Celebrating Our Heritage: P.P. Bliss and the "Ashtabula Horror"

Earlier this week our travels took us to Ashtabula, Ohio, near Madison where we had had a good day of services with the people of Tri-County Bible Church on Sunday, July 13. The town of Ashtabula is significant to church history because of one tragic event that occurred in December of 1876. Four days following Christmas of that year, American hymn writer and Gospel singer P.P. Bliss and his wife Lucy were traveling on The Pacific Express train bound for Chicago.

Bliss, who is the author of such well-known hymns as Hallelujah, What a Savior!, Let the Lower Lights Be Burning, Jesus Loves Even Me, Wonderful Words of Life, and the composer of the tune to Horatio Spafford’s It Is Well with My Soul, had given up his life as a professional musician and educator in 1874 to give himself fully to the task of “winning souls” as a full-time evangelist. He regularly partnered with D.L. Moody in evangelistic endeavors. Bliss and his wife were returning to Chicago to rejoin Moody following Christmas vacation in Pennsylvania when their train met with disaster in snowy Northeastern Ohio. The train had just crossed through the railroad station at Ashtabula and attempted to cross a wrought iron truss bridge. The lead locomotive made it across the fracturing bridge, but all the cars behind it plunged 70 feet downward into the river and ravine below. Bliss and his wife Lucy, along with 90 others, lost their lives. Bliss (who happens to share a birthday with Tim--July 9!) was 38 years old at his death. He and Lucy left behind two children: George, 4, and Philip Paul, 1.

Our tour guide, Pastor Joe Tyrpak, took us to the three Ashtabula locations associated with the event. We began at the monument that was erected in 1895 in Ashtabula’s Chestnut Grove Cemetery. There a large obelisk bears the names of some of those who were known to have died in the incident, as well as a memorial to the many who were never identified. We also visited the location of the accident. The original bridge had, of course, completely collapsed. However there is another one in its place that is still currently in use. In the picture with me in front of the bridge, there is actually a train crossing over at the very top above all the green growth. The final site we visited was a historical marker that is placed in front of the present-day Ashtabula County hospital. The accident revealed some major weaknesses in the county’s healthcare system, which resulted in the new, much-improved hospital.

It was good to be reminded of how quickly life can end. Though we do not understand all of God’s purposes, we rejoice at how He gave this man the ability to contribute so much toward the advancement of His Kingdom in only 38 short years of life! The following hymn text was found among Bliss’s belongings following his death:

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered,
From the curse to set me free.

Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me.
On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save,
In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave.

I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I’ll tell,
How the victory He giveth
Over sin, and death, and hell.

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His heav’nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be

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