The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-12-27
aeded to the terrible situation and gave

aeded to the terrible situation and gave
renewed force to the water.
Kate Shelley was then 16 years old. Her
father was Assertion foreman on the
Northwestern. When darkness set in and
the ferceness of the storm increased Kate
Shelley and her mother became alarmed
as to the safety of Mr.. Shelley.
The intrepid young girl argued long with
her mother for permission to sci out
through the raging wind in search of her
father The mother objected, but while
the argument was at It's height there was
toaRther with the rumbling OF a heavy
weiSht dropping a great distance.
The mother and daughter rushed to the
window to find that helper engine, sent
out from Boone on account of the storm,
had crashed through the trestle and was
buried In the bayou beneath.
tain Kate Shelley. Taking a lantern, she
made her way up the steep bluff to the
track aid found that two of the four
Of the engine crew were drowned. and
neer, and Adam Ager, the brakeman, Sc
riously hurt. After doing what she could
for them she started on her perilous jour-
ney to Moingona. four miles west OF
Boone, to save the oncoming passenger
tain.
CROSSED THE BAYOU.
She made her way by devious path
across the bayou into which the trestle
ana engine had fallen, and, climbing by
means Of underbrush and weeds, at last
reached the main track on the other side.
Once on the track the brave girl hur-
| ried toward Moingona for help.
cross fsae9 tre ess s half mile long over
the raging Des Moines River. swollen out
of its banks so that 1t surged and doomed
not more than twenty feet neneath her d.
lantern was extinguished by the wind.
and she was forced to crawl and creep
over the trestle most of the way or her
hands and knees, in utter darkness, eS-
cept when the vivid lightning flashes
showed her the way.
After a perilous journey. lasting nearly
an hour. the. girl ran at top speed 10 the
station, reaching it only just in time to
stop the westbound train. which she had
come to warn, and save the 80 passengers
aboard. Having gasped out her warning
to the station master. she fell fainting at
his feet.
When she had revived she boarded the
special train that had been quickly pre-
pared end accompanied it to the scene of
the wreck. plotting the crew wariiy across
the bayou by the path known only to her,
and thus rescuing Wood and Ager.
Many honors have been showered on
Kate Shelley since that night. The State
OF Iowa has done all in its power, by
| money end honors. to show its apprecia-
ton of her bravery.
The next Legislature after her daring
act appropriated 5000, with which Miss
Shelley purchased the home and farm on
which she Is still living. At the last ses-
sion of the Legislature Miss Shelley was
made one OF the leading officials Of the
session
GIVEN MEDAL AND PASS.
Shortly after the rescue the Northwest
ern Railway gave her gold medal and a
life pass
The night Of the rescue the passengers
gave her a purse of many hundreds of
| dollars. Now Miss Shelley, still single
and as sturdy and as braye-hearted as
the night she defied the storm, is station
agent on the road, near her cozy home.
For. the last few years Kate Shelley
has lived in the cottage built by the
money earned by her perilous journey.
She is happy except for the fact that
the Northwestern in opening its new Kate
Shelley bridge across the Des Moines
River gorge was forced to shift the new
track out of sight of her cottage, so that
she can no longer see trains flying over
the track It was this that led to her APP
plication for q position in the Moingona
station which the Northwestern Railroad
has just granted.