Finding ancestors in online newspaper archives

One of the earliest stories my dad shared about our ancestors was that my 2nd great grandfather was a railroad engineer who died in a train wreck. My dad loved trains so I think this story particularly resonated with him. The upshot of such a sensational death is that the story is easy to find in newspapers.

Nathan D. Moyer (b. 1849, Lynn, PA) was the youngest child of Peter Moyer and Catherine Girard. As a teenager he got a job with the Jersey Central Railroad and would eventually become the oldest engineer on the line. On the morning of 9 October 1909, the air thick with fog, his train collided with another near Siegfried Station in Northampton, PA. The engineers of both trains were killed. Dramatic, yes, and made more dramatic when some bulls being carried by one of the trains escaped and gored two women.

My dad had a copy of the story from The Globe (Bethlehem, PA), which is the longest news article I have found on the matter, clocking in at 700 words or so. But some quick Google searches revealed the story was reported far and wide, even warranting a blurb in the New York Times. The best part is that, while searching online for articles about Nathan Moyer's death, I stumbled on some remarkable stories concerning his life.

An 1898 article in The Scranton Tribune, included at left, recounts two incidents in which Nathan's quick thinking saved lives. Within the span of a week, he twice prevented his engine from running over people: first a small boy, then an old woman and a girl.

Nathan wasn't always so lucky, however. The next year, in 1899, The Easton Free Press reported that Nathan's train ran over a man on the tracks. It appeared to Nathan that the man deliberately knelt on the rails, making it a possible suicide.

Decades earlier, in 1876, a report on internal affairs for the state of Pennsylvania listed railroad accidents. The relevant text reads, "Cornelius Brown, stealing a ride on a coal train; jumped from the train while in motion, and had one leg crushed below the knee. -- Nathan Moyer, engineer; Edward Murta, conductor."

I'm glad I availed myself of these online newspaper/book archives. It has helped provide a clearer picture of my ancestor's life and profession.