The Katy Smash-Up: The Staged Locomotive Crash in Crush, Texas

Yesterday's America Editorial Team
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The Katy Smash-Up: The Staged Locomotive Crash in Crush, Texas

Long before television, and a few years before motion pictures became popular, what did Americans do for entertainment? In the years following the Civil War, the railroad industry took off, connecting great portions of the continental United States. Traveling circuses took full advantage of the advanced network of rails, bringing live entertainment to all corners of the nation. And when the World’s Fair came to Chicago in 1893, millions bought tickets to see the wonders therein. So popular was the World’s Fair, many enterprising hucksters saw potential dollar signs in producing one-of-a-kind events, freak shows, and singular spectacles.

In 1896, up-and-coming executive with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad William Crush hatched a crazy plan to stage a locomotive collision, promote the hell out of it, and make a ton of money. Crush used the premise of “scientific research” to justify the potentially dangerous venture. The rail line, also known as the M-K-T or the Katy, had seen huge successes in Texas, connecting Galveston and Houston with St. Louis. Why not put on a show for current and future customers?

The head-on collision of two obsolete, and unmanned steam locomotives was presented to the public on September 15, 1896 on a stretch of railroad tracks north of Waco. William Crush renamed the town “Crush” probably because “The Crash at Crush” was just too irresistible-sounding (or he couldn’t resit using his own name). 40,000 eager spectators attended — which was free with purchase of a rail ticket.

Train Crash at Crush, Texas: America's Deadliest Publicity Stunt
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One of the few surviving MKT excursion tickets. This one provided passage from Dallas to Crush, Texas, and back. Author’s
collection.

When the two speeding locomotives collided, only a few had predicted the results. In addition to a huge smash-up of steel, the boilers on both engines exploded, sending debris hundreds of yards in every direction. Despite safety precautions and buffer zones, three confirmed fatalities were reported. Ironically, one of the official photographers hired that day was hit in the eye with a piece of hurtling train debris.

“It [was] a scene that will haunt a man…make him nervous whenever he hears an engine whistle, and disturb his dreams with black clouds of death-dealing iron hail…”

—Dallas Morning News

Promoter William Crush took full accountability for the catastrophic results, and remained with MKT Railroad for many years. Future Ragtime legend Scott Joplin was entranced by the stunt and wrote “The Great Crush Collision March” to commemorate the mess.

Certainly, common sense and an abundance of sanity prevailed after the Katy Smash-up? Nope. Dozens more locomotive collisions were staged by a multiple of ambitious showmen, with the last one occurring in 1951.

Seven Striking Images of Historic Indianapolis

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Seven Striking Images of Historic Indianapolis

In 1816, Congress decided to give the state of Indiana four square miles to lay out a capital city. Four years later, the spot of that land was finally chosen near where Fall Creek meets the White River. 

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In the years since, many buildings, companies, legends, and people have come and gone. While they are now only shadows of the past, they help to form the history and heart of Indianapolis.

  • Union station, circa 1853. This sketch shows what the original station, constructed from 1852 to 1853, looked like. The city would outgrow the station by the early 1880s. 
  • Washington Street from Delaware Street, in 1875. Indianapolis was still a rough town with dirt streets when a merchant named Lyman Ayres moved to town. 
  • The new L.S. Ayres store, in 1905. Ayers launched a department store and eventually built this eight-story building at the southwest corner of Washington and Meridian Streets. It opened on October 2, 1905. It was the largest store in the state at the time. Note the water pumpfor horses in the foreground. 
  • Woodruff Place’s Cross Drive, in 1906. Beautiful homes, tree-lined streets, and statuary explain why Woodruff Place was popular with the wealthy during its peak. 
  • The Thirteenth Street Bridge over the Canal in 1927. A rail line occupies the towpath along this section of the Central Canal. 
  • The Claypool Hotel and Indiana theater in 1927. The massive Indiana Theater was built in 1927 immediately to the West of the Claypool Hotel on Washington Street
  • Washington and Meridian in the 1940s. A typical scene at the peak of downtown shopping, with crowds crossing Washington between Wasson’s and L.S. Ayres. 

Images in this gallery were sourced from Lost Indianapolis by John P. McDonald

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On the trail of Texas Ranger history

Yesterday's America Editorial Team
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On the trail of Texas Ranger history

The Texas Rangers are one of the most famous law enforcement agencies in history. Even though they began as a modest group of armed frontier ranging guards, once Texas won its independence from Mexico, the Texas Rangers grew in significance, and their service to Texas became the stuff of legends. Their physical presence is still felt on dozens of sites across the state. In fact, every county in Texas has markers to Texas Ranger gunfights, raids, showdowns, and victories, and 28 of Texas’ 254 counties are named for Texas Rangers!

