Bondarchuk

Immigrated 1851

Father of the Elizabeth listed as John on her death certificate, mother unknown.

Betsy Heaney's husband, Mike Montgomery, immigrated in 1848 the same year as her brother, pat. It is unknown if patsy and mike knew each other in Ireland, but on the 1900 senses Betsy said that she was in this country for 49 years, but married for 51. If her facts are right, then she married mike in Ireland. It is known that she immigrated in 1851. She had her first child in 1859 and was said to have 11 more in later years.

Included in those 12 children were set of twins, john and George, born in 1876. They were so identical, their brothers and sisters had trouble telling them apart. John settled that when he broke george's nose in a fistfight. Might work as a foreman of the track maintenance crew. At least three of his two sons, Jim, bill and john, work for the railroad at some time. John became a fireman.

After a while, firemen were expected to advance to engineer as they got experience. Also, the engineer made more money, but john was colorblind and couldn't read the signals. At age 50, he was still a fireman.

In the 1920s, there was a train for Manorville to connect with a train on the south side and take that route. It was an easy run from Greenport to Manorville. John and his engineer, squires, had the run. At Manorville, they met the afternoon train to Greenport. Since they would be going back empty, they hooked onto that train.

Squires and john where the senior crew so they boarded the lead locomotive. A second crew had been working in calverton. Since they knew the train was scheduled to come through, without stopping, they got out of the way. The train came through, it hit an open switch that should've been closed. It diverted the train from the main track onto a siding. The train was going too fast to stay on those side rails. It left the tracks and plowed into a pickle factory.

John and squires died from injuries sustained by being thrown around the inside of an added out of the locomotive. A woman and a child were killed and wealthy man named Fish from East Marion died a horrible death. Injured, he was thrown into an empty that. Salt flakes came cascading down on top of him. Before help could arrive, he was buried and suffocated.