Wissahickon and the Camp Hill Train Wreck

The Wissahickon Creek is a 25 mile long stream with headwaters in the area now covered by the Montgomery Mall (near Lansdale). It winds its way through Upper and Lower Gwynedd, Whitpain, and Whitemarsh before flowing into a deep gorge as it enters the city of Philadelphia. I've written about the creek here, here and here.


Mary Johnson Ambler (1805-1868) was a most interesting woman. Her parents lived in Bucks County and were Quakers and Mary followed in their Quaker ways. She was a very small woman, never weighing over 100 pounds.

She married Andrew Ambler, a weaver, in 1829. Three years later, Andrew purchased a Fulling Mill (which made wool cloth) and 82 acres of land in the bucolic town of Wissahickon.

The Amblers had the only well in the area at the time. When her neighbors needed water, Mary would let them take water from her well. Mary wanted local children to learn about God, so she started a Sunday school.

The Amblers raised a family and enjoyed success in their business endeavors. When Andrew died in 1850, Mary took over the mill operations with her married son, Lewis, one of her large family of seven sons and one daughter.

On July 2, 1855, the newly laid North Pennsylvania Railroad opened the Wissahickon railroad station.

The North Pennsylvania Railroad later became the Bethlehem branch of the Reading Railroad and is now SEPTA's R5 line to Lansdale.


The railroad served as a great spur to local commerce, transporting both produce and people, and led to increased prosperity for the Wissahickon Valley.

Then came a fateful day... On July 17, 1856 there was a terrible train wreck.

An excursion train known as the "Picnic Special," had been contracted by St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church of Philadelphia to send their Sunday School children on a picnic in Shaeff's Woods, a shaded grove near the railroad's Wissahickon station.

July 17 was one of the hottest days of the year and the children looked forward to a full day at the park. The train was packed, and was carrying at least 1000 people.

The train's locomotive was called Shakamaxon (a Native American word meaning "place where the Chiefs meet") and was running a half hour late.

At the Wissahickon station another train, the Aramingo (a Native American word meaning "Wolf Walk") heading for Philadelphia was pulling out on the single track line.

The engineer of Shakamaxon was confident he could make up for the time he had lost. He knew the Aramingo was due in the opposite direction on the same single track, but calculated they could use a siding located between them to safely pass each other.

As he neared a blind curve just past Camp Hill Station, the Aramingo was rounding the same curve coming the other direction.

The trains collided at 6:18 AM, between the Camp Hill station and the future site of the town of Fort Washington near Routes 309 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The boilers made direct contact and the impact caused an explosion heard up to five miles away.

In one of the worst tragedies of the Industrial Age thus far, 59 people were killed, most of them children, and most of them burned to death, and a great many people were hurt.

When Mary Ambler heard about the accident she gathered up a bunch of medical supplies and walked two miles to the scene of the accident. When Mary arrived, there were no doctors there and no one was in charge of the rescue operation.

So Mary directed the relief efforts. She had the hurt people carried to her house. They had to tear the shutters off of buildings to order to make stretchers.

When Mary got back to her house, she took sheets and petticoats and tore them into strips to use them as bandages. Mary worked long and hard. She helped many of the hurt people and let them stay at her house until they could go home.

The service she rendered in caring for the injured was so conspicuous that after her death in 1868, the North Pennsylvania Railroad changed the name of the station from Wissahickon to Ambler. Camp Hill was renamed Felwick by the railroad in order to help its patrons "forget about the tragedy."

Later, in 1888, the town of Wissahickon itself was renamed Ambler. Now that is what I call role model.