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Albert Henry Ogle |
Albert Henry Ogle was born in January 1868 in or near Pennsville, Fayette County, PA the son of William D. and Elizabeth (Martin) Ogle and stepson of Sarah (Minerd) Ogle.
Little is known of his life, and much more about his grisly death. He is known to have grown up in Tyrone Township, Fayette County, where his father toiled at the local coke ovens. Then in about 1898, he made his home in Connellsville.
During the Spanish-American War, Albert joined the U.S. Army, enlisting on May 9, 1898. He was placed within Company D of the famed 10th Pennsylvania Regiment. The 10th was deployed within a few days to the Philippine Islands to engage in the fight against Spanish insurgents. At the furious Battle of Fort Malate, on July 31, 1898, he and his regiment faced a deadly assault of 1,000 enemy troops. Fortunately he survived and was mustered out of the military on Aug. 22, 1899.
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| Broadway looking east from Center Street in Pitcairn |
In 1900, when the federal census was taken, Albert was marked as 30 years of age and unmarried, and made his home with his married half-brother George in Pitcairn, near Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA. He was employed as a railroad car repairman at the time.
who died en route home
Circa 1902, he earned a living with the Pittsburgh Division of what presumably was the Pennsylvania Railroad, a large Pitcairn employer. At the time he dwelled in his home community of Pennsville.
On the fateful evening of July 29, 1902, Albert and friend George Holliday met their ends on tracks of the Everson Division of the Pittsburgh, McKeesport and Connellsville Railway, a streetcar service operated by West Penn Railway Company. Reported the Pittsburgh Press:
[Holliday] was instantly killed, being badly mangled. Albert Ogle, of Pennsville, is seriously injured at the Cottage State Hospital. His skull is fractured and he has a mangled arm. The two had been in town all day and had been drinking heavily. Late in the evening they started to walk home, and sat down on the tracks near the Buttermore crossing. It is probable that they fell asleep. There is a short curve at the place, and when motorman George Freeman ran his car, a new model double truck, 40 feet long, around the bend, the first thing he knew of the presence of the men was when the car jolted over them. They were hurried to this place [Connellsville], but Holliday was stone dead when taken off the car. Ogle has been in this neighborhood for some years. He is a Spanish War veteran, having served with the Tenth Pennsylvania Infantry in the Philippines.
The news of the horrific accident was published across the state in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sadly, Albert succumbed to his injuries at the hospital, likely the next day. His burial site is not known. The Pennsylvania Railroad Voluntary Relief Association paid out a $250 death benefit to his survivors, as noted in the Altoona Tribune edition of Sept. 25, 1902.
Copyright © 2007, 2022, 2026 Mark A. Miner