Overview: Early causes of train accidents. Accidents covered: Andover, MA., Jan. 6, 1853, Boston and Maine, broke a wheel. Franklin Pierce in route to inauguration reported as one of three fatalities. It was his 12 year old son. The Pennsylvania immigrant train Norwalk, CT. N.Y.N.H. & H. went through open drawbridge. Oliver Wendell Holmes erroneously reported dead, but 30 other doctors from an A.M.A. convention in N.Y.C. were among the 43 who perished. 1857 Camp Hill, Pa. church children on way to picnic, rear ended by another train.