Pre-Revolution Tejas

When entrepreneur Stephen F. Austin was granted permission by the Mexican government to settle the fertile lands surrounding the Brazos and Colorado Rivers, he soon found that the Mexican government was unwilling (or unable) to protect his colonizers. Native American Indian tribes had roamed these lands for generations, and Austin hired a militia of “rangers” to defend his settlements. 

Republic of Texas

To this day, Deaf Smith remains one of the most misunderstood heroes in Texas history. Yes, he was an essential aid to General Sam Houston during the Texas Revolution. But it was his service to Texas as a Ranger in the early days of the Texas Republic that distinguish him. Smith led a mounted force to protect the southwest frontier and assert Texan military authority in areas still vulnerable to lingering Mexican influence. Smith and his fellow Rangers later engaged Mexican soldiers at the border town Laredo. He died that year at age 50, and was buried in Fort Bend County, where a monument to him was dedicated.

“Give me a few Rangers and I will get it done.”
Sam Houston

Ranger captain Jack Hays in his prime. Library of Congress.

Texas Statehood

Another of Deaf Smith’s legacies is his recruitment of perhaps the most famous Texas Ranger to ever wear a badge, Jack Hays. While the banishment of Mexican soldiers was completed, Comanches and gunslingers like John Wesley Hardin prowled the Texas frontier. Captain Jack Hays established his genius for combat in the Battle of Walker Creek, where he and his 14 fellow Texas Rangers bested the Comanches, who outnumbered them, with the help of Paterson Colt revolver, which would instantly become the classic Ranger sidearm. The Golden Era of the Texas Rangers reigned until the close of the 19th century, when most of the native Indian tribes had been eliminated or subdued.

The Parker family built this log fort near present Groesbeck and played a major role in the
development of the Rangers. Author’s collection.

The Comanche Tracker

Sul Ross is mostly remembered today at the governor of Texas from 1887 to 1891 and the namesake for Sul Ross State University. However, his actions with the Texas Rangers made him a mythical hero of his day. In 1860, Sul Ross led the exhibition to recover the kidnapped Comanche captive of 24 years Cynthia Ann Parker, who had been taken from her family’s log fort in 1836. Ross as “white savior” played into all of the contemporary stereotypes of Anglos versus “savages.” Texas A&M has honored Ross with a building named for him and a bronze statute for the Ranger turned governor.

A life-size bronze of Ranger Frank Hamer stands perpetual guard outside Navasota’s city
hall. Photo courtesy Russell Cushman.

The Modern Era

Well into the 20th century, bandits and outlaws continued to terrorize Texas. Texas Ranger Frank Hamer gained a reputation as a crack shot following a decisive shootout in Del Rio over some stolen livestock, but his legend was certified when he took down two of the most famous outlaws of the 20th century. In 1934, Hamer was coaxed out of retirement by Governor Ma Ferguson to capture or kill infamous bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde. He and partner Manny Gault did the later in Arcadia, Louisiana. Frank Hamer spent some time in Navasota as their marshal, and today a bronze statue honors his memory.

The Mayor Who Punched the Reporter

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The Mayor Who Punched the Reporter

Adapted from Wicked Columbus, Indiana> by Paul J. Hoffman

One cold day, in the winter of 1877, Indiana’s youngest mayor and its oldest newspaper editor got in a nasty fistfight on a city street. 

It was an improbable battle—but the most improbable thing of all may have been that it happened in Columbus, a quiet and mid-sized Hoosier town best known today for its architecture and its status as Vice President Mike Pence’s hometown. Still, Columbus has a surprising and sometimes sensational history, and the brawl between George Cooper and Isaac Brown is only one example. 

George W. Cooper in 1879. 
Isaac M. Brown with his wife, Mary Francis Eddy Brown, in 1891. 

Brown was the editor of the city’s newspaper, the Daily Evening Republican. He’d been born in 1821, in Centerville, and worked at newspapers in Iowa City, in Iowa, and Terre Haute and Sullivan, in Indiana, before settling in Columbus. Brown’s long career earned him posthumous induction into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1966, and he wasn’t afraid to criticize Cooper.

Cooper was the city’s mayor. Born near Columbus in 1851, he eventually became a lawyer and then mayor in 1877, winning the election that spring by a count of 541 votes to 314. It didn’t take long for the newly elected head of Columbus government and the much-more-senior newspaper editor to start publicly squabbling.

In the Daily Evening Republican’s November 26 issue, Brown laid out several complaints against city government. Among the charges were: 

  • The streets were not kept clean, and the city ignored the sanitation department’s reports.
  • Few arrests were made where the city could not make money in the process.
  • Hogs roamed the streets free, rooting up sidewalks and yards.
  • Cattle were allowed to do the same.

