The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-11-21
AN o
Forty Five Years on the Footboard-The
Romantic Record OF q Busy Life.


From the Montgomery, Ala, Advertiser.
Probably the oldest locomotive engi-.
neer in point OF service in the South, If
not in America, wer out on the Eufau-
Ia train the other evening. Old Uncle
Ned Graves, aged 70, was the man,
and the record of his long and toilsome
life would fill a volume and be as en-
tertaining as the most highly colored
romance of the day. Uncle Ned began
work for the Jersey Central forty
seven years ago, soon after the first
shovelful of earth was thrown up at
Savannah, which was the beginning OF
the present great Central system. Dur
ing the first year or two he worked in
the machine shops, and growing tired
of that he was by his own request put
on an engine, and for forty five years
he stood on the footboard and held the
reins of the iron horse. A few months
ago he retired from active service on a
life pension from the Central and with
a life pass over the entire system in his
pocket. He was we'll fixed in the
worlds goods, it is said, having some
$4,000 in real estate in Macon, where
he resides, and about SIC, 900 in bank.
II have had some mighty narrow es-
capes during these f~orty-seyen years."
he said to a reporter or the train.
Somehow I've always come out of ac-
cidents unhurt, and I've had a lot of
'em, let me tell you"
Being encouraged by the reporter,
Uncle Ned proceeded:
Coming out of Savannah one Sunday,
[ noticed the clouds looked rainy and
stormy, and / felt s little uneasy. I'm
not superstitious, but somehow / had a
presentiment that evening. Along to-
wards night is began to rain in torrents
and the wind blew a stiff gale. / told
nv fireman there were lively times
ahead of us, and I put the old engine
out for all she wa worth. Nothing
happened until we had got in an hour
or two of Macon, and says / to my fire.
man: After we get over the hill ahead
yonder and under good Roadway we q
count on being in our beds asleep in an
hour and a half The night was dark
as the smokestack, and we ran right
down to Warner creek before we knew
it, and, bless God, three spans of the
bridge had been washed out. But we.
discovered it too late to reverse, and
pulling the engine wide open we sat
back and waited for the crash, which
came in less than no time, and down we
went in the seething Missing flood. 1t
was an awful time we had down in War
ner creek that night and more than one
soul went to heaven, but | was spared
unhurt.
Another time I went through a
bridge over Bigger creek on the Col
umbus and Macon line, and five cara
followed me. That was horrible time.
One of the curious features of the ac-
'cident was that of an iron rod tearing
a lady's bonnet from her head and going
through a partition and piercing right
through the body OF a man sitting in
the smoking car with q cigar in his
mouth. He was pinned to the ofpo-
site wall, where he hung and died. /
was never In q worse accident than
that"
"And one morning just before start
ing out of Macon i told the boys:
Well boys, / guess the engine will
turn over on Uncle Ned to-day and
sure enough she did. She jumped the
track and turned bottom side up right
over me, but ! was not even scratched. I"
Yes resumed the old man after q
long pause. during which his brain seem
ed to be teeming with the memories of
a long life, II have had many narrow
escapes and exciting adventures. Dur
ing that awful yellow fever epidemic in
Savannah, in 1854, durmgwhich people
dropped about like dying sheep by the
hundreds, ran an engine every night
Tor SIX long weeks, and never closed my
eyes between sunset and sunrise, work
ing all the night through, and 1 never
caught the fever. But it caught me in
Savannah in 1876. and came neal kill
ing me. i have never been well since
then, and / think that fever caused me
to have the dropsy, which i have got
at this moment. The dropsy is mighty
hard on me, mighty hard, mighty hard.
During the war they used to send me
withtrains over to Salt river in Virginia
TO haul salt for the confederate gov
ernment.n
Il have served under all the presi-
tents the Central has ever had-W. w.
Gordon, the first; Cuy1er, Wadley,
Alexander and Raoul. Gordon was a
great man he was. I've seen him many
= time trudging along the track in the
rain and mud, with q bundle on his
back, inspecting the road. People
sailed him crazy for doing that way,
out he had his all IN the Centra1-slaves,
lands and everything. Mr.. Wadley was
2 great man, too, and Mr.. Raoul is
great
Union Springslp shouted the brakes
man, and Uncle Ned slowly arose from