Casey Jones
Channel: Stephen Griffith
Date: 2020-10-31

Day 227 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series

Apr 30, 1900 - Death of John Luther "Casey" Jones, of the Illinois Central Railroad, near Vaughan, Mississippi.

Sandburg writes: "At Dodge City, Kansas, in the Santa Fe railway station grass and flower plot, stands a plain memorial, a wooden post painted white with the reminder in black letters: Lest We Forget. Fastened to the post is an old time, cast-iron Link-and-Pin, the slaughterer, the crepe hanger, the maker of one-armed men peddling lead pencils on payday night, the predecessor of the beneficent Safety Coupler. . . .

"The laughter of the railroad man at death and mutilation runs through many of his songs. The promise of a wooden kimono, a six foot bungalow, is with him on every trip whether he's on a regular run or the extra list, and no matter what his seniority. . . .

"Verses sung by railroad men were printed in that remarkably American periodical, The Railroad Man's Magazine, under the editorship of Robert Davis. . . .

"Then came the sheet music version, widely popular. Lumberjacks, college girls, aviators, and doughboys, have made versions of their own. . . .

"Songs are like people, animals, plants. They have genealogies, pedigrees, thoroughbreds, cross-breeds, mongrels, strays, and often a strange love-child. . . .

"The Casey Jones song may stem from several earlier pieces that have the same gait, freckles, disposition, color of hair and eyes. Among such earlier pieces are Brady Why Didn't You Run?, Jay Gould's Daughter, On The Charlie So Long, Vanderbilt's Daughter, Mama Have You Heard the News? and all the earlier known songs in which figure Casey Jones, K. C. Jones, David Jones, and still other Joneses. . . .

MORE INFO: [From the Traditional Ballad Index] John Luther Jones was brought up in Cayce, Kentucky (hence his nickname).This piece shows the power of song: Mrs. Jones, who died in 1958 at the age of 92, spent half a century disclaiming the accusations of infidelity in the song. Fireman Simeon Webb lasted almost as long, dying in 1957 at age 83.