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Below is a complete listing of all Ohio Historical Markers. To find a detailed marker listing including text, photographs, and locations, click on a county below. Our listing is updated by the markers program as new markers are installed and older markers are reported damaged or missing.

24-47 Great Kipton Train Wreck

Side A: On April 19, 1891, a head-on collision between two trains of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company occurred at the Kipton depot. Eight people lost their lives, and the depot was heavily damaged. The crash occurred when a fast mail train heading east near Kipton and a passenger train going west from Elyria collided. The passenger train was supposed to let the mail train go by, but the conductor had not realized that his watch had stopped for four minutes and then restarted. As a result the passenger train was late getting to the stopping point. Looking into the matter, the railway company enlisted Webb C. Ball, a well-known Cleveland jeweler, to investigate time and watch conditions throughout its lines. Ball instituted the current railroad industry’s timekeeping program, which specified watches trainmen could use. His attention to accuracy and promptness led to the well-known saying, “Get on the Ball.”
Side B: Same
Sponsors: The Ohio Historical Society
Address: 47 Rosa Street, 
Oberlin, 
OH, 
44074
Location: Kipton Community Park
Latitude: 41.2674868
Longitude: -82.3036666