Now imagine the engine and the next 2 cars hitting a cow on the tracks and then derailing. Smoke, fire, twisted metals, the screams of the passengers, the smashing of the cars, all coming to a grinding halt, with one man’s body under the wreckage…
Recently I learned that my 2xgreat-grandfather Deaderick A. Collins was killed in a train accident.
DNA cousin Nick found this on google books.
Then I found a newspaper account of the accident at the East Tennessee Historical Society in Knoxville. The following clipping is from the Knoxville Chronicle.
Yesterday afternoon the down passenger train ran over a cow, a mile east of Sweetwater, which threw the engine and express car from the track, badly wrecking both and causing the death of the fireman, D. A. Collins. The express messenger, J. J. Tibbs, was injured slightly, but beyond these no one else was hurt.
Mr. Collins’ death is universally regretted by his friends. He leaves a wife and three children. His remains were expected to arrive this morning, and will probably be interred this afternoon.
Then when I searched the internet again, I found that the Knoxville Chronicle was online at newspapersDOTcom. Of course. Why wouldn’t a historical newspaper be there. I had used a free trial last year, but found nothing that helped my searches. This was surely the year to find *something*. Anything.
So I signed up for 6 months, thinking that this is surely a big enough window.
I found the initial story that I first published, the one from the Knoxville Chronicle. And then found another from The Sweetwater Enterprise, October 5, 1871, Thursday, Page 3.
I also learned that you can “clip” an article from any paper and save it to your computer in the form of a PDF, which you will find below. I’ll transcribe it for your viewing pleasure.
Deaderick_A__Collins__10_2_1871__death_in_railroad_accident
TERRIBLE ACCIDENT.
*****
Train Thrown from the Track.
*****
The Fireman Instantly Killed.
*****
Express Messenger Injured.
*****
A terrible accident occurred to the
westward bound train on the E. T. Va.,
& Ga., Railroad on Monday evening last,
while rounding a curve about a half a
mile East of Sweetwater. The accident
took place about 3:25, and at a point
of the road where the best cattle belong-
ing to Mr. Wm. Cleveland, cross it every
morning and evening.
The train ran over two of the cattle
which upset the engine, tender, baggage
and express car, tearing up the track for
some distance, and wrecking the engine
and cars in a manner beyond description.
Mr. D. A. Collins, the fireman, jumped
from the engine, and before he could get
out of the way, the tender upset, fell up-
on him, mangling him in a most horrible
manner, killing him instantly. The en-
gineer, Mr. Wiley Wright, miraculously
escaped injury. The Express Messenger,
Mr. Tibbs, was slightly injured.
The scene of the disaster was terrible.
The right side of Mr. Collins, from his
hip down, crushed to pieces, his jaw bone
broken and his body bruised almost all
over. His body was taken from under
the debris in about two hours from the
time the accident occurred, was washed,
dressed, placed in a box and brought here
to the depot.
The track was cleared at about 11
o’clock, allowing all the night trains to
pass on time.
The body of the deceased was conveyed
to Knoxville, on the night train where
lives his family, consisting of a wife, three
small children and a sister who were sole-
ly dependent upon him for support.
Now, I’m not a doctor or a coroner, but I *have* watched a few crime shows. (Don’t laugh – y’all have, too.) If he was killed instantly, how did bruises have time to form over his whole body? Doesn’t the bruising mean that he was still alive while trapped under the wreckage?
Then Nick found another account in another paper in Chronicling America. I found this on NewspapersDOTcom and clipped it and downloaded it. This is from a Jonesborough, Tennessee, newspaper called the Herald and Tribune, and the article is from October 5, 1871, Thursday, page 2.
Deaderick_Collins__death__1871__reported_in_newspaper_in_Jonesborough__Tennessee_
Railroad Accident.
We take the following from the Knox-
ville Press and Herald, of Tuesday last:
Quite a serious accident occured to the
westward bound train on the E. T.,Va.&
Ga. Railroad, which left this city at 1:17
p. m., yesterday, while rounding a curve
about a quarter of a mile east of Sweet-
water, and forty-two miles west of Knox-
ville. The accident took place at 3:25
p. m., and at a point of the Road where
the cows of the village cross it every morn-
ing and evening in going to and returning
from pasturage.
The train ran over a cow and the mis-
hap upset the engine, tender and express
car, instantly killing the fireman, Mr. D.
A. Collins, who was caught under the
tender and crushed to death. His body
was still under the debris at eight o’clock
last night. The engineer, Mr. Wiley
Wright, escaped injury. The Express
Messenger, Mr Tibbs, was slightly hurt.
The engine, tender and express car were
badly smashed up.
Mr. Collins, the fireman, leaves a wife
and three children, who reside in this city,
on Depot street, between Broad and
Crozier streets. He was about thirty-
eight years of age.
