HP Hyde Park Historical Society Non-Profit Org. 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue U.S. Postage HS Chicago, IL 60637 PAID Chicago, IL Permit No. 85

H VOL. 38y dN0. 1 e PublishedPa by ther Hydek Park H istoricalH Society istWINTERo 2015/2016ry WINTER 2015/2016 Casey Jones: An Engineer for Hyde Park and Beyond

By Frances S. Vandervoort

Soon thy arm, unconquered steam, afar shall direct the slow barge or drive the rapid car –Erasmus Darwin, 1781 es, Hyde Parkers, there really was a Casey Jones. He worked for the Illinois Central Railroad and spent serious time on Chicago’s South Side. He became a legend and a hero. YJohn Luther Jones was the oldest of five children born to a schoolteacher and his wife in southeastern Missouri on March 14, 1863, two years and one month to the day before the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. The family moved This Newsletter is published by to the small town of Cayce, Kentucky, where his the Hyde Park Historical Society, a father resumed his teaching career in a one-room Hyde Park Historical Society not-for-profit organization founded schoolhouse one mile east of town. Both Lincoln and COLLECTING AND PRESERVING HYDE PARK’S HISTORY in 1975 to record, preserve, and Casey Jones grew tall—6 feet 4 inches for Lincoln and Time for you to join up or renew? promote public interest in the history 6 feet 4½ inches for Casey. Casey was so tall that he of Hyde Park. Its headquarters, sometimes had to fold himself into a “Z” in order to Fill out the form below and return it to: located in an 1893 restored cable car fit into a locomotive’s cabin, as cabs were often called station at 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue, at the time. As was common among railroad men, he The Hyde Park Historical Society houses local exhibits. It is open to acquired his nickname Casey, simply spelled, after his 5529 S. Lake Park Avenue • Chicago, IL 60637 the public on Saturdays and Sundays hometown. ✁ from 2 until 4pm. Young Casey loved hearing trains passing through Enclosed is my new renewal membership rural Kentucky. He began hanging out at the local Web site: hydeparkhistory.org Mobile and Ohio Railroad station in the small town in the Hyde Park Historical Society. Telephone: HY3-1893 of Columbus where he enjoyed playing baseball Student $15 Individual $30 Family $40 President: Michal Safar for the Columbus Hornets. He befriended the Vice-President: Janice A. Knox local station agent who taught him telegraphy, an Name Secretary: Gary Ossewaarde important part of railroading. It was not enough for Treasurer: Jay Wilcoxen Casey—he wanted to be an engineer. Address Editor: Frances S. Vandervoort Approaching 20, he moved to Jackson, Tennessee, taking a room at a local inn while working as a Zip Email Membership Coordinator: Claude Weil brakeman and then fireman for the M&O. He fell Phone Cell Designer: Nickie Sage in love with the innkeeper’s daughter, a pretty young lady named Janie Brady and married her. ➤ 2 rCasey Jones as a young man. Bailey, Casey Jones Museum. r2 r7 ➤ ➤ 1 The young couple settled in on 71st Street, then made a sharp Pat’s Tavern Author to Jackson where they raised three turn north on a temporary track UPCOMING EVENTS children. In 1888, a yellow fever laid out on what was originally Speak on Radio epidemic swept ICRR trainmen, Seipp Avenue, so-named after a The Society’s annual holiday party will take place on Sunday, December 13 at 2:30, at opening up opportunities for successful Chicago brewer and Tom Crane, who contributed an engaging story employment for aspiring young now East End Avenue. ICRR Society Headquarters. Andy Carter and to Hyde Park History (Winter, 2014-2015) about Friends will provide music. men like Casey. His first job with trains shared this track with trains growing up in Woodlawn in the 1940s, has been the ICRR was as a fireman. arriving at the Fair from the east invited speak about his book, Pat’s Tavern on Rick The annual HPHS dinner will be held at the 1890 was an auspicious year. on the Baltimore and Ohio tracks. Kogan’s radio program, “After Hours with Rick Quadrangle Club on Saturday, February The romance of the rails was at its 27, 2016. Long-time HPHS member Jay Casey in Hyde Park Kogan” on WGN-AM 720 on Sunday, December 6, peak. Trains built at great railroad Society members will enjoy hearing this program. Mulberry will be the features speaker. shops all around the country were designed to go faster—and faster. Casey had jumped at the Casey now had the opportunity to opportunity to come to Chicago. Programs and become part of this great national After he and Janie arrived in adventure—going fast to far-off the rapidly growing city, he Opportunities Bert’s Words (Part 8) places in this still young land. In immediately began driving trains 1890, Casey Jones’s dream came to the Fair on a track bed recently The past several weeks have offered Society “The only thing wrong with immortality is that it true—he became an engineer. elevated above street level to members and visitors opportunities to visit local goes on forever.” – Herb Caen He ran freight for most of his avoid cross traffic from streetcars, institution for programs about local history. August years with the ICRR, but in 1893 carriages, and pedestrians 8 saw more than 100 guests tour Rosalie Villa, now “Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die an urgent request was sent out approaching the Fair from the Harper Avenue between 57th and 59th Streets, even the undertaker will be sorry.” – Mark Twain for engineers to come to Chicago west. ending with a visit to the home newly renovated by to drive the 41 new locomotives Tooling south along the left Lauren Moltz and John Clement that received the “Since God loves everybody, I don’t have to!” purchased for trains carrying hand track of the ICRR right-of- Society’s 2015 Despres Award. Another program – Larry Janiak visitors from all over the world to way, south of 57th Street station included “Hyde Park Stories at Montgomery Place” and from the World’s Columbian Casey could look west to the back on August 16, where participants spoke of local faith- “The wise man must remember that that while he is a Exposition, the great fair that porches of homes along Rosalie based institutions. On August 21, more than 50 descendent of the past, he is the parent of the future.” had grown up almost overnight Court, in 1913 renamed Harper guests occupied the top-floor lounge of Promontory – Herbert Spencer in Jackson Park on Chicago’s Avenue after the first president Apartments to hear Kevin Harrington, professor south side. Only the visionaries of the University of Chicago. emeritus of architectural history at IIT, describe who planned the Fair could have Farther on, from the overpasses of the work of Mies van der Rohe, including the imagined that more than 26 the Midway Plaisance, he could Promontory Apartment building. Comments about the 1893 million people would visit the have looked down to see the On October 21, Society members were given a World Columbian Exposition Fair during its six-month lifetime. Libbey Glass Company exhibit, special tour of the Museum of Science and Industry Trains crammed with more than the Javanese Settlement, and led by MSI guide Dick Klarich, who emphasized the from two Americans visiting the 100 passengers in each “all-door farther west the great Ferris Wheel Arte Moderne style of the Museum. October 24 saw 1900 Exposition Universelle car,” as these rickety wooden flanked by the Streets of Cairo. Society members attend a special program about the coaches were called, departed from 1893 Map of IRCC tracks to the World’s Columbian North of 59th Street were the history of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, given in Paris the Van Buren Street Station in Exposition near the west lagoon in Jackson Park. turrets of Foster, Kelly, and Green Lind, Limiteds along the Lakefront, 43. by Sarah Diwan and Miriam Sierig of this historic downtown Chicago every two residence halls of the three-year- organization. First Chicagoan: “It don’t compare with the World’s minutes on two special outside old University of Chicago. Many Fair of Chicago.” tracks. The peak travel day to the Fair was October 9, of the buildings Casey saw still exist today, reinforcing Second Chicagoan: “Of course not. I knew that 1893, the 22nd anniversary of the Great Chicago File the sense of history so much a part of Hyde Park. before I left Chicago.” of 1871, when 716,881 visitors passed through the On Casey’s off-days, he and Janie likely explored New Members gates. Of this great horde, the IC handled 541,312 the Fair’s exhibits and grounds. They would have The Paris fair, the “largest world’s fair yet,” it people on that day, which may still be the record for enjoyed the Ferris wheel, the exotic displays on the The Hyde Park Historical Society welcomes new members Richard Beal and Carol B. Phillips. covered nearly 250 acres on both sides of the passengers moved in one day on a U. S. suburban Midway, and for Casey, the Transportation Building. Seine, and included an American rolling sidewalk, railroad. (8).” Many of them traveled on trains driven Once they had passed through the Sullivan-designed “something never seen before,” and a “Big Wheel,” to by Casey Jones. golden arch of this magnificent structure, Casey ride, a copy of the one build by George Ferris that had An early map shows how trains heading south to the had eyes only for the huge new locomotive on view: Answer to Mystery Quiz: caused a sensation at the Columbian Exposition at Fair from downtown Chicago ended up facing north Engine Number 638, the Illinois Central Railroad’s Chicago in 1893. in the Fair’s train station near the southwest lagoon latest freight power. Casey truly loved his wife and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe of Jackson Park. Heading south from 67th Street, children, but next came this magnificent machine. McCullough, David. The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. New trains curved east, descended to a grade-level track She had eight driving wheels, a gleaming coat of York, Simon and Schuster, 2011. Pp.446-447.

Winterr 2 015/201 6 Winterr 2 015/201 6 r6 r3 3. Casey Jones. Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index. php?title=Casey_Jones&oldid=620243667” paint, and was considered the greatest technological called “domes” located above the boiler to keep sand 4. Clifford Downey. Chicago and the Illinois Central Railroad. advancement in trains so far. After the Fair she was warm and dry. And, of course, engineers needed to Chicago, Arcadia Publishing Co. 2007. 14. scheduled to be sent to Mississippi for service in read signals along the route and respond accordingly. 5. Peter A. Hanson. “The Brave Engineer.” Trains. 80(4), April, 2000, Casey’s home area, the Jackson District of Tennessee. Steam locomotive engineers had to know how to get 34-43 He charmed officials into granting him permission to along with other trainmen, especially their firemen, 6. Alan R. Lind. Limiteds along the Lakefront: The Illinois Central Railroad in Chicago. Park Forest, Illinois, Transport History Press. drive her home.* The only known photo of Casey at who sat next to them in the left hand seat of the cab. 1986. 41-43. work shows him seated in the cab of Illinois Central A fireman’s job was to open the door to the firebox 7. Wallace Saunders. “The Ballad of Casey Jones.” Trailsrus: Great Gladys Keenan Henry’s mother Railroad Locomotive No. 638. with his right hand, shovel in coal or throw in wood, Rail Trail P 39. Bowling Green, Kentucky. WMRH Corporation. N.D. then shut the door 8. World Columbian Exposition. Retrieved from “https://www. chicagohs.org/history/expo.html.” tightly. He would 9. Eric Yoeli, and David Rand. “The Trick to Acting Heroically.” New also keep watch on York Times Sunday Review, August 28, 2015. 10-12. the left side of the track, important in Thanks are due to three important people who the story of Casey provided valuable information about railroading, about Jones. which I knew very little until I learned that Casey Jones Through his had been a part of Hyde Park. Peggy Cornelius, superb apprenticeship English teacher and long-time colleague at Kenwood as a fireman and Academy advised me about style and syntax. My son, his contact with William Vandervoort, has long astonished me with his other railroaders, sense of the rails. The third individual, who wishes to Not far away, but so far away. Casey learned all remain anonymous, is a walking lexicon of railroad lore. Gladys Keenan Henry came from an Irish Catholic these things and I owe them all a lot. HPHS family with old-fashioned values and simple pleasures. learned them well. Her family worked for the Illinois Central Railroad Engineers had and lived four blocks from Rainbow Beach. She to be cautious, describes a village South Shore transformed into a and they had The Innocent Days booming city neighborhood. Only known photograph of Casey Jones on the job. This locomotive, No. 638, he spotted at the World Columbian to be brave. Ms. Henry is not analytical or terribly sophisticated. Exposition. Hansen, Trains, 39. An apocryphal By Mark Mandle And that’s fine. story describes how Casey rescued a little girl from She helps me understand Douglas (35th and King Casey the Engineer the tracks of the train he was co-engineering with I am a ex-librarian and love history. So its no Drive where my grandmother grew up), 71st and another ICRR engineer, Bob Stevenson. The train surprise I collect books and have a lot of history Coles Avenue (2600 east) where my Mom grew up Why was Casey special? For one thing, he was was running slowly and Casey had walked out on the books. It is unusual that one of my favorite books is a and 88th and Cregier Avenue (1800 East) where I highly regarded by his fellow railroaders. He was a running board to oil some valves. He was returning slim volume of “poems and nostalgic narratives” that grew up. This book might also connect to the world hard worker, did not flaunt his skill in handling a to the cab when he saw a group of children dart initially seems of little worth. where you grew up. HPHS powerful and often unwieldy piece of equipment, and across the tracks some 150 feet ahead. One little girl, Glady Keenan Henry’s The Innocent Days is an was an active and loyal member of the Brotherhood of frozen in fear at the sight of the oncoming train, was amazing book. I belonged to the short lived South Gladys Keenan Henry’s Locomotive Engineers to which he had been elected immobilized on the track. Casey shouted at Stevenson Shore Historical Society (1976-1980) and am sure siblings: Robert, Johnny, master of the local union in Jackson, Tennessee, when to reverse the train, then raced to the front of the I bought it through them. It was published in 1978 and Stella he was only 28. cowcatcher. Hanging on, he reached out as far as his and has been out of print for years. According to my The life of a railroader can be lonesome. Before long body would allow and scooped up the frightened research, the Chicago Public Library, the Chicago 1907, when federal regulations set in, 16-hour days but uninjured girl from the rails (2). History Museum and I own it. Perhaps some of this were not uncommon. Long periods away from journal’s readers are familiar with it. home and sleeping in questionable quarters could Casey and His Whistle But why write about this slim volume in 2015? be wearing. Omnipresent fire and steam soiled Gladys Keenan Henry was born December 4, 1893 overheated cabs, each with its own kind of smell. What is special about a steam train’s whistle? near the downtown at 1552 S. Wabash. She grew up Steam locomotive engineers knew the hard physical Lonesome, melancholy, and oddly comforting for ➤ 4 in Groveland Park (29th St.) and moved to Windsor work of applying the throttle to control the speed of a Park (a South Shore sub-neighborhood) at 75th and train. During Casey’s time, the wider open the throttle Phillips (2445 east). She married, raised children and the more steam available to turn the wheels. As today, seems to have retired to California in 1952. She died engineers knew how to work the brakes, especially Mystery Quiz: about 1978 when this volume was published. We important in icy weather or going up or down grades. Question: What well-known architect know nothing else about her and her family. When greater friction was needed, they knew when whose work is well represented in Hyde Park There seems to be nothing extraordinary about her. to release sand onto the track from the special boxes coined the phrase, “Less is more?” And yet she produced a book of 196 pages and 12 illustrations that provide a mirror to a bygone age. *An eloquent description of this episode can be found in Hansen, P. 36.

Winterr 2 015/201 6 Winterr 2 015/201 6 r4 r5 ➤ 3 farmers, small towners, and hoboes, the sound of accessory rails to free up the mainline for Casey and fall. But Icarus, headstrong youth that he was, forgot Lincoln worked as a lawyer for the ICRR, mainly a train whistle in the distance offered reassurance that the Cannonball. Suddenly, one train’s air brake hose himself and soared higher and higher until the wax representing plaintiffs in personal injury cases. a train was on time and all was well. broke, freezing the train into place with four cars melted, his wings broke apart, and he fell into the sea General George B. McClellan, chief engineer for the Casey collected whistles and stored them in a extending onto the main line, right in the path of and drowned. ICRR company, was appointed by Lincoln in 1861 to cupboard in the roundhouse in Jackson, Tennessee. Casey Jones and the Cannonball. Perhaps it was Casey’s altruism that caught the be general-in-chief of the Union Army, a position he Depending on his fancy, he would select a whistle to As the Cannonball thundered down the track, the held until late 1862 when install in the locomotive he happened to be driving at flagman frantically waved his lantern but could not Lincoln removed him for the time. His favorite was a calliope-type whistle made be seen from the cab in the dim illumination of the excessive caution in battle. of 6 thin pipes. He blew a whistle in a special way kerosene-fueled headlight. The flagman had placed After Lincoln was that was instantly recognizable all up and down the torpedoes—small explosive devices that detonate assassinated in April, 1865, line. Some said it sounded like a whippoorwill’s call— when a train passes over them—on the track but they his body was returned to starting softly, building up in volume to carry far and seem not to have been heard. Sim, horrified when Springfield for burial. The wide, then fading away to a whisper. he saw the lights on the caboose of the train ahead, coffins of Lincoln and his yelled, “We’re going to hit!” Casey jumped from his young son, William who Casey’s Last Ride seat, saw what was about to happen, and issued the died in the White House in last order he would ever give in his life, “Jump, Sim, February, 1862 were carried Casey loved the power of a great locomotive and jump!” to Chicago in a somber, was known for pushing a train as fast as it could go Sim jumped from the left-hand side of the engine, purple draped car of the without it leaving the track. Had he been a jet pilot but Casey rode the train, fighting to stop it even as it special funeral train. With today, his exploits with a fast machine would have plowed into the stalled cars ahead. Engine 382 ended smoke coursing from the been known as hotdogging. According to the record, up on its side, but all other cars remained upright. funnel-shaped smokestack he had been suspended on nine separate occasions Thirteen minor injuries to passenger and crew of a woodburner, on May for incidents including low-speed collisions in a resulted, including bruises to Sim from jumping off 1, 1865, the train traversed freight yard and forgetting to close switches behind the engine. Casey was the only fatality. His body was the last portion of the his train. His infractions usually were the result of his found with one hand on the whistle cord and other ICRR track on the wooden compulsion to keep to a schedule. His tendency to on the brake. He was 37 years old. trestle in Lake Michigan take chances may have sealed his fate the foggy night His body was carried back to Jackson, Tennessee, Lincoln’s funeral train approaches Randolph Street on the ICRR trestle between 22nd Street and the constructed between 22nd of April 30, 1900. where he was buried in the Mt. Calvary Cemetery. Randolph Street station, May 1, 1865. Downey, 14. Street and Randolph Street. After Casey’s 1893 stint in Chicago, he went Casey Jones’s widow and three children remained in Lincoln’s body lay in state to work driving both passenger and freight trains Jackson, where his home eventually became a state imagination of the public. Altruism, the selfless at the Chicago Court House before being transferred along the ICRR main line between Chicago and historic site museum featuring artifacts from his life concern for the welfare of others, led Charles Darwin to Springfield for burial in Oak Ridge Cemetery, two New Orleans. A favored train on that route was the and times. to puzzle about the nature of altruism in honeybees. miles from the heart of Springfield. New Orleans Special, often called the Cannonball Poems and songs have been written about Casey He reasoned that worker bees instinctively thwart Lincoln’s early connection with the ICRR was because of its high visibility and speed. On April 29, Jones, and film directors put his story on the silver attacks on the hive by sacrificing their own lives to indubitable. Casey’s grew over the years of his short 1900, after finishing the first leg of a trip back to screen. Many of the songs are grossly inaccurate, and save the queen. In a broad perspective, this kind of life. Both men died heroes. Chicago, Casey and his friend and fireman, African- one, which ended with the implication that Mrs. altruism aids the survival of the species. American Sim Webb, hung up their work clothes Jones had another man in her life, led to a lawsuit. In recent weeks, we have been amazed and thrilled Poor Casey was always all right and prepared to settle down for a good night’s sleep Mrs. Jones was committed to preserving her husband’s by the quick reaction of the three young American He stuck to his post both day and night in Memphis, where another engineer had taken over memory, and wore black almost every day of the men on a high-speed train in Belgium who spotted They loved to hear the whistle of old Number 3 the northbound Cannonball. As they were preparing nearly sixty years she lived after her husband’s death. a gunman getting ready to wreak havoc on the rails. As he came into Memphis on the old I. C. to turn in, Casey received a call to take over the Within seconds the men rushed down the aisle, southbound Cannonball that had just arrived—one Casey Jones—Apotheosis disarmed the gunman, and tied him up. While Headaches and heartaches and all kinds of pain hour late—from Chicago. Casey, honor-bound to get recognizing that he might be shot, one claimed that it Are not apart from a railroad train. the train to New Orleans on time took over Engine Why did the story of Casey Jones capture so much was “just gut instinct” that caused him to act. Two of Tales that are earnest, noble and grand 382 with Sim at his side. attention? Fatalities were not unknown in railroading the heroes were military men on leave. Did they act Belong to the life of a railroad man. They pulled the six-car train out of Memphis into or other industries of the rapidly growing economy because of instinct or because of training (9)? the dark and rain of an April night. Leaving more of 19th Century America. Every country needs its Instinct and learning are often confused. It is not From The Ballad of Casey Jones than one-and-one-half hours late and traveling as heroes, and Casey, who stayed on the train to save instinct that causes a driver to apply the brakes when Wallace Saunders fast as 80 miles per hour, they made up 60 minutes others, fit the bill. a child runs across the street ahead of him. Otherwise, in the first 102 miles of the trip. Casey needed to Was it hubris—excessive pride in his own skill— what is the purpose of drivers’ education? Casey Jones make up 40 more minutes in order to reach Canton, that made him drive too fast on a dark, misty night? knew how to use the brakes—his hand was on the References 1. John G. Allen and Roy G. Benedict. “Chicago’s Finest Mississippi, the next stop along the way, when fate The Greek myth tells of Daedalus, who fashioned brake when he died. Heroism results from a human Transportation: The Illinois Central Electric.” Hyde Park History, stepped in. A few miles ahead was Vaughan, an wings of feathers and wax so he could fly with his instinct to do good tempered by experience and skill. 29(33) Summer, 2007. Pp 2-4. important railroad hub, where three freight trains son, Icarus. He warned Icarus not to fly too close to The lives of Casey Jones and Abraham Lincoln 2. Jimmie Bailey. Casey Jones… A Man… A Song… A Legend. were being “sawed by,” moved back and forth onto the sun where the wax would melt, causing him to intersected in several ways. In the 1850s Abraham Jackson, Tennessee, Casey Jones Home and Railroad Museum. N.D.

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