New train transportation to and from Clymer was supplemented by the trolley tracks which arrived in April, 1908. At that time, cars ran to the Ninth Street Bridge and business was "quite brisk." The fare from Indiana to the town limits of Clymer was originally 25 cents, but when the trolley entered the new borough, five cents was added to the toll. As Clymer "is only a little over ten miles away," several persons complained to the operators that the cost was "excessive." A year later, trolley schedules were adapted to oblige travelers wishing to make connections with all "steam railroads" at either end of the line.

    The streetcar line, while providing a great convenience for Clymer's citizens, was the scene of at least two very dramatic incidents before the coming of the automobile brought about its decline and eventual abandonment. In August, 1915, A. R. Wyncoop, of Clymer, was fatally injured when a New York Central train collided with a Street Railways car at the Sample Run Crossing. Eleven passengers in the car were thrown forward by the impact of the collision, but all escaped serious injury. The streetcar, however, was almost totally demolished. Wyncoop was not a passenger in the trolley, but was standing in a small shelter nearby, waiting to board the car. The streetcar, when struck by the train, was hurled completely around, crashed into the little station with full force, and fatally injured Wyncoop.

    Another trolley car, this one in 1924, was featured in Indiana County history when bandits waylaid and robbed the Russell Coal Company payroll on its twice-monthly transportation to Clymer. Inside the car, Alexander Caldwell, company paymaster and Tony Askey, Clymer chief of police, guarded the cash, which totalled $23,750 in bills and silver. On the afternoon of June 17, the car reached the siding where it usually waited for the Indiana-bound car to pass. As it had done on countless similar occasions, the Indiana trolley passed the stopped Clymer-bound car and continued on its appointed rounds. Suddenly, an occupant of the stopped trolley jumped to his feet and fired a shot through the roof of the car. The rest of the robbers, planted in strategic seats, brandished pistols and told everyone on board to put up his hands.

    Pointing their guns directly at Caldwell and Askey, the bandits tore open the sacks containing the money, secured the cash, and ordered all the passengers and the motorman outside.

    This accomplished, the felons promised to shoot anyone who moved. With the trolley empty, four of the felons climbed back on board, still waving their guns in the direction of the passengers, while a fifth man took the motorman's place at the controls. In spite of his probable inexperience, the substitute operator propelled the trolley down the track at breakneck speed, until he reached a site, marked by a white cloth tied to a tree branch, where a new Studebaker waited.

    Transference of robbers and cash from trolley to automobile was quickly made, and the men and the money disappeared from Indiana County forever.

    The $23,750 robbery of the coal company payroll, on its way to Clymer, indicates that, from the beginning, the production of coal formed the foundation of the community. . .

[More. . .]

Source:

Cooper, Eileen Mountjoy, "Clymer Looking Back", Indiana Gazette, Tuesday, July 8, 1980

    This incident is eerily similar to what happened eleven years later to Edward Estill Wynkoop, (Ned Wynkoop's oldest son), on June 7, 1926 in Stockton, California. This event is described in the obituary that was published in The Trail; A Magazine "For Colorado", Monday, July 19, 1926