Happy Friday!
We enjoyed beautiful weather all week in Dallas but apparently temperatures will drop a little over the weekend. I hope that you had a great week.
Today marks an epic display of heroism in Mexican History.
Jesús García (born 11/13/1881) was hired at age 17 to work as an apprentice on a short line railroad that hauled supplies, workers and explosives six miles from Nacozari, Mexico to the Pilares mines. He worked his way up from being a water boy to a qualified engineer of a steam locomotive. A kind and generous man, he was so successful that his employers at Phelps Dodge (copper producers) awarded him and some of his co-workers an all-expense-paid trip to the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.
On November 7, 1907, García was hauling 4 tons of dynamite when the train caught fire because the locomotive's smokestack was failing and sparks were flying out of the it. Some of the embers blew into the dynamite cars. This occurred fairly close to a powder magazine where another 500 tons of dynamite were stored. Faced with a horrifying dilemma, he decided to move the rolling "bomb" from Nacozari rather than running away. He headed uphill toward open country and ordered his crew to jump from the train en route. The dynamite exploded about 0.5 miles out of town, demolishing the train and killing him and 13 others – the blast was felt 10 miles away.
García was inducted into the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum (Leadville, CO) in 2001. Streets were named after him in Mexico, he was declared a Hero of Humanity by the American Red Cross, awarded cross of Honor, and a ballad was written about him. Nacozari, located about 80 miles south of Douglas, Arizona was renamed Nacozari de García in his honor and November 7 is a National Holiday in Mexico. His name is invoked when bidding farewell to a cherished friend or relative.
García is often compared to Casey Jones, an American locomotive engineer (who is also commemorated in song). Born John Luther Jones in Missouri in 1863, his family moved to Cayce, Kentucky where he got his nickname, which he spelled Casey. Like García, he started working for the railroads as a teenager and worked his way up the ranks from telegraph operator to brakeman, foreman, and engineer. He was considered an expert engineer and one of the best in the business, albeit somewhat of a risk taker. He also had the reputation as being a very punctual person, always leaving and arriving on schedule; it is said that people set their watches by him.
Working as an engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad, he drove a passenger train from Canton, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee on April 2, 1900. Upon learning that the engineer who was supposed to make the return run was ill, Jones volunteered to take his place.
He pulled out of Memphis on the "Cannonball" (with a powerful 10-wheeler-engine and not his usual train) early in the morning of April 30, 1900, 75 minutes late, hurrying to make up for lost time. As the train rounded a curve near Vaughan, Mississippi, it crashed into the caboose of another train on the tracks. The train he hit (loaded with corn and hay) was destroyed. There are differing accounts of why he did not see it. Some say that he ignored a flagman, others contend that he did not see the flagman because of the bend or fog. Similar to García's heroic move, he told his fireman to jump to safety. Jones' engine went off the track into an embankment; he managed to slow the train and ultimately stop it, averting what could have been a more disastrous situation. He was able to save the passengers, and he was the only person to die in the accident...and he was only running 2 minutes behind schedule.
African-American railroad worker Wallace Saunders from Mississippi subsequently wrote a ballad about a fallen engineer that was later performed on the vaudeville circuit. A pair of song writers published "Casey Jones" based in part on the earlier melodies. It became a hit, making Jones a folk hero.
Have a good weekend! Have some fun but don't go too far off the rails.
Deb
So many good railroad songs! This video by Johnny Cash includes Casey's (tune later used for Good 'n' Plenty candy) and another famous train crash, The Wreck of Old 97 that occurred in 1903 when the engineer, Joseph A. "Steve" Broady was speeding to keep on schedule and his train went off a bridge. The train plunged 45 feet into a ravine and caught fire. Eleven men of the 18 on board died and 7 were injured. Some people survived by jumping before the crash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKEhpcwBVjk