of 12 May 1855)

Died 11 May 1855 in a fall from the railroad bridge at Ashtabula — German emigrant, killed with Wm. Jones; reported in the New York Times

Editorially verified

At-a-glance facts

Record type

Obituary

Date of death

11 May 1855 ("Friday morning" per the Ashtabula Gazette of 12 May 1855)

Date of birth

circa 1804 (computed from age at death)

Age at death

51

Place of death

SHOCKING ACCIDENT AT ASHTABULA

Inscription transcription

New York Times, May 15,1855

SHOCKING ACCIDENT AT ASHTABULA.

On Friday morning [May 11] at 1 1/2 o'clock, the emigrant train from the East stopped at this depot to take on wood and water, leaving the cars standing on the bridge. During the stop two men got out on the bridge and fell from it, the distance of about sixty feet. From appearance both were killed instantly. They fell, one from the north, and the other from the south side, between two and three rods apart. The bodies were discovered about daylight. One was a German, named PETER RITZ GATCHEE, aged 51. The other was from the Isle-of-Man, named WM. JONES, aged 23. At this time of writing, (Friday noon,) Coroner RATTLE is holding an inquest on the bodies. This is not a matter of dollars and cents. It is a matter of life and death to passengers, and let those answer who are responsible. Is the leaving of trains in such dangerous position, justified on any pretence? Let those whose duty it is to attend to this, stand and hear the wailings of that German wife, as she presses a dear child to her bosom, vainly endeavoring to awaken a recognition in the inanimate form of a husband and father; and witness the suppressed grief of a brother, as he looks at the stalwart form of his kindred, locked in the embrace of death before him.

Ashtabula Gazette, Saturday, May 12.

This single New York Times reprint of the Ashtabula Gazette reports the deaths of two men in the same accident; each man has his own record in this archive, drawn from the same notice. The "[May 11]" in the first paragraph is a transcriber's insertion dating the "Friday morning" of the accident. The town is given only as Ashtabula; the state is not stated in the text. See also the companion record for Wm. Jones.

People named in this record

  • Peter Ritz GatcheeSubject
  • Wm. JonesMentioned
  • Coroner RattleMentioned

Record submitted by

From the Ancestors at Rest archive

Source & citation

Source type
Transcription only
Provenance
From the Ancestors at Rest archive — founded 2004 by Brian and substantially built out across two decades by Lorine McGinnis Schulze of Olive Tree Genealogy.
Transcribed by
Ancestors at Rest archive — original contributor not recorded.
Last verified
2026-07-06
Permalink
/records/obituaries/gatchee-peter-1855/
Image vs transcription
Transcription only — no photograph of the clipping in this record

Citation: Death notice of Peter Ritz Gatchee, a German emigrant aged 51, killed in a fall from the railroad bridge at Ashtabula on 11 May 1855, published in the New York Times, 15 May 1855, reprinting the Ashtabula Gazette of Saturday, 12 May 1855. Preserved in the Ancestors at Rest archive. (https://ancestorsatrest.com/records/obituaries/gatchee-peter-1855/ : accessed [your access date]).

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