Jones knew the route well: he had to make three regularly scheduled stops along the way, so arriving at Canton at something like the scheduled hour would mean averaging 65 miles per hour on the straightaways and sometimes getting the Cannonball up to more than mph. He had done such things before, though, and was undoubtedly confident that he could do them again. The train hurtled through the night, eating up the miles and making up lost time.
By the time the Cannonball reached Durant, Mississippi, only 35 miles from the end of the run, Jones had nearly gotten her back on schedule. Yet Casey found time to bear down on the whistle cord to shriek a warning. The terrific crash which immediately ensued jarred the countryside and was heard for miles around. The caboose was shattered to matchwood. Scattering splinters and broken, twisted metal in every direction, No.
The engine tore loose from its tender and hurtled from the track. Webb had leaped off in time; though he was knocked unconscious, he recovered from his injuries after just a few weeks. But Casey Jones, age 37, lay dead in the wreckage of his engine. He could have tried to jump away, too, but instead stayed at his post to try to save lives and minimize the damage caused in the collision. Miraculously, no one else was killed. Jones left behind a widow, Jane Brady Jones, and three little children.
A historic marker was placed in his honor in Cayce, Kentucky, in As the train rounded a curve near Vaughan, Mississippi, it collided with another train on the tracks, but not before Jones told his fireman to jump to safety. Jones remained on board, supposedly to try to slow the train and save his passengers, and was the only person to die in the accident.
From there, a version of tune was performed on the vaudeville circuit. The songs helped turn Jones into a folk hero and his story later was dramatized on radio and TV. In the s, his house in Jackson became a museum. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! As they expanded, they forced the creation of standard time so that their trains could be on time. Even today, they remain the largest over-land transporter of goods, loading freight cars with intermodal containers from ships, transporting grain, automobiles, oil, hazardous chemicals, and even garbage.
Before widespread use of the automobile, passenger trains carried people from New York City to San Francisco within a matter of days. When trains wrecked, they were a site to see. The mangled steel and wood from the train cars intertwined with the track and became national and international news stories. On April 30, , there was one particular train wreck that remains a subject of folk tales, songs, and stories of bravery.
A half mile outside of the Vaughan, Mississippi Depot a legend was born when his train crashed. This is the story of Casey Jones. Jonathan Luther Jones was born in the boot-heel of Missouri on March 14,
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