Kate Shelley - The Story

The Story

On the afternoon of July 6, 1881, heavy thunderstorms caused a flash flood of Honey Creek, washing out timbers that supported the railroad trestle. A pusher locomotive sent from Moingona to check track conditions crossed the Des Moines River bridge, but plunged into Honey Creek at about 11 p.m., with a crew of four: Ed Wood, George Olmstead, Adam Agar and Patrick Donahue.

Shelley heard the crash, and knew an eastbound passenger train was due in Moingona about midnight, stopping shortly before heading east over the Des Moines River and then Honey Creek. She found the surviving crew members and shouted that she would get help, then started to cross the damaged span of the Honey Creek bridge followed by the Des Moines River bridge. Although she'd started with a lantern, it had failed, and she crawled the span on hands and knees with only lightning for illumination. Once across, she ran a half-mile to the Moingona depot to sound the alarm, then led a party back to rescue two of the engine crew survivors. Wood, perched in a tree, grasped a rope thrown to him, and came ashore hand-over-hand. Agar couldn't be reached until the flood waters began to recede. Donahue's corpse was eventually found in a corn field a quarter mile downstream from the bridge, and Olmstead, the fireman, was never found. The passenger train was stopped at Ogden, Iowa, with 200 aboard.