Isaac Prizer ^{1 2 3}

   FamilySearch ID: M4WK-CVL.

  Noted events in his life were:

1. Census in 1860 in East Coventry Twp., Chester, PA. ⁴ The 1860 census recorded Isaac Prizer, lock tender, 25, living with wife Rebecca, 22; and son George Washington Prizer, 1. Also in the home are John Keese, lock tender, 20; Jacob Fisher, lock tender, 24; and domestic servant Sophia Dutterer, 18. Everyone was born in Pennsylvania. The post office was Pottstown.

2. Census in 1870 in Pottstown, Montgomery, PA. ⁵ The 1870 census recorded Isaac Prizer, locomotive engineer, 34, living with wife Rebecca, 32; and sons George, 11; and Harry, 8. Everyone was born in Pennsylvania.

3. Newspaper: Reading Times: Accident involving Issac Prizer, 13 Oct 1874, Reading, Berks, PA. ⁶ Accidents. On Friday last Mr. Isaac Prizer, of Pottstown, a conductor of the material train on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, while giving directions to his men about unloading several cars of telegraph poles, was struck by one of the standards and felled to the earth. He was picked up insensible and with his arm broken.

4. Newspaper: Reading Times: Reading R. R. Telegraph Extension, 12 Oct 1876, Reading, Berks, PA. ⁷ Engine No. 150, of which Albert Malsberger is engineer, left Pottstown yesterday at 4 a. m., drawing one of the largest trains of telegraph material that ever passed over the road. It was in charge of Mr. Isaac Prizer, conductor. There were loaded on this train 335 telegraph poles, and a large lot of other material, which is to be distributed along the Schuylkill and Susquehanna branch of the Reading Railroad, between Auburn and Pinegrove, for the renewal of the line. Mr. I. A. Roeller, Superintendent of telegraph construction and repairs, with his corps of assistants perform the work.

5. Cause of Death: Tragically killed in a train wreck, 27 Sep 1879, Douglassville, Berks, PA. ³

6. Occupation: Conductor on Reading Railroad on 27 Sep 1879 in Douglassville, Berks, PA. ³

7. Newspaper: The Times: Isaac Prizer killed in railroad accident, 29 Sep 1879, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA. ³ Dense fog hung over the Reading Railroad track at Douglasville on Saturday morning when the gravel train, of which Isaac Prizer was conductor, went steaming up at the rate of eight miles an hour. Just below the station George Prizer, a brakeman on the rear car of the gravel train, saw approaching on the same track the Blue Line freight, which was bowling along at a speed of thirty miles an hour. At the alarm from George Prizer all the men in the caboose at the end of the gravel train leaped for their lives, except Alexander Young and the conductor. In a moment the Blue Line telescoped the gravel with a terrific crash. Conductor Prizer, who was a resident of Pottstown, was killed. Alexander Young was taken from the debris and conveyed to his home, in Doughlassville, where he died at 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. David Davidheser was seriously injured. Several freight cars were wrecked. Deputy Coroner Joshua Byers emplaneled a jury and began an investigation.

8. Newspaper: Reading Times: Reading R. R. Censured, 1 Oct 1879, Reading, Berks, PA. ⁸ READING R. R. CENSURED

PRIZER - DOUGLASVILLE INQUEST

Coroner's Jury Declares that the Reading R. R. Management is Highly Censurable, If not Negligently Criminal -- Young's Funeral.

POTTSTOWN, Sept. 30 -- The Coroner's jury on the death of Isaac Prizer rendered a verdict to-night in effect as follows: That Isaac Prizer came to his death on the Reading Railroad last Saturday, from injuries caused by engine No. 212 running into the rear of the material train, of which said Isaac Prizer was conductor, and thus causing the total destruction of several of the cars of the material train, including the one upon which the said Prizer was standing, and which collision caused the death of said Prizer; and they further find that the material train left Pottstown at six minutes after 6 a. m. and that the freight train left two minutes later; that the engineer of the material train had to slacken the speed of his train in order to pick up employees of the railroad, twice between Pottstown and where the accident occurred, and that under these circumstances a catastrophe, such as occurred, might and ought have been regarded as extremely probable, if not inevitable, and that the management that either requires or permits this state of things, is highly censurable, if not negligently criminal.

The verdict concludes as follows: "We deem it but justice to John H. Jones, the Dispatcher at Pottstown, to say so far as we are able to learn be has no control whatever as to the time of starting of the material trains."

The jury in the case of the death of Alexander Young adjourned lo meet on Friday night.

The funeral of Alexander Young, one of the victims of last Saturday's disaster near Douglassville, took place to-day, and was one of the largest ever seen in that vicinity. Services, subsequent to those held at St. Michael's Church, Douglassville, were held in Trinity Reformed Church, Pottstown, Rev. L. K. Evans officiating. Interment at Pottstown Cemetery.

9. Newspaper: Harrisburg Telegraph: Railroad Management Censured, 1 Oct 1879, Harrisburg, Dauphin, PA. ⁹ After three meetings the jury in the case of Isaac Prizer, who died from injuries received by a collision of a freight train with his material train on the Reading railroad neart Pottstown, last Saturday, rendered a verdict last night in which they find that the freight train left Pottstown two minutes after the material train, and that as the latter had to slacken speed twice between there and where the accident occurred that a collision was highly probable if not inevitable, and that the management that either requires or permits trains to run so close as these did is censurable, and the dispatcher at Pottstown had not control of the time of the material train.

Isaac married Maria Rececca Sheffey. (Maria Rececca Sheffey was born on 16 Mar 1837 in East Coventry Twp., Chester, PA ^{10 11}, christened on 17 Aug 1837 in Pottstown: Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Montgomery, PA, died on 3 Dec 1916 in Pottstown, Montgomery, PA ^{10 11} and was buried on 7 Dec 1916 in Pottstown: Pottstown Cemetery, Montgomery, PA ^{10 11}.)