Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1897-07-29

"HERE have lately been turned
out of the Southern Pacific Rail-
- road shops at one of the big ter
minals of that road on the Pacific
Coast four Of the largest consolidated
pattern engines in use, designed espe-
cially for mountain work, whose plans
and specifications were drawn by prob
ably the only lady expert mechanical
engineer In America, If not in the
world. How she attained her present
position is one of the railroad legends
Of the road for which she works, but
believe the story has never been in
print.
A number Of years ago, about fifteen
l believe, some lucky prospectors 40
Gated" mining claims away up In the
almost inaccessible fortresses of one
Of the mountain ranges Of the West
and the phenomenal riches Of the lead
amply repaid the heavy expense of
the mule train" that was used to
pack" the output to the railroad.
Eventually the prosperity of the first
proprietors brought other adyentur-
GUS spirits to the lucky spot and later
n rich syndicate bought out all the
smaller claims on the ledge and estab-
lished there the great mills and smell
ters of the Calumet Mining and Smelt-
ing Company.
Then the Southern Pacific people
awakened to the importance of the en-
terprise, and after series of consul
tations with the syndicate in the course
Of which a very handsome financial
proposition was made Ly the miners a
branch road was surveyed up through
the canOns to the site of the now rap
idly growing town. The difficulties
were almost insurmountable, but at
last the work was done and very
crooked and dangerous piece of track
was the result. Its grades were pre-
cipitOus in the extreme; its curves
sharp to the last degree, and its road
bed so narrow in some places that If
car became derailed it was either de-
molshed against the rock wall on one
side or went to the bottom of the gorge
on the other, there to lie and rot and
rust away. Once over the cliff the cost
Of raising an ore car would almost
pay for a new one, and the company
seldom made any effort to recover the
wreckage.
One point on the short road had al
ways been dreaded by the trainmen,
and this was the sharp curve mt the
approach to what was called the sec
ond crossing. 1t had been a prolific
source of wrecks and the rocks below
l,,.:I I.s.~
ken timbers and bent and twisted iron
work of dozens of ore cars that had
plunged over the sheer sides of the
deep gorge. This second crossing
bridge was ut the foot of the heaviest
grade and from there the road wound
through the beautiful Silver Creek
Valley to the Junction" where it join
ed the main line of the Southern Pa
cific.
At the point where the level track
commenced, hardly stones throw
from the second crossing bridge, the
company had built a short siding for
the. use of the giant consolidated en-
CINE that was used to push the long
trains of ore cars up the mountain and
Just across the main track from the
siding stood the little cottage where
John Clarke, the engineer, and his
daughter, Jessie, lived.
Miss Jessie at that time was nearly
49, and for the last three years had
been her fathers hOusekeeper. All her
life she had been intimately associated
with railroad men and for the three
years that her father had been run
ming the big "pusher" she had had no
other companion than the old engineer.
his fireman and little brother. sew
eral years her junior.
All her spare time she spent with her
father about the engine. and had made
1t an enthusiastic study until, at 16,
she knew its mechanism about as thor
oughly as did her grayhaired father;
In fact, it was her boast that she could
run the cOnsolidator as good as Dad
dy."
A short time before the incident hap
pened of which l am about to tell you,
a tourist delayed by wreck ut the
bridge had spent the day at Clarke's
cottage. The little housekeeper had
made the day very pleasant for him
by plotting him about the valley, and
on leaving he had given her pair Of
powerful field glasses. They were her
dearest earthly possession, for with
them she could see her fathers engine
as it crept down the mountain for near
" an hour before he would arrive at
the siding.
The long stretches of road as it
wound around the crags up the canon,
now for mile in sight, then dsap-
pearing among the rocks only to re-
appear still further up the mountain,
were always an interesting study for
the girl, and, but for those field glass
es, the young lady's practical knowl-
edge Of railrolding and her unparal
leled nerve. the Southern Pacific would
have had one wreck that would have
cost many lives.
One August evening Miss Clarke was
watching through the field glasses the
effect of the sunlight on the brilliant
quartz rock at the farthest point up
the mountain, where the track could
b. seen from the valley and only 4
si.ort distance from the big mills It
the top of the hill. Her father and his
fireman had gone to the junction for
some supplies and were to return on
the mail" now nearly due. Her lit
IL. brother was playing fireman and
with a big bunch Of waste was rub
bling up the bright work about The big