Brown leveled some of his biggest complaints directly at the mayor. He stated that Cooper had made little effort to enforce city ordinances, telling citizens who complained about laws being broken to go into his office and sign an affidavit. Brown questioned this, wondering why the laws were not enforced until a citizen filed an affidavit. Brown answered his own question: “It is done for no other reason than that the responsibility may be shifted upon the shoulders of others.”

Drunk and Disorderly?

A few days after that article, Brown was called into the mayor’s office and fined two dollars for intoxication. Saloonkeeper Clark Pfeiffer had filed an affidavit against Brown, claiming he had seen him out on the city streets drunk in early November. But Brown said he was home and sober when the incident allegedly occurred. 

The tiff between Cooper and Brown finally escalated into a public physical confrontation on Sunday, December 2. It was alleged in reports in the Evening Republican that the mayor stood on a street corner in front of D.W. Adams drugstore, at 315 Washington Street in the Odd Fellows building, for two hours waiting for Brown with the intention of provoking a fight. Cooper was also accused of making sure the police and city marshal were kept away from the site. 

The city’s Democratic newspaper, the Bartholomew Democrat, alleged that Brown had expressed the belief that he could whip the mayor, indicating the newspaperman was the one who was looking for a fight. 

Witnesses interviewed by the Republican said that Cooper had told someone he was “looking for old man Brown and was going to give him hell.” Another witness allegedly said that he had seen the mayor talking with a policeman shortly before the mêlée and felt that something just was not right about the situation. 

Fighting Words

Brown left his office on the north side of Fourth Street between Washington and Franklin and headed north on Washington Street. Cooper unleashed a long string of insults at him. Brown said he held his tongue as long as he could, but when Cooper said that were Brown not an old man, he would whip the hell out of him, Brown responded. 

He put his hand on Cooper’s chest and said that the mayor of Columbus ought to be ashamed to have made such a remark. A fight finally commenced, with Cooper throwing the first punch. 

Brown complained that the mayor didn’t give him time to remove his King William–style overcoat, leaving him at a decided disadvantage—as if their thirty-year age difference and a decided weight advantage in Cooper’s favor wasn’t enough already. 

Cooper’s punch sent Brown reeling backward off the curb and onto the street, whereupon Cooper jumped on him and hit him again. The skirmish left Brown with a pair of black eyes, and Cooper lost some whiskers and part of a thumb or finger to Brown’s gnawing and scratching. 

The fight was ended when James Godfrey broke things up. In the end, both men were found guilty of assault and battery. 

“Author Paul J. Hoffman guides the reader on a wild ride through the city’s salacious side.” BUY NOW >

Happy Birthday, Houston!

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Happy Birthday, Houston!

August 20, 1836. Houston, Republic of Texas.

On this day in 1836, Augustus and John Kirby Allen, brothers and hopeful land developers, placed an advertisement in the local newspaper The Telegraph and Texas Register boasting of their new venture “The Town of Houston.”

Discover more stories from early Houston History >

In the months following the founding of the Republic of Texas, the duo, with financial help from Augustus’ wide Charlotte Allen, bought the site that would become Houston, shrewdly naming it for the hero of San Jacinto, and hoping to secure it as the new nation’s capital. Their ad, which was full of exaggerations, if not downright lies, read:

SITUATED at the head of navigation, on the west bank of Buffalo Bayou, is now for the first time brought to public notice because, until now, the proprietors were not ready to offer it to the public, with the advantages of capital and improvements. The town of Houston is located at a point on the river which must ever command the trade of the largest and richest portions of Texas.  By reference to the map, it will be seen that the trade of San Jacinto, Spring Creek, New Kentucky and the Brazos, above and below Fort Bend, must necessarily come to this place, and will at this time warrant the employment of at least ONE MILLION DOLLARS of capital, and when the rich lands of this country shall be settled, a trade will flow to it, making it, beyond all doubt, the great interior commercial emporium of Texas.

The town of Houston is distant 15 miles from the Brazos River, 30 miles, a little North of East, from San Felippe, 60 miles from Washington, 40 miles Lake Creek, 30 miles South West from New Kentucky, and 15 miles by water and 8 or 10 miles by land above Harrisburg.Tide water runs to this place and the lowest depth of water is about six feet. Vessels from New Orleans or New York can sail without obstacle to this place, and steamboats of the largest class can run down to Galveston in 8t or 10 hours, in all seasons of the year.It is but a few hours sail down the bay, where one may take excursions of pleasure and enjoy the luxuries of fish, foul, oysters and sea bathing.Galveston harbor being the only one in which vessels drawing a large draft of water can navigate, must necessarily render the Island the great naval and commercial depot of the country.

The town of Houston must be the place where arms, ammunitions and provisions for the government will be stored, because, situated in the very heart of the country, it combines security and means of easy distribution, and a national armory will no doubt very soon be established at this point.

