Kate Shelley

Catherine "Kate" Shelley (died January 12 1912) was a midwestern United States railroad heroine, and the first woman in the United States to have a bridge named for her.

Background

Catherine Shelley was born in Loughaun, County Offaly, Ireland. [http://www.irishmidlandsancestry.com/content/offaly/people/shelley_kate.htm Irish Midland Ancestry] ] Transcriptions of Irish records show her parents, Michael Shelley and Margaret Dwan, to have been married on February 24 1863 and Catherine to have been baptized on December 12 1863. However, United States 1880 census records indicate she may have been born in 1865. Fact|date=March 2008 The family name was originally spelled Shelly, which is how Kate often wrote her name, but the spelling Shelley was later adopted. [http://www.irishmidlandsancestry.com/content/offaly/people/shelley_kate.htm "Kate Shelley: Railway Heroine"] ]

Her father was a tenant farmer in Ireland, living on convert|3|acre|m2 and farming 15 more. The family emigrated to the United States when Catherine was still a baby. They at first lived with relatives in Freeport, Illinois, then built a home on convert|160|acre|km2 at Honey Creek, near Moingona, Boone County, Iowa and Michael became foreman of a section crew, building track for the Chicago and North Western Railway.

Michael Shelley died in 1878 of a railroad accident, [http://www.desmoinesriver.org/kshelley.html Kate Shelley story] ] and Margaret was in poor health, so Catherine - by now called Kate - helped support the family by plowing, planting and harvesting crops, and hunting. The 1880 federal census for Worth County, Iowa showed 35-year old Margaret, 15-year-old Kate, both born in Ireland, and Mary (8), Margaret (6) and John (4), all born in Iowa. [U.S. Census Year: 1880; Census Place: Worth, Boone, Iowa; Roll: T9_328; Family History Film: 1254328; Page: 155.1000; Enumeration District: 10;
]

The story

On the afternoon of July 6 1881, cloudbursts 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 Honey Creek. She found the surviving crew members and shouted that she would get help, then started to cross the damaged span. 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. [http://iagenweb.org/boone/kateshelley.htm "The Kate Shelley Story"] ] 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.

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., [ [http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/kateshelley.htm "Burlington Hawkeye", Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa March 30, 1882] ] 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. [ [http://www.desmoinesriver.org/kshelley.html Kate Shelley bridge] ] It was the first and, until the Betsy Ross Bridge in Philadelphia was opened in 1976, the only bridge ever named for a woman.

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 did became a teacher in Boone County schools until 1903, when the Chicago & Northwestern named her stationmaster at the new Moingona depot, [ [http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/kateshelley.htm Daily Iowa State Press Iowa City, Johnson, Iowa October 17, 1903] ] the original having burned down in 1901. [http://showcase.netins.net/web/bikebarn/rail/kate_shelley.html "Kate Shelley, Railroader"] ]

Later in life

In 1890, a Chicago newspaper revealed that the Shelley home was mortgaged for $500 at 10% and was near foreclosure. An Armenian rug, woven in the display window of a Chicago furniture store, was auctioned for $500, retiring the mortgage, and other Chicagoans donated an additional $417 before the state of Iowa voted Kate a grant of $5,000.

In July 1896, it was reported that Shelley had applied to the Iowa Legislature for employment in the State House as a menial, because she was destitute and had to support her aged mother and invalid brother. ["The Batavia [Illinois] Herald", 22 July 1896]

Although there were apparently men interested in her, including the switchman in the yard at Moingona, [ [http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/kateshelley.htm "Burlington Hawkeye", May 4, 1882] ] Kate Shelley never married, and continued to care for her mother until Margaret died in 1909.

In March 1910, John Rosacker replaced Shelley as temporary agent at Moingona, as she was too sick to perform her duties. On April 5, the depot again burned down, but it was discovered that $8 was missing from the cash drawer, and in December, Rosacker admitted to setting the fire to cover the theft. He received five years imprisonment for the arson and theft.

Kate Shelley grew sicker and, in June 1911, doctors at Carroll Hospital removed her appendix. After a month in the hospital, she stayed with her brother John, and was reported a little better by September, but died on January 12 1912 from Bright's disease (acute nephritis) [ [http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/kateshelley.htm "Washington Post", January 22, 1912] ]

Legacy

The Boone County Historical Society maintains the "Kate Shelley Railroad Museum" on the site of the Moingona depot.

References

External links

* [http://www.amespubliclibrary.org/farwell/publication/Pub9429.htm Farwell T Brown Photographic Archive of the Ames Public Library]
*