*****
So where was the accident: 1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, or 1 mile east of Sweetwater?
Who is Deaderick’s sister who depends on him for sole support?
Was it one cow on the tracks? Or two?
If the accident occurred at 3:25PM, was the body removed about 2 hours later from under the wreckage, putting that about 5:25ish, or was the body still under the wreckage at 8PM like the last story states?
AND WHERE IS THIS MAN BURIED? Somewhere in Knoxville, we trust, but where? The oldest church in Knoxville reports that he is not buried there, but they are using the headstones, which have been surveyed and recorded, as reference, and apparently do not have paper records from 1871.
And was he really 38 years old? Because some records say he would be 30ish.
Really, I’m so glad to know that he is not a mystery person any more, and that he was a real flesh-and-blood man.
Most of all, I’d like to know why there wasn’t a cowcatcher?
I went to the Lacy Hotel last week. Only it’s not a hotel any more. It’s a gift, antique, and home furnishing shop.
I wasn’t shopping. I have a #CousinNotCousin whose grandmother and aunt worked at the Lacy, back in the day when it was an actual hotel. They cooked there for many years, and their cooking was legendary. One friend said she could still taste the rolls, warm from the oven, even though the Lacy as a hotel has been out of business for many years.
It opened during the 1920s. It was a place where you could get a meal, book a room, or attend a meeting. Ladies’ society clubs met there. Men’s business groups met there. Families went for a meal.
My family went the same places over and over, and the Lacy wasn’t one of them. I don’t know why.
So that made my visit extra-interesting. My goal was to snap a few shots for my #CousinNotCousin Beth in Illinois. The Lacy was so beautiful that I got carried away.
Walk straight through the front door to the room behind, turn around, and you see this room…
Then across the room at a diagonal to the doorway beyond which is the old dining room.
I made myself stop taking photos of the stairs. It was an unusual layout.
There are 6 rooms upstairs. Nooks and crannies are full of wonderful things.
T
I’m rather astonished that a gift shop is alive and well in my hometown.
I bought some mulling spices and also a heritage book “Windows to the Past”, which was published in 1982 as part of Lenoir City’s Diamond Jubilee.
I got the book with the thought that I would send it to Beth in Illinois as a token of remembrance from the Lacy. Much later, I was looking through it, and I saw a photo of the graduating class of 1938. Y’all? There was my mother.
I hope Beth enjoys her mulling spices.
I first learned about Ruth Collins in 1999. I had decided to learn more about my genealogy, but all I knew on my maternal side was that my great-grandmother was named Henrietta Collins Webb. I found her as a child on the 1880 Blount County, Tennessee, census. Her mother was Ruth Collins. I was sure I had the right family when I saw that the mother’s name was Ruth. You might think the same if you were named for your grandmother, and she was perhaps named for HER grandmother, so it stood to reason that this must be my family.
Ruth Collins was listed as a widow. My BigBroBob was also researching this family, and he had seen a message on the ancestry message boards from a man named Harry who was searching for his grandmother Ivy’s father Deaderick Collins. But Ivy was born in 1881, so this didn’t seem like the same family even though Ivy’s mother was named Ruth. I suppose that we could have stretched the imagination by reasoning that Ivy was born in early 1881, and that Deaderick had died right before the census was taken. That seemed possible, except that Ivy had a younger brother Joseph born about 1883. Surely this was not the same family.
There’s also an 1870 census for Knoxville Tennessee which showed Henrietta and her little sister Maude living with their parents Ruth and D. A. Collins, and D. A. is a railroad hand. So let’s guess that the 1870 family is definitely mine.
That was it. I never found anything more that D. A. was Deaderick.
*****
Fast forward 18 years, and I’ve taken a DNA test. In April 2017 I matched a man named Nick. He was descended through my Henrietta’s sister Maude, but didn’t have any info on Ruth or Deaderick or their life together.
*****
About 2 weeks ago, I received a message from Nick with a link to a google book search. It was about a case that was reported in a book “Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Tennessee, Volume 56”. Nick used the search term “Deaderick A. Collins”.
The name of the case was Ruth A. Collins v. East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad Co.
Here’s a screenshot:
And then the suit names Deaderick AND WHERE AND HOW HE DIED.
The defendant appeals in error from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Knox county, upon a verdict of six thousand dollars ($6,000) damages assessed by the jury for killing Deaderick Collins, the husband of the plaintiff. The accident which occasioned the death of said Deaderick Collins, occurred on the 2nd of October, 1871. He was a fireman on the defendant’s train, which, on that day, ran over some cattle, whereby the engine and tender were thrown from the track, and the tender upsetting fell upon said Collins killing him instantly.
