Year: 1879

ANA Fireman


The other evening the passenger train
on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas rail-
road came rafting up the valley between
Parsons and Emporia, with Dave Dun
ham at the throttle and Johnnie Haley at
the furnace, just as it has every evening
for the past six years.


AS engineer and fireman, these two
boys have stood side by side on this run
since the spring of 1878, and have not
only registered ION time" but have, by
their strict attention to the rules OF the
road, gained the confidence of their en-
ployers and the friendship of may people
living along this division of the Missou-
ri, Kansas and Texas. They have been
the best of triends-a kind of friendship
that danger cements and makes stronger
has laid them together for years and but
for the alteration giving rise to this item,
they might have filed their respective
stations for lifetime and their names



AS the train pulled out from the low land
on the Neosho and struck the prairie, the
conductor noticed sudden change in
speed, but thinking the boys might be
"lifting" her little to meet the grade,
paid ne attention to it. The grade was
met and passed as though no grade was
there, and then down the hill she started
at terrible rate. AS she skinned along
the passengers began to show signs of
rushing along as close together, apparent.
ly, as in a Kansas town, and the conduc~
tor too began to think all was not right at
the "steam end" AS the speed increased
at every revolution of the wheels, cush-
ions, lunch baskets, bundles and babies
few around the car like mad, and now
the thoroughly frightened passengers ap.
pealed to the conductor to stop the train.
By this time he realized the danger him>
self, and knowing that Santa Fe freight
train had the fright of way" at the Em>
pire junction, and that it would be certain
death to reach there ahead Of time, he
jerked the bell-rope as though town were
on fire. The bell sounded the alarm, but
as no response came from the whistle, be
realized for the first time that he was on
runaway train, five coaches from the
engine. Whether it was the small
amount of his life insurance policy, or
the safety of the passengers that urged
him on, will remain an open question,
but it is n orally certain that he was not
many seconds in passing through the
coaches. scaling the iron rail of the mail
car, and landing on the coal pile near the
locomotive, which was writhing under
the pressure Of sixty FIVE pounds more Of
steam than was necessary for celebrity,
comfort or convenience. lie says as he
struck the water tank and rolled down
into tie cab, the engine was going so fast
that the telegraph poles along the
road looked like a "picltet fence" 1t
took put II moment to put on the air
brakes, reverse the lever, and slow her
down and find himself within two huns
dred yards of an open switch at the Santa
Fe crossing, and that the run Of eight
miles had been made in less than eight
minutes. When the train stopped the
fireman jumped from the engine and ran
down the track towards the city, and the
engineer, arising from the floor of the
cab, explained that just as they neared
the Neosho grade, Haley, the fireman,
accused him OF having reported something
discreditable to him to the Division Su-
perintendent. This he stoutly denied,
whereupon Haley assaulted him with a
coa!-pick, and hand-to. hand scufiie en-
sued. In the melee the throttle WAS thrown
open, and going at the rate of mile n
minute "they fought it out on that line.'
On leaving the train Haley ran down to
courthouse, and had Sheriff Moon lock
him up in a cell, fearing tnat he would be
overtaken, he said, and killed by Dunham
and his friends. Dunham was conveyed
in a carriage to physician and had his
wounds dressed. His face. head and
shoulders were terribly cut and bruised,
the cut in the back of the head by pick
being a very severe one.


The conductor ran the train through to
junction City, leaving his engineer in
the hands of n nurse and his fireman in
the hands OF sheriff. Topeka Com
DOnaVedtth.