The St. Joseph observer., 1920-05-29
HE SAVED THE LIVES OF
ONE HUNDRED FIFTY


his force protecting the company
trains and property, and while so
/ doing did, q heroic act, of which he
/ could hardly be brought to speak Of
/ ono of rhc passengers on the train
when he reached here, said that it
was hard for the people on the train
to got Williams to talk Of his feat.
| but they finally induced him to tell
it, which he said in this way:
Williams Own story
You see l did not do much and
didn't do any more than any other
fcller would ha' done If he'd been
| in my place. | have charge of the
/ section which runs from half "A mile
east of Ardmore to seven and one
half miles west. This here bridge on
| which we're workin' now went out in
/ 1915 but that flood wasn't nothin' like
this one.
1T had been a rainin' quite little
this spring and the big blizzard of
April had left all the ground here
bouts soaked wkh water, so when
| this last storm come on and the wa
| ter fell SO quick it run offn this dern
gumbo like if it had a been a ducks
! back and old Hat Creek started on a
rampage. 1t raincd pretty heavy
Tuesday mOrnin' and the old creek,
sho came up quite a bunch, but it
rained and hailed like fury for about
two hours Tuesday afternoon up the
stream a few miles and then hell tore
loose.
Il kept watchin the big new bridge
over the creek all afternoon and the
water kept comm up and comm up
until it reached the ties. Then l got
worried for fear the bridge would go
out so I went back to town and re-
ported about it to the operator. He
told the dispatcher at Alliance about
it. The telephone and telegraph
wires runnin' west had all gone down
and we couldn't get Edgemont or
anyone at all west Of the creek. Jack
Welch, the dispatcher at Alliance.
talked to me over the railroad phone
and asked me if 1 could get to the
west end Of the bridge, across the
creek, and put out a red light and
some stop signals so as to hold the
night passenger train, No. 40, which
was due about o'clock. I told him
ia try and went back to the bridge.
He Went Across
when l got there again the water
was clear over the top of the bridge
and it looked to me like one of the
steel spans had gone out. Wed tried
to phone the government farm, which
IS west of the creek from town to
ask them to so down and put out a
red light, but their phone line had
gone out, too. and we just couldn't
reach anybody.
We'll, l jest figgered the chances
was probably against me a gittin'
across but it was only my life against
$50 passengers on No. AZ and l fig
gered that the train would be a run
min pretty fast when they come up
that west grade to the bridge and
they might be into it before they saw
1t, so l walked up the creek half a
mile, stripped off my clothes, tied
my red lantern, red flag and torpe-
does to my back and swum across,
There wasn't 50 many trees up
there and she was only about coo
feet wide. but that water was full of
hailstones and cold as hell. 1t was
raining to beat the band and dark
as blazes, but 1t wasn't so bad until
| got into the main channel. I'd
rather tried it in a boat but there
wasn't no boat anywhere near that
knew of. She carried me down to
that big dixie just above the railroad
bridge. 1 sure felt good when 1 hit
that fence on the west side and drug
HiyS'lI out on the bank.
There hain't much more to tell.
walked down the track bout half a
mile, set the flag and lantern in the
middle Of the rails. and put the tor
pedoes on the rails. Didn't have no
matches, so l couldn't light the Ian
tern, but 1 figgered they'd see my sig
nails all right"
"a Pretty LoOkin' Sight,
But how did you get back to Ard
more?' he was asked. Well" said
John, Il walked up to the govern
ment farm, but when l got close to
the office and saw the bright lights
there l remembered didn't have no
clothes on and | thought ia make a
pretty lookin' sight Dustin in on 'em
like that, so / walked up the stream
and swum back"
Did you find your clothes when
YOU got hack to The eagt gi1o - L.,