The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1901-07-18
KATE SHELLYS FEAT
OF TWENTY YEARS AGO
Last Night Was Its Twentieth
Anniversary.
SHE SAVED TWO HUNDRED LIVES.
Crossed Long Treste 70 Stop a Com


= e
years AFRO to NIGHT Kate Shelly. then
q young girl 0f II. crept across the
gwaving trD-tle over the raging Des
Mo mes river. d bali mile wide, and
saveI two hundred passengers on the
Northwestern train, bearing down
on the washed-onr bridge a fast AZ
steam could aarrv them To-day
Kafe Shelley. still single and revered
by all the people Of her home vicinity
duietIy celebrated the anniversary in
the little cottage which she built out
OF the money appropriated for her
by the Iowa legislature in grateful
recognition OF her daring bravery.
The feat OF Kate Shelley will never
be forgotten. a. il was one OF the
most timely and daring of any in the
history OF the great west.
The Chicago q Northwestern rail
way system rewarded the brave girl
with a medal, a life pass and by
naming the fine new bridge over the
Des Moines river neart Boone tone of
the finest bridges in the world the
Kate Shelley bridge.
It was the night OF July &, 1881,
that Kate Shelley performed her per
ilOus act. Heavy rains had swollen
the Des Moines river until il was out
its banks. During the whole of the
period of the highwater eleven out of
twenty-one bridges in the Des Moines
valley between Boone and MOidgOna
on the main line of the Northwestern
had been washed away. On the night
OF July 6, 1891, the high wind added
to the terror of the situation and
gave renewed force to the water.
Kate Shelley was then sixteen
years old. Her father was IA section
foreman on the Northwestern. When |
darkness set in and the tierceness of |
the storm increased Kate Shelley and |
her mother became alarmed as to the |
safety of Mr.. Shelley. The intrepid |
young girl argued long and strenu-
ously with her mother for permission
to set out through the raging wind |
to search for her father. The mother |
objected, but while the argument was
at its height there was a crash and
the kissing OF escaping steam, to-
gether with the rumbling of a heavy
weight dropping a great distance.
The mother and daughter rushed to
the window and there in plain view
OF their home Il helper engine sent
out from Boone on account of the
storm, had crashed through a trestle
and vas buried in the bayou beneath.
Nothing could now detain Kate Shell
lev. Taking a lantern she made her
way up the steep bluff to the track
ami found that two of the four of the
engine crew were drowned. I
Mss Shelley FASTENED to the rescue I
If the other two men ed Wood, the |
engineer, and Adam Ager, the brake )
nrul and after doing what she could
ler- If started ON her perilous Jour 1
laT o M0ingOna, four miles west OF |
Boone, to save the on-cOming pas
tn"ar train She made her way by 7
devious paths across the bayou. I
nto which the trestle and engine had '
alien, and climbing by means of I'M +
ferhrush and weeds at last reached /
he main track on the other side.
One on the track the brave Girl | ?
! led toward Moingona for help. f
'o each the bridge it was necessary q
+" cross trestle Il half mile long :
'rrr the raging Des Moines river.
"p!en out of its banks and racing
o'{ly toward the Mississippi The c
~ surgeG and doomed not more [
tau twenty feet below her; the wind
o's along IN its course. and to add :
" ',e danger and difficulty her Ian
4 light went out and she was fore
.. 81 crawl and creep over the trestle
ar- OF the way on her hands and
lees. in utter darkness, except when :
he vivid lightning flashes showed :,
.er the way. =
Arrived at the other sid. after
quincy lasting almost an hour. she :.
IA at top speed to the station.
, Hlch she reached Justin time to stop
he westbound passenger. which she
J, a come to warn, and save the 200
passengers aboard. As she gasped -.
nut her warning To the conductor at
10 station she fell iainting at his
stt.
iue Girl was revived and a special