He wanted to be recognized when he passed through so he modified the whistle on his engine to make a sort of whippoorwill call that when sounded would be reminiscent of his name, Cayyyyy-Ceeeee.
Casey longed to be an engineer on the passenger circuit, which was the most prestigious and highest-paid position for an engineer. To ensure he would get promoted, Casey knew his trains needed to be on time. The railroads promoted efficiency, and often pushed the crews to meet deadlines, even if it meant breaking the speed limit a little. By all accounts, Casey loved to go fast. There were many times he went a little too fast, and a few reprimands were put into his file.
Speeding tickets aside, Jones was an excellent engineer. It had eight drive wheels and two pilot wheels, a consolidation type. At the closing of the fair, No. Jones asked for permission to drive the engine back to Water Valley. At the time this was unheard of. It was unheard of for engineers to request to operate a specific locomotive, especially not as a junior engineer. But Casey was determined and he put in his request in to serve as the engineer who would operate No.
The request was granted and No. Allegedly, in , Jones was rolling down the tracks and saw some children playing on them. He blew his unmistakable whistle to warn the children to clear, of which all but one did. A young girl froze in terror as the giant locomotive barreled down the rails toward her. Handing the controls over to his fireman, Casey walked on the running boards to the cowcatcher and, in the last seconds, scooped up the girl and returned her to safety.
In the early , Jones transferred down to Memphis. He was assigned a reasonably new locomotive, no. Jones loved to go fast. In fact, during his career, he was fined nine times and suspended from operating for a total of days because of speeding violations. However, on the night of April 29, , the railroad needed a man who had a heavy hand on the throttle.
Casey Jones was just that man. Coming off a run from Canton, Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee, Jones and his fireman, Sim Webb, were approached by the station agent. Instead of having an angry look on his face from Casey speeding, he had a worried look. The crew of the outgoing train called in sick, and now it was way behind.
He asked Jones if he would take control of the train to deliver it on time. Jones agreed, on a couple of conditions, Webb would be his fireman, and he would use his locomotive. Train No. Casey Jones was responsible for the roughly mile journey from Memphis to Canton, Mississippi. The American railroad passenger system was a relatively new and exciting mode of transportation, as people were able to travel great distances at high speeds.
At the age of 15, Casey Jones moved to Columbus, Kentucky, and began working as a telegrapher for the Mobile and Ohio railroad. While living in a boarding house in Jackson, Jones met and fell in love with Joanne "Janie" Brady, the daughter of a proprietor.
The couple wed on November 26, , and moved into a place of their own in Jackson. They would have two sons and a daughter together. In , he was offered a job at Illinois Central Railroad as an engineer. Jones earned a reputation as an engineer who would always stay on schedule, even if it meant pushing the train to great and sometimes dangerous speeds—a trait that made him a popular employee.
The public began to recognize Jones for the "whippoorwill call" he would make on the engine's whistle while driving through towns. On April 30, , Jones volunteered to work a double shift to cover for a fellow engineer who was ill. He had just completed a run from Canton, Mississippi, to Memphis, Tennessee, and was now faced with the task of returning on board Engine No.
Sam Webb, a fireman for Illinois Central, accompanied Jones on the journey. The train was originally running more than an hour and a half behind, and Jones, determined to arrive as scheduled, ran the steam locomotive at speeds nearing miles per hour in an effort to make up the time. As Jones took a turn into Vaughan, Mississippi, Webb warned him that there was another train parked on the tracks ahead of them. As quickly as he could, Jones grabbed the brake with one hand and pulled the whistle with the other in an attempt to warn those around the train.
Born John Luther Jones in Missouri in , the future folk hero moved with his family as a boy to Cayce, Kentucky, the town from which he got his nickname. As a teenager, he began working for the railroads and later moved to Jackson, Tennessee.
In Memphis, he found out the engineer scheduled to make the return run that night was sick, so Jones volunteered to take his place. When he pulled out of the Memphis station in the early hours of April 30, the train was running late so he hurried to make up for lost time.
As the train rounded a curve near Vaughan, Mississippi, it collided with another train on the tracks, but not before Jones told his fireman to jump to safety. Jones remained on board, supposedly to try to slow the train and save his passengers, and was the only person to die in the accident.
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