Kate Shelley - The Aftermath

The Aftermath

The passengers who had been saved took up a collection for her. The children of Dubuque gave her a medal, and the state of Iowa gave her another one, crafted by Tiffany & Co., and $200. The C&NW gave her $100, a half barrel of flour, half a load of coal and a life-time pass. The Order of Railway Conductors gave her a gold watch and chain.

News of her bravery spread nationwide; poems and songs were composed honoring her. The railroad built a new steel bridge in 1900, and named it after her. It was the first and, until the Betsy Ross Bridge in Philadelphia was opened in 1976, the only bridge in the United States named for a woman. The bridge was rebuilt by the Union Pacific Railroad from 2006 through 2010. The new structure can accommodate heavy trains, features two tracks and can handle two trains simultaneously at a speed of 70 mph. It was opened on October 1, 2009 as the new Kate Shelley Bridge, one of North America's tallest double-track rail bridges.

Frances E. Willard, a reformer and temperance leader, wrote president Isabella W. Parks of Simpson College at Indianola, Iowa, offering $25 toward an advanced education for Shelley. Mrs. Parks raised additional funds for Kate to attend during the term of 1883–84, but she didn't come back the following term.

She became a teacher in Boone County schools until 1903, when the Chicago & Northwestern named her stationmaster at the new Moingona depot, the original having burned down in 1901.