Photo by See-Tennessee.com Casey Jones: Jackson's Brave Engineer Feature Article Courtesy of the Tennessee Dept. of Tourism JACKSON, Tenn. -- Even as a boy growing up in Cayce, Ky., Johnathan Luther "Casey" Jones was in love with trains. In 1878, at the age of 15, the kid from Cayce 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 line. The railroad sent him to Jackson, Tenn., 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. His name became internationally famous on the night of April 29, 1900, when he began a ride that carried him into the exalted realm of American legends. It began innocently enough with a request from his supervisor. Casey had just completed a run into Memphis for the Illinois Central, and was preparing to go home to his family in nearby Jackson when his supervisor asked him to make a second run, filling in for a sick engineer on a 190-mile trip from Memphis to Canton, Miss. The southbound train was schedule to leave Memphis at 11:15 p.m., but it was not until 12:50 a.m. -- 95 minutes behind schedule -- that Casey was able to pull his train out of the Memphis station. The highballing Illinois Central Train No. 1 with Casey Jones at the wide-open throttle sped south through a pitch black Mississippi night. Casey had made up some of the 95 minutes lost in Memphis by the time the train reached the little town of Vaughan, Miss. It was there that fireman Sim Webb suddenly spotted the dim silhouette of a caboose and three cars of a stalled train on the main track just ahead. The horrified Webb shouted a warning to his engineer and leaped for his life from the speeding locomotive. Casey Jones, however, chose to stay with his train in a desperate, futile effort to avoid the inevitable collision. Casey was the only casualty of the collision. The story of his valiant effort to stop his train before the crash which took the life reached the American public in the form of a song written by enginerwiper Wallace Saunders. "The Ballad of Casey Jones" has become one of the most popular American ballads ever written. Its famous verse begins: "Come all you rounders if you want to hear, A story about a brave engineer. Casey Jones was the rounder's name. On a big eight-wheeler, boys, he won his fame." The home in Jackson, Tenn., where Casey Jones should have been that fatal night is now a historic site and museum filled with an intriguing collection of exhibits, personal items and railroad memorabilia. Among the many exhibits is a scale model depicting the famous accident at Vaughan, Miss. The personal items include the watch Casey Jones carried that night in 1900. Its hands are still stopped at 3:52, the time of the accident. The Jones' family Bible also is among the exhibits. It is turned to the page that records the death of "John Luther Jones in a railroad accident, April 30, 1900." On the museum grounds is the horse-drawn hearse which carried Casey Jones to his grave in Jackson's Mount Calvary Cemetery, and a twin of the big locomotive Casey rode into immortality. The Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum is the centerpiece of the Casey Jones Village complex just off Interstate 40 in Jackson. Return to Jackson Home © 2001-2008 Devault Interactive. All rights reserved.