|
10-22-01 |
| Lou Ann Goin Hintz standing in front of the derailed train in Aubrey. |
|
Someone was in the store the other day discussing the big turnout for the Peanut Festival. The man mentioned the fact that the railroad had called the Aubrey Police about the automobiles being parked so close to the railroad tracks that the trains couldn’t pass through town. Another customer remarked that once upon a time, they remembered when the train had several street intersections blocked for more than a day. It turned out to be more like weeks that it was blocked. "And the smell was noxious," the man recalled. He said, "you know the funny thing is that they got the trains rolling again, but we couldn’t cross the railroad track because of all of the mess." "That smell made me nauseous from the time I walked out of my house until I went inside another building," the other man remembered. Well before these two customers came into the store, I had been reading an article from the early 1900's printed in the Aubrey newspaper. So I shared the following story with my customers since we were on the subject of trains. The story follows: MR. HENDERSON RECALLS FIRST TRAIN THAT EVER RAN THROUGH AUBREY "I remember how hard it was for me to decide which part of the train was prettiest. One day I would think the bright red caboose was my favorite, and the next day I would conclude the passenger coach was far more attractive." Thus spoke S.C. Henderson, local merchant, in a conversation with a member of this staff recently in regard to the first train ever operated through Aubrey. Mr. Henderson was a native of this section having been born three miles north of Aubrey. His father was N. Henderson, who came to Texas from South Carolina. The younger Mr. Henderson was married to Miss Lillie Hodges, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Hodges. They resided in the community all of their married lives, and were prominently identified with worthwhile enterprises. They had one daughter Mrs. E.W. McPherson. Mr. Henderson recalled how the track was laid for the train. He said many men were employed by the railway company and that they stood along the right-of-way on either side of the engine. As the rails were set down by the men on the steam conveyor the workmen put them in position, driving a few spikes to hold them in place while the engine proceeded to carry more rails. "I was out in the yard playing, just a lad of 10 years old when I heard the train. I was frightened as I had never heard a sound anything like it. Other members of the family went to see it, but I walked around through the woods and peeped out. Another thing I remember well was the fact the people were up in arms against the railway company, as they said the trains scared their horses and their other livestock." "Well I sure never heard anything like the sound of that train derailing that morning," I commented, adding to Mr. Henderson’s comment that was made many years ago. There were 25 cars derailed that day. Three or four of the cars had new automobiles on them and the rest were full of wheat which spoiled. People say they will never forget the smell of that spoiled wheat. The peanut dryer suffered considerable damage that day. It was a good thing it wasn’t during the season for harvesting peanuts or the peanut dryer would have been full of workers. The engineers wouldn’t say what caused the train to derail about 5:30 a.m. that morning about 30 years ago, but someone guessed that one of the axles broke on one of the cars. This all happened by Pud and Billie Wilson’s house, and everyone remembers the smell. This was at the same intersection where Jimmy Cross was killed by a train a few years later. |
|
|
