Re: Location of Dutchman's Grade
SUMMERS, MORGAN, GILLEN
Posted By: Lynnea Dickinson (email) In Response To: Location of Dutchman's Grade (John M Dooley)
Date: 8/11/2014 at 17:04:30
I found an article that referred to "Dutchman's Grade" in the 23 Dec 1904 Rock Island (IL) Argus newspaper. It tells of the 1863 accident involving the train engine "Dix", manned by Engineer Morgan & Fireman Gillen.
"The 'Dix' left her roundhouse where old Pat Summers was hostler in fine shape one day in the summer of 1863 and after taking her train started out up the Dutchman's grade. It was much steeper than now ..... Everything went well until Duck Creek bridge was reached. The boiler went into the air and then came down on top of the tracks and the tank which were ditched with poor Morgan and Gillen beneath them ..... The 'Dix' was scrap iron. Her sepulchre was the bed of Duck Creek."
My nephew is a local train engineer - I'll contact him and ask if he's heard of Dutchman's grade.
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