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 John Luther "Casey" Jones
N 35° 37.959 W 088° 48.348
16S E 336487 N 3944706
Casey Jones was the famous engineer of the Cannonball Express who is immortalized in the "Ballad of Casey Jones," which was written by Wallace Saunders.
Waymark Code: WMPWX
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 09/08/2006
Views: 166
John Luther “Casey” Jones was and engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad. He was fatally injured on April 30, 1900 when “The Cannonball Express,” crashed into a northbound train, which had failed to pull completely onto the siding. The crash occurred just north of Vaughan, Mississippi. Casey was found in the wreckage and carried to the Vaughan Railroad Depot where he died a short time later. The famous ballad by Casey’s friend Wallace Saunders tells the story of the famous engineer. Casey Jones lived in Jackson, Tennessee and is buried in Jackson’s, Mount Calvary Cemetery.
Description:
John Luther "Casey" Jones was born March 14, 1863 in southeast Missouri. While he was still a small child, his family moved to Cayce, Kentucky, which is how he got his nickname. As a boy, he developed a growing obsession with trains. In 1878, at the age of 15, he went to work for the Mobile and Ohio Railroad as an apprentice telegrapher. By 1890, "Casey" had reached the pinnacle of the railroad profession as a crack locomotive engineer on the Illinois Central Railroad. The railroad sent him to Jackson, Tennessee, where he met and married Janie Brady, bought a house, and set about raising a family. Railroading was a natural talent, and Casey Jones was recognized by his peers as one of the best in the business.
In 1899, Jones was given a regular passenger run on the Cannonball route which ran between Chicago and New Orleans. On April 29, 1900 Jones was in Memphis, Tennessee, from the northbound Cannonball when he agreed to take the southbound Cannonball because the scheduled engineer called in sick. He left Memphis at 12:50 am, 95 minutes behind schedule, but made up almost an hour between Memphis and Grenada, Mississippi, nearly 100 miles away. By Durant, 55 miles farther down, they were almost on time.
At Durant, Jones received orders to "saw by" two freights that had taken the siding in Vaughan. The two freights were too large to fit into the siding, leaving one end on the main line. If the "sawing" maneuver had been done correctly, the freights would have allowed the approaching train to pass the first switch, and then the trains on the siding would move past the other switch. However, an air hose on one of the freight trains burst, applying the brakes on the freight cars behind the break, and left them immobile on the main line. Meanwhile, Jones was travelling excessively fast, possibly up to 70 miles per hour, and did not have enough time to brake. When collision seemed imminent, Casey told his fireman, Simm Webb, to jump for it, but Jones rode the engine into the cars and was killed. It is believed that because Jones stayed to slow the train, he saved the passengers from injury and possible death (Casey himself was the only fatality of the wreck). Popular legend holds that when Jones' body was pulled from the wreckage of his train his hands were still firmly latched onto the throttle and brake.
The fireman, Simeon T. Webb, died in Memphis in 1957 at the age of 83. Jones' wife, Janie Brady Jones, died in 1958 at the age of 92.
(Credit: Wikipedia)
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones
Date of birth: 03/14/1863
Date of death: 04/30/1900
Area of notoriety: Other
Marker Type: Headstone
Setting: Outdoor
Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Daily - 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Fee required?: No
Web site: [Web Link]
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