Railway Giants: How Casey Jones Risked It All to Save a Train and Became a Legend

A railroad engineer sacrificed his life to save passengers during a train accident in Mississippi. Discover the fascinating life story of this hero, whose courage and selflessness made him a legend of American railroads.

It’s 1863, and we find ourselves in the state of Missouri, USA. According to the Tennessee State Library and Archives, a boy named John Luther Jones is born here. At this time, America is amid a tragic internal conflict. For two years, the nation has been torn by civil war—a conflict that will claim more American lives than both world wars combined. The background of the dispute that escalated into civil war is complex. For decades before the conflict erupted in 1861, the United States had been embroiled in a battle over the legality of slavery.

While slavery had already been consigned to history in European nations, it remained legal in the United States through the mid-19th century. Southern states, primarily agrarian and economically dependent on slavery, fought to maintain the status quo. In contrast, the more industrialized northern states did not rely on slaves and leaned toward abolition. The tipping point came in 1861 when Abraham Lincoln, a staunch opponent of slavery, was elected president.

In an attempt to calm the situation, Lincoln offered a compromise: states currently part of the Union could keep slavery, but it would be banned in any new territories added to the nation (it’s important to note that in 1861, the United States had not yet fully claimed its modern-day territory—settling and annexing new lands would continue into the 20th century). Lincoln believed that if slavery couldn’t expand, it would eventually die out, as it was economically inefficient. This move ignited a military conflict between the northern and southern states, which would last until 1865 and end in victory for the North. What followed was the economic reconstruction of the devastated South, setting the stage for the United States' rise as a global power.

John was still a young boy when his parents, Frank and Nolan Jones, decided that Missouri wasn’t prospering for them. They moved to the town of Casey in neighboring Kentucky. It was from this town, where John would spend most of his childhood, that he earned the nickname by which the world would later know him—Casey, as stated in the Casey Jones Biography.

At the age of 15, John moved to Columbus, Kentucky, where he started working as a telegraph operator for the Mobile and Ohio Railroad (M&O). In 1884, after a promotion to gatekeeper, he relocated to Jackson, Tennessee. During his time in Jackson, John met Joanne 'Janie' Brady, the daughter of a local boarding house owner where he was staying. John and Joanne were married in 1886, and together they had two children, a son and a daughter.

John’s next promotion came in 1891 when he achieved his dream of becoming an engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad. He began by operating freight trains between Jackson and Water Valley, Missouri. John became known for his dedication to his new position. Rumor had it that he was never late, and some even claimed people set their watches by the passing of his train.

In 1893, John had his first experience with passenger trains during the Chicago World’s Fair, where he was selected to drive suburban trains transporting visitors to and from the event. At the fair, he became familiar with Locomotive No. 638, a new freight engine hailed by some as a technological marvel. It was an even greater honor when John was chosen to deliver the locomotive to Water Valley, nearly 600 miles away.

On April 30, 1900, John volunteered for a double shift to cover for a sick colleague. After completing a run from Canton, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee, he was scheduled to make a return trip south. Accompanied by Illinois Central fireman Sam Webb, John was determined to make up the train’s 90-minute delay, pushing the engine to speeds exceeding 100 mph in a bid to stay on schedule.

As the train approached Vaughan, Mississippi, Webb warned John that another train was stalled ahead on the tracks. Acting quickly, John grabbed the brake with one hand and pulled the whistle with the other, trying to warn people near the train. He then instructed Webb to jump to safety. Moments later came the crash—smoke, and the sound of steel colliding. Miraculously, everyone on board survived. Everyone, that is, except one. When rescuers reached the wrecked engineer’s cab, they found an extraordinary sight. John Luther Jones lay lifeless, one hand on the brake and the other on the whistle.

The man who could have saved himself by jumping, but chose to stay and save others, would never be forgotten. Shortly after his death, Wallace Saunders wrote The Ballad of Casey Jones, a song that would become immensely popular and immortalize John as a legend—forever a symbol of the steam era in American rail history.

Source: Britannica; Office of the Historian; History.com