April 1, 2023
Just Saying…
By Q.C. Jones
All Aboard the Davenport Express
On April 22, 1856, the first train officially crossed the newly completed bridge spanning the Mississippi between Davenport and Rock Island. According to news reports of the day, the event was quite festive. Bands played, crowds formed, and the punditry of the day either marveled at the engineering wonder of the bridge, or spewed fire and brimstone about the bridge interfering with the real transportation steaming up and down the river.
Both sides of the argument had facts and figures to back their opinion. Those favoring the railroad talked about the economic importance of rail transportation to the country. Remember this was the first stepping stone to a transcontinental connection from east to west coast and that was a big deal. The folks opposing the bridge, were equally adamant on the hazards presented by a railroad and the river.
It turns out the whole bridge thing was relatively short-lived. Just 15 days later on May 6th, a steamboat named the Effie Afton collided with the bridge and caught the brand-spanking new bridge on fire. Both boat and bridge were kaput.
There is strong evidence the steamboat – bridge collision was no accident. The Effie Afton owner was Captain John Hurd, who may or may not have dozens of descendants in these Quad Cities. The good captain wasted no time in filing a lawsuit against the bridge company and everybody else with more than fifty-cents jingling in their pockets. In this legal battle, the steamboat people got off to a great start. They won the first trial with a jury decision of 9-3. The case went up to the Appellate Court where the judge said, the bridge is a nuisance – get rid of it. However, in the end the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the bridge. By the way, Abe Lincoln made a tidy sum on the bridge deal, as he was the railroad’s legal beagle.
Employing Honest Abe’s special choice of words, “eight score and seven (176) years later,” we find ourselves embroiled in another train related brouhaha.
Heading down a sidetrack for just a moment, I thought I would share this author moment. Brouhaha is a word I use in my daily conversation. I use it mostly because it’s pronunciation reminds me of beer. Quite frankly, I spelled it “brew-ha” in my first draft. Now back to the article already in progress.
About 100 years after the first train to Davenport, Johnny Cash wrote a song which contained this lyric: “I hear the train a coming, coming down the track…” Johnny surmised that prisoners in a cold hard-rock prison would find comfort in the sound of a lonely train whistle.
According to the word on the neighborhood coconut telegraph, the number of trains flowing through Davenport, Iowa is about to triple. Some are saying between 25 and 30 trains per day will come down our tracks. That equates to a whole lot of train whistles. Johnny would smile. That early morning train whistle at 5:30 A.M. doesn’t do the job for QC Jones.
Again there is train controversy with both sides pointing to issues tied to, you guessed it, – trains.
Let’s take a positive approach. First, the increase in train traffic opens the door to science. Throughout my life, trains have always been part of my playground. At a young age, my dad’s office and warehouse was in an old railroad storage facility. I discovered that trains have a propensity to lose portions of their bulk loads. This meant plentiful spills of coal, corn, and other interesting objects. The coal was especially of interest because it burned. Unlike others who had to scramble for firewood, my campfires were coal fueled. Head to the woods toting a gunny sack full of coal, and you had a wonderful fire for hours.
There are also valuable lessons on metallurgy. I lined up pennies, pop bottle tops, nails, and other metal objects on the track and waited for the next train to roll down the line. I have a massive collection of pennies that were smashed flatter than a dime by those great rolling cars.
Because I was a great fan of the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon hour, I watched evil villain Snidely Whiplash tie fair maiden, Nell Fenwick, to the train tracks only to be rescued by Dudley Do-Right of the Royal Canadian Mounties. A search for old silent movies with a similar plot line reveals dozens of movies where the leading lady faced a similar fate. According to additional research, there were only a half dozen similar situations in real life between 1870 and 1917. The stories were always sensationalized by the media, hence their popularization in movies and cartoons.
Allow me to end all this with a little poem often recited by both my dad and grandmother during my early childhood. It is one of the few poems I can recite verbatim, so here goes:
Ooey Gooey was a worm,
A mighty worm was he.
He climbed upon the railroad tracks,
The train he did not see.
Ooey Gooey
Apparently Ooey Gooey, being a worm, could not hear the long lonesome whistle of the train rolling down the tracks. Just saying….
