Virginia Vignettes

The Wreck of the Old 97 occurred on September 27, 1903, when the Southern Railway freight train called the Fast Mail (or “Old 97″) left the tracks and crashed at the Stillhouse Trestle outside Danville, Virginia. Eleven people were killed, including the locomotive crew and a number of clerks assigned to oversee the mail the train hauled. The newspapers reported that thousands of people attended the scene of the accident, with women fainting at the grisly sight of the wreckage and firefighters battling a blaze ignited by the steam engine. Two of the spectators were Fred Jackson Lewey, whose cousin Albion Clapp was one of the firemen on the train, and David Graves George. Lewey was later credited with having written a famous ballad about the wreck, which became a country hit in 1924. (It was recorded by Vernon Dalhart for RCA Victor Records.) George, however, sued the record company claiming authorship of the song. Although he won his case, the record company managed to tie the matter up in appellate court long enough to prevent him from ever collecting damages.

Further Reading:

Cohen, Norm, The Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong (2000)
Erbsen, Wayne, Railroad Fever: Songs, Jokes, and Train Lore (1998)

This Vignette Provided By

Bill Kte'pi, independent scholar