Casey Jones Dies: The Legend of the Railroad Hero
Engineer John Luther "Casey" Jones died at the throttle of Illinois Central No. 382 on April 30, 1900, when his locomotive plowed into the rear of a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi. Jones saw the obstruction, applied the brakes, and ordered his fireman Sim Webb to jump. Webb survived. Jones stayed at the controls, reducing the impact speed from 75 mph to an estimated 35 mph. His body was found with one hand on the brake and the other on the whistle cord. Jones was the only fatality. Wallace Saunders, a Black engine wiper at the Canton roundhouse, composed a ballad about the wreck that spread through railroad camps and was later commercialized. "The Ballad of Casey Jones" became one of the most recorded songs in American folk music.
April 30, 1900
126 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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