On this day in Labor History the year was 1903.
That was the day that is remembered in Virginia as the “Wreck of old 97”.
Old 97, also known as the Fast Mail, was a Southern Railway freight train.
It carried the mail from Washington D.C. to Atlanta, Georgia.
The train wreck happened on the leg of the trip from Monroe, Virginia to Spencer, North Carolina.
The train had come in late to Monroe.
It was reported that the railway company ordered the engineer to increase the speed of the train to make up time.
The company had to pay a penalty for delivering the mail late.
But when the trained neared Danville, Virginia the tracks curved at the Stillhouse Trestle Bridge.
The speed was too much.
Despite the engineer’s efforts to slow the train, it careened off the tracks and plummeted to the rocky ravine forty-five feet below.
Eleven of the sixteen people on board the train died, including the conductor, the engineer and the flagman, and both firemen.
The railway company blamed the wreck on the deceased engineer.
Newspapers across the country carried photos of the wreck.
The disaster became the subject of multiple ballads.
One version by Vernon Dalhart in 1924 is thought to be the first million-selling country record in the United States.
Johnny Cash recorded another well-known version of the song.
In 1993 an alternative country band took the name the “Old 97’s” harking back to the disaster and the songs it inspired.
September 19 - The End of My Sweet Jennie
September 18 - The Atlanta Compromise
September 17 - Striking in the South
September 16 - NHL Managers Lock Out Players
September 15 - The Invergordon Mutiny
September 14 - The Murder of Ella Mae Wiggins
September 13 - Attica!
September 12 - The Making of a National Treasure
September 11 - The Christiana Riot
September 10 - Minneapolis Printers Organize
September 9 - The Hanapepe Massacre
September 8 - Defying Nazi Occupation
September 7 - The Federal Employees Compensation Act
September 6 - Jane Addams is Born
September 5 - The First Labor Day Parade
September 4 - The Peekskill Riots
September 3 - Locked in to Die
September 2 - Protecting Pensions
September 1 - The Boilermakers
August 31 - The Battle of Blair Mountain
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