Issue No. 10
August 27, 2010
In this issue:
The Crash at Crush
Quote of the Week
Texas Trivia
Meeting Johnnie Belle
The Crash at Crush
Quote of the Week
Texas Trivia
Meeting Johnnie Belle
Previous
Issues
Issues
Subscribe
by email
by email
Tell us
something
something
Willie G. Crush had talked his bosses at the Katy Railroad into a wild promotion. It was the middle of a recession and desperate times spawn such things. In order to promote the company's Texas routes they would crash two locomotives into each other at high speed.
A specially prepared stretch of track was built parallel to the Katy's main line, fifteen miles North of Waco. Admission would be free, but you had to ride a Katy train to get there.
A town was set up, complete with water wells, a grandstand, and circus tents borrowed from the Ringling Brothers. If this went well it might become a permanent settlement. Of course every town needs a name, and because this was Willie's show, and the name was so fitting, they called it Crush.
By the afternoon of September 15, 1896, there were nearly 50,000 people in Crush awaiting the spectacle, making it the second largest 'city' in Texas.
Old No. 999 was painted bright red and old No. 1001 was painted in just as bright a shade of green. They started nose to nose before the grandstand, each with seven cars in tow, then slowly backed away and out of sight.
The signal was given and they began moving forward, slowly at first, but faster by the second until they were both traveling at about sixty miles an hour, whistles shreiking like banshees.
They flew down the track setting off fireworks as they passed. 100 yards. 100 feet. 1 foot...
There was a deafening crash and both locomotives rose up, the towed cars crumpled and the air was filled with dust and dirt.
It was just as impressive as Willie told them it would be. The promotion had been a huge success. A smile started to form on his lips. And then both boilers exploded.
Shrapnel flew. Spectators panicked and ran. Three people were killed and scores were badly hurt. The photographer hired to record the event lost an eye to a flying bolt. Willie lost his job. But only for a few hours. He was rehired the next day and would retire from the Katy after fifty-seven years of service.
There is nothing left at Crush today but an historical marker and some cows. The town and the crash have a musical legacy though.
Nobody knows if he was in the audience, but within a month or so, ragtime composer Scott Joplin had published a new song and the kids where dancing to it. The song was titled, The Great Crush Collision.
A specially prepared stretch of track was built parallel to the Katy's main line, fifteen miles North of Waco. Admission would be free, but you had to ride a Katy train to get there.
A town was set up, complete with water wells, a grandstand, and circus tents borrowed from the Ringling Brothers. If this went well it might become a permanent settlement. Of course every town needs a name, and because this was Willie's show, and the name was so fitting, they called it Crush.
By the afternoon of September 15, 1896, there were nearly 50,000 people in Crush awaiting the spectacle, making it the second largest 'city' in Texas.
Old No. 999 was painted bright red and old No. 1001 was painted in just as bright a shade of green. They started nose to nose before the grandstand, each with seven cars in tow, then slowly backed away and out of sight.
The signal was given and they began moving forward, slowly at first, but faster by the second until they were both traveling at about sixty miles an hour, whistles shreiking like banshees.
They flew down the track setting off fireworks as they passed. 100 yards. 100 feet. 1 foot...
There was a deafening crash and both locomotives rose up, the towed cars crumpled and the air was filled with dust and dirt.
It was just as impressive as Willie told them it would be. The promotion had been a huge success. A smile started to form on his lips. And then both boilers exploded.
Shrapnel flew. Spectators panicked and ran. Three people were killed and scores were badly hurt. The photographer hired to record the event lost an eye to a flying bolt. Willie lost his job. But only for a few hours. He was rehired the next day and would retire from the Katy after fifty-seven years of service.
There is nothing left at Crush today but an historical marker and some cows. The town and the crash have a musical legacy though.
Nobody knows if he was in the audience, but within a month or so, ragtime composer Scott Joplin had published a new song and the kids where dancing to it. The song was titled, The Great Crush Collision.
Most historians will tell you that the Battle of San Jacinto was fought by newcomers from the United States who flooded across the border in search of land and glory when they heard a fight was brewing. And they are wrong. Johnnie Belle McDonald did the all the footwork, gathering bits of information from hundreds of sources, and proved that it just wasn't so. And she did it back in 1922 when you couldn't find out much just sitting at your desk. She did it the old fashioned way, compiling 877 biographical entries and hand typing over 1900 footnotes.
She passed away over twenty years ago, so we never got the chance to know her except through her work. That's how it usually goes around here. Still, you get a feel for a person through the written word. A personality takes form in you head.
Last week I received an email from a gentleman who was one of her students at Palistine High School in the late 1950s.
"She spent years working and guiding the Anderson County Historical Commission and was responsible for a number of state Historical Markers being erected in our county.
She was 'country' on purpose...told one of my classmates that he might as well get a new fishing pole because he could "just go on down to the river graduation night" because he wasn't about to graduate! She had so many funny sayings that she used in class. That said, she was a very good teacher...and gave hard tests!
Johnnie Belle sponsored the high school History Society and hand-picked the officers...no voting by members!"
She was exactly as I imagined her.
Click Here if you want to know more about Johnnie Belle's book, The Soldiers of San Jacinto.
She passed away over twenty years ago, so we never got the chance to know her except through her work. That's how it usually goes around here. Still, you get a feel for a person through the written word. A personality takes form in you head.
Last week I received an email from a gentleman who was one of her students at Palistine High School in the late 1950s.
"She spent years working and guiding the Anderson County Historical Commission and was responsible for a number of state Historical Markers being erected in our county.
She was 'country' on purpose...told one of my classmates that he might as well get a new fishing pole because he could "just go on down to the river graduation night" because he wasn't about to graduate! She had so many funny sayings that she used in class. That said, she was a very good teacher...and gave hard tests!
Johnnie Belle sponsored the high school History Society and hand-picked the officers...no voting by members!"
She was exactly as I imagined her.
Click Here if you want to know more about Johnnie Belle's book, The Soldiers of San Jacinto.
Trivia Answer:
Jim 'Mattress Mac' McIngvale of Gallery Furniture in Houston
Back in 1975, Mac was running a chain of health clubs in Dallas. Ali was fighting an exhibition and pulled Mac (the only white guy there) out of the crowd to spar with. As they circled the ring Ali whispered that he would let Mac knock him down in the second round and that Mac should then scream a racial epithet at the audience.
Ali was a good actor and Mac played his part just as well. Mac's early demise was averted when the Champ jumped up and revealed his prank.
Jim 'Mattress Mac' McIngvale of Gallery Furniture in Houston
Back in 1975, Mac was running a chain of health clubs in Dallas. Ali was fighting an exhibition and pulled Mac (the only white guy there) out of the crowd to spar with. As they circled the ring Ali whispered that he would let Mac knock him down in the second round and that Mac should then scream a racial epithet at the audience.
Ali was a good actor and Mac played his part just as well. Mac's early demise was averted when the Champ jumped up and revealed his prank.
Copyright 2010 - Copano Bay Press
About
Texas Reader is written by Mark Pusateri of
Copano Bay Press
(BooksOnTexas.com).
It explores little known facets of Texas history you weren't likely taught in school.
Copano Bay Press
(BooksOnTexas.com).
It explores little known facets of Texas history you weren't likely taught in school.