The action is brought by the widow, under the Act of 1871, ch. 78, which is in the words following: “Be it enacted, &c., that Section 2291 of the Code of Tennessee, be so amended as to provide that the right of action, which a person, who died from injuries received from another, or whose death is caused b the wrongful act, omission, or killing by another, would have had against the wrongdoer in case death had no ensued, shall not abate or be extinguished by the death; but shall pass to his widow; and, in case there is no widow, to his children or to his personal representative, for the benefit of his widow or next of kin, free from the claims of his creditors.”
This Act took effect and was approved by the Governor on the 14th of December, 1871, two months and twelve days after the death of the said Deaderick Collins.
Sugar weighed in on this topic. Wouldn’t there be, he reasoned, a family story of a train accident in which your ancestor DIED? Wouldn’t there be an oral tradition that there were some children whose father was reported to be Deaderick, but clearly couldn’t be since he was DECEASED? I vote no because I have met my family, and I know how we roll.
It just so happens that I was already planning a trip to East Tennessee to attend the 150th anniversary of the church that I grew up in. I had already requested time off, enough time off that I could view the Lawton collection in Columbia, SC, plus spend the night with a Collins cousin, attend the reunion, visit Mom and Dad at the cemtery, go to the Knox County Archives, and visit with friends. This was a golden opportunity.
Then a hurricane appeared. I was planning on the trip anyway, but the trip might be dicey with a possible evacuation. The hurricane cooperated by moving westward.
At the Knox County Archives, it just so happened that the court case was on microfilm. These are iPhone photos of the microfilm.
Ruth A Collins vs The ET Va & Ga RR Co
No 8929 February 14, 1874
Came the parties by their attornies and came also a Jury to wit, JH Mynatt, JA Ogg, Jefferson Jett, Wash Morrow, HC Ogg, JC Chiles, JC Johnson, JR Johnson, JP Ford, John Sayne, WL Kennedy and JW Ventis all good and lawful men citizens of Knox County, who having been tried elected and sworn well and truly to try the issues joined between the parties having heard all the testimony in the cause and a portion of the arguments of counsel from rendering a Verdict are respited until the meeting of court Monday morning next.
No 8929 February 16, 1874
Came the parties by their attornies and came also the jury heretofore Sworn in this cause to wit JH Mynatt, JA Ogg, Jefferson Jett, Wash Morrow, HC Ogg, JC Chiles, JC Johnson, JR Johnson, John Sayne, WL Kennedy, and JW Ventis, who having heard the remainder of the arguments of counsel, from rendering a verdict are again further respited until the meeting of court tomorrow morning.
No 8929 February 17, 1874
Came the parties by the attornies and came also the Jury heretofore sworn in this cause to wit JH Mynatt, JA Ogg, Jefferson Jett, Wash Morrow, HC Ogg, JC Chiles, JC Johnson, JR Johnson, JA Finch, John Sayne, WL Kennedy, and JW Ventes who upon their oaths do say that they find the matter in favor of the plaintiff and assess the Plaintiff damages by reason of the premises in the Declaration mentioned at the Sum of Six thousand dollars. It is therefore considered by the court that the Plaintiff have and recover of the defendant the Said Sum of Six thousand dollars the damages assessed by the jury together with all the costs of this cause for which execution may issue.
No 8929 February 19, 1874
Came the defendant by attorney and entered a Motion for a new trial of this cause.
February 21, 1874
Came the parties by their attornies and came on for hearing the defendants motion for a new trial of this cause which motion having been argued by counsel and considered of and well understood by the Court it is considered by the court that the motion be overruled and a new trial refused.
Tuesday March 3rd 1874
Court met pursuant to adjournment
Present and Presiding
The Hon. E.T. Hall Judge &c.
Came the defendant by attorney and (illegible) an appeal in the nature of a writ of (illegible) to the next term of the Supreme Court of Tennessee to be holden at Knoxville on the Second Monday of September next from the actions of the court in refusing to grant a new trial of this cause. And tendered to the Court its bill of exceptions which is signed and sealed by the Court and ordered to be made a part of the record in this cause. And the Defendant having entered into bond with Security as required by law Said appeal is granted.
Here’s a fun fact: Ruth’s Supreme Court case was to be heard on the “Second Monday of September”. I viewed this court case on microfilm on the second Monday of September, after traveling about 500 miles to view it.
The upshot of all this? Ruth and her attorney sued the railroad. There was a jury of men. She won. The railroad wanted an appeal, which was first denied, then granted, and the case went on to the Tennessee State Supreme Court. She won again, although the physical record cannot be located.
If there was a railroad accident, wouldn’t that be in the newspaper? I asked this question at the East Tennessee Historical Society, and spent a good bit of time scrolling through the microfilm.
Microfilm of the Knoxville Chronicle, October 4, 1871
Yesterday afternoon the down passenger train ran over a cow, a mile east of Sweetwater, which threw the engine and express car from the track, badly wrecking both and causing the death of the fireman, D. A. Collins. The express messenger, J. J. Tibbs, was injured slightly, but beyond these no one else was hurt.