There is no place in Texas more healthy, having an abundance of excellent spring water, and enjoying the sea breeze in all its freshness.No place in Texas possesses so many advantages for building, having Pine, Ash, Cedar and Oak in inexhaustible quantities; also the tall and beautiful Magnolia grows in abundance.In the vicinity are fine quarries of stone.

Nature appears to have designated this place for the future seat of Government.It is handsome and beautifully elevated, salubrious and well watered, and now in the very heart or centre of population, and will be so for a length of time to come.It combines two important advantages: a communication with the coast and foreign countries, and with different portions of the Republic.As the country shall improve, rail roads will become in use, and will be extended from this point to the Brazos, and up the same, also from this up to the head waters of San Jacinto, embracing that rich country, and in a few years the whole trade of the upper Brazos will make its way into Galveston Bay through this channel.

Preparations are now making to erect a water Saw Mill, and a large Public House for accommodation, will soon be opened.Steamboats now run in this river, and will in short time commence running regularly to the Island.

The proprietors offer lots for sale on moderate terms to those who desire to improve them, and invite the public to examine for themselves.

A. C. Allen, for A.C. & J. K. Allen.

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Rediscovering the Forgotten Towns of Delaware County

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Rediscovering the Forgotten Towns of Delaware County

Downtown Daleville, probably in the late 1880s.

Today, most Hoosiers would recognize only the city of Muncie and maybe a few other, smaller spots in Delaware County. But the area boasts many more towns, some of which have disappeared, all of which have their own amazing stories. 

Buckongahelas’ Town

In what is now Delaware County, there were at least three Lenape villages along the river that existed during the 1796–1821 timeframe. The first was known variously as Wapikamicoke, Old Town, or Buckongahelas’ Town. It was located on or near the intersection of Inlow Springs and Burlington Drive. 

The village was the principal settlement of the Unami-speaking Lenape band led by Chief Buckongahelas. There were approximately forty families at Buckongahelas’ Town, at least until 1805. One visitor described it as being “located on the left bank of the river about three miles southeast of the present town of Muncie, Delaware County. It was the first Indian village reached by the missionaries on the journey from Goshen [Ohio].” Over the years, the Moravian diaries often identify the town as the primary community and the principal village of Lenape.

Yorktown

Union Traction interurban traveling down Smith Street in Yorktown.

Yorktown was found at or near the location of the York Indian (Brothertown) Native American village on the bluff overlooking the confluence of the White River and Buck Creek. A man named Oliver Smith went to work in platting the new community, apparently under the impression that a canal would eventually reach the community, with a route “from Indianapolis to Toledo.” Today, a Canal Street runs along the bluff over Buck Creek as a testimony to Smith’s assumption. 

The canal never arrived, but the Indianapolis State Road did, and years later, the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad arrived to connect Yorktown with the wider world. Like in many other east-central Indiana settlements, the gas boom brought commercial and economic prosperity to the town, so much so that residents voted to incorporate in 1913. Throughout much of the rest of the twentieth century, Yorktown remained a satellite community of Muncie. However, in the 1970s, Yorktown’s population began to grow as white flight from Muncie increased. In 2013, Yorktown and the Mount Pleasant Township merged as a single legal entity, operating as the Town of Yorktown. 

Daleville

Daleville was first settled by residents anticipating the arrival of a canal line, particularly a feeder system to the Central Canal. As one nineteenth-century Hoosier described it, “Great things were expected of Daleville, and great advantages were to accrue to it, in the earlier years of its existence, from the fact of its location upon one of the arteries of commerce—the canal.” The canal never arrived, and the community stagnated until the arrival of the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad in 1852. Daleville’s first post office was established in 1857. 

Macedonia

Macedonia School, built in 1883

Contrary to popular belief, Macedonia is not a ghost town. While the community has regressed a bit in terms of amenities, it is not extinct. Thomas Helm mentions the Macedonia village in his county history and indicates a William Suit as the general store proprietor and a Mr. Gross as the village blacksmith. The Macedonia Post Office appears on the 1887 Atlas of Delaware County. It existed from 1878 to 1884 and again from 1885 to 1890.

Dogtown

Lying a little southwest of Eaton, the hamlet of Dogtown historically served as a crossroads community at the intersection of the Shideler Free Pike and the Studebaker Pike (now Highway 3 and East County Road 900 North). It is likely that Dogtown grew organically at this intersection around the tollhouse and school #11, both of which appear on the 1887 Atlas of Delaware County. Along with the school and tollhouse, Dogtown had a church, several buildings, residential houses and a few commercial enterprises. A filling station existed as late as 1937 and the school was known as Maple Grove School. Maple Grove also served as a voting center. 

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