Mr. Collins’ death is universally regretted by his friends. He leaves a wife and three children. His remains were expected to arrive this morning, and will probably be interred this afternoon.
Now I need a map of the Sweetwater area of the ETVGRR in 1871, and I need to find where this man was buried, most probably in Knoxville.
*****
I spent the next night with my long-time friend Susan who lives near Sweetwater. When I headed home the next day for cats and Carolina, I drove over a bridge that crossed the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad. I took a quick look east to the direction of the accident.
Ruth went on to have 4 children after Deaderick’s death.
Good night, Deaderick. I’m thinking about you.
Where did he go? What happened to him?
Our mystery man is the son of Ruth Gamble Collins. We don’t know who his father is, because a recent discovery by a new DNA cousin shows that Ruth’s husband Deaderick A. Collins was killed in a train accident on October 2, 1871. William was born about 1874.
Well, that’s awkward. Even more awkward is that Ruth had a total of 4 children after Deaderick Collins died.
Two of those children were born before 1880, and two more after 1880. Before I found out about the train wreck that killed Deaderick in 1871, I knew that Ruth reported herself as a widow on the 1880 census. When I put on my thinking cap, I decided that perhaps the two children that I knew were born after 1880 were foster children, adopted children, or her grandchildren.
Learning that Deaderick died in 1871 meant that 4 children were born after his death: William, Birdie, Ivy, and Joseph.
There are no family stories handed down that our ancestor died in a train wreck, or that his widow Ruth sued the East Tennessee, Virginia, and Georgia Railroad Company.
From a Google books search, my cousin found this court case.: Ruth A. Collins v. East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad Co.
The accident which occasioned the death of said Deaderick Collins, occurred on the 2nd of October, 1871. He was a fireman on the defendant’s train which, on that day, ran over some cattle, whereby the engine and tender were thrown from the track, and the tender upsetting fell upon said Collins, killing him instantly.
But who was William Collins? He was the first child born, in 1874, after Deaderick died. YEARS after Deaderick died.
Another cousin that I corresponded with about 18 years ago had a theory that William had gotten into some trouble and moved off and changed his name. Two things back up this theory.
“Carolyn calls Uncle Walt Uncle Will”
A letter from Ruth’s brother Larkin Boling Gamble to their sister in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, in 1913 that mentions all the living children except William. Instead, the letter mentions Walter Oliver.
Here’s the link to that post with the letter. Click here.
We don’t know which sister he was writing to. Martha Rhea, also known as Mattie? I requested a death cert for a certain Walter Oliver in Siloam Springs, and the cert could not be located.
This might call for a trip to the archives…
Have you heard?
The entire Southeast is preparing for a hurricane.
Hurricane Irma is bearing down on us, only a few short weeks since Hurricane Harvey hit Houston.
We’ve done this before, most recently last year with Hurricane Matthew. I rode that one out.
This year I had planned a trip away for several nights. I never worry about the place if I step away. Sugar is not far from here, and he tends to the cats and such for me. This year is going to be different. I’m not just packing for travel, I’m packing with the possibility of being gone for an unknown period of time. I have feeders and waterers and bedding set up in the shed for the cats. They have perches and cubbies and lofts to claim.
One of the hurricane preparedness sites says to scan your important documents and email them to yourself. I have been taking that a step further since I started blogging in 2009. Lots of my important documents are saved to the blog, to ancestry.com, and to social media.
And yet, here I sit at 4:02AM, scanning more little bits of history. Like this:
Mom’s high school commencement program.
So I wonder if Mom would be pleased or worried that I was sitting up in the wee hours, while posting to the blog instead of packing and scurrying about?
Just thinking of you, Mom. Either way, just thinking of you.
Sugar had made a treehouse for the cats.
It was perfect for lounging and feeding.
The Butter in the Treehouse
There was one flaw in the set-up. It was a platform only, and, while the gravity feeder fit perfectly on the platform, rain would soak the dry food in the feeder’s basin. In the coastal heat, that rain-soaked food turned foul quickly.
So Sugar built a roof.
Mr. Friendly takes a bath
Friendly went all the way to the end and lounged there. He is basically cantilevered over open space.
Then he went to the other side and did the same thing.
We considered putting the roof on at a slant for rain runoff. Now we’re glad we didn’t since the cats like the sun deck effect.
I don’t have a problem with intruders. Anyone can see the property is protected by C. A. T. Surveillance. Lots of people are afraid of cats, and seeing one 8′ in the air over your head would give one pause.
I think a “Beware of Cat! Owner is also Sketchy” sign would add to the fun.
And it’s cloudy and rainy…
Go inside and eat a cookie.
Ruthrawls’s BlogIn which there are cats and yarn. Oh, and dead people.
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