“Died At the Throttle”

The Graysons of Savannah

John Gugel Grayson (1854-1892), our 2nd great-granduncle, was the fifth child of John Langston (1817-1869) and Amelia Hale Grayson (1829-1910). By age 16 young John, a “job laborer,” was the man of the house, his father and six of his nine siblings having already died. He lived with his widowed mother and 6 year-old brother Nathaniel (1864-1932). Amelia’s only surviving daughter, 13 year-old Henrietta Bell Grayson (1857-1948), had been sent to a local orphanage. Amelia’s eldest and only other surviving son, our 2nd GGF Edward Fahm Rucker Grayson (1847-1901), lived nearby with his in-laws and was a steam engine builder and machinist at the Central of Georgia Railroad (CRR) in their hometown of Savannah, Georgia. By 1871, John G. Grayson was listed as a machinist, presumably working at the CRR Savannah yards with his older brother. In 1878 John married neighbor Hattie McIntyre (1861-1936).

The Central Of Georgia

The CRR was constructed in the late 1830s-early 1840s, linking the western railroads that terminated in Macon, Georgia to the Atlantic seaport of Savannah. Union troops destroyed the railway in November and December 1864 during General William T. Sherman’s “March to the Sea.” The line had to be re-laid following the Civil War, and the CRR expanded to include multiple rail lines to most major cities in Georgia, eastern Alabama, and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Steam Engines, Steam Ships, and Locomotives

The invention of the first efficient steam engine by James Watt in 1774 set off an explosion of sorts – the Industrial Revolution. Once his patent expired in the early 1800s, other inventors developed smaller and more powerful (and thus more dangerous) high-pressure engines for use in transportation. In 1807 Robert Fulton‘s boat Clermont steamed 150 miles up the Hudson River on steam power. The SS Savannah, a hybrid sail and steam-powered vessel which departed from her namesake Georgia port in May 1819, became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, arriving in Liverpool, England a month later. Coincidentally, John G. Grayson’s father had been born in Liverpool a mere two years earlier. John G.’s grandfather John Robinson Grayson (1779-1822) was a respected trans-Atlantic ship captain operating out of Savannah during that same historic period. In the 1820s, a steam-powered locomotive was used to transport passengers on a public railway for the first time.

Train Engineers and Crew

The engineer of a steam locomotive was responsible for the monitoring and maintenance of the steam engine, its gauges and controls, and its affiliated equipment during his assigned run. He not only had to be mentally alert, technically proficient, and physically strong, but he had to know his route, anticipating and adjusting for any upcoming curves, hills, crossings, or other peculiarities. In the late 1800s, boys looked up to locomotive engineers much as they one day would to fighter jet pilots. Young men that aspired to be engineers usually learned railroad operations from the ground up, starting as machinists and boiler apprentices, working switching gear and moving locomotives and cars about round houses and rail yards, and then as train crew. Brakemen had the most dangerous job on the train, even after the invention of air brakes in the 1870s. They were often required to walk atop the train cars while underway to assess the security of loads and couplings, and at times were responsible for working the rail switching gear along the route. Firemen manned the cab and worked closely with the engineer, keeping the firebox stoked with coal and filled with water from the attached tender, and letting the fire die down when less power was needed.

Expanding Families, Move to Macon

John and Hattie Grayson welcomed their fifth child in 1890, though one had died just before its first birthday in 1883. Having risen from the boiler shop, doing stints as a railway and city policeman in the interim, John was now working as an engineer on the CRR. His younger brother Nathaniel had chosen a career in the CRR as well, at that time a fireman but, eventually, he too became an engineer. Older brother Edward was working for a different steam-engine railroad, eventually becoming the Chief Engineer of an electric trolley line. Sister Henrietta was by then married to local grocer Jacob S. Collins (1854-1925) and had three children. Jacob employed Edward’s only child, our GGF William L. Grayson (1870-1941), as a clerk. William entered into partnership with his uncle and would eventually rise to prominence in Savannah political and social circles. By the autumn of 1892, John and his family had relocated to Macon from Savannah.

Accident on the Central

The train, which was a freight, left the Macon yards on time.

Macon Telegraph, November 13, 1892

The Macon Telegraph of Sunday, November 13, 1892 reported:

Splayed Out Like Spaghetti

Railroad steam boiler explosions in the late 19th century could not be called rare. A U.S. historic newspaper search of “locomotive explosion” between 1875 and 1900 resulted in 3,000 hits from all over the country. Even acknowledging that many described the same tragic event, a quick perusal revealed one or more such accidents nearly every year. A locomotive steam boiler was equipped with numerous automatic and manual pressure relief valves, which included its whistle. Iron plates surrounded the steam pipes and firebox. The crown sheet, or crown plate, could have described any of these iron coverings, but it seems mostly to have pertained to the section in the cab that sat atop the firebox. A locomotive boiler explosion rarely killed passengers, but was nearly always fatal to one or more crew. Photos taken after these events almost invariably showed the engine iron casing blown off and its boiler tubes splayed out like spaghetti noodles. Here is a great overview of a devastating 1912 explosion, including photos.

Narratives and Conflicting Details of the Accident

Contemporary newspaper reports in Savannah and Macon agree that the explosion occurred at Seven Mile Hill, four miles west of Tennille, Georgia. Tennille is still a rural community, more than 40 miles from the nearest Interstate Highway and about 60 driving miles from Macon. Seven Mile Hill is on no modern maps, but the current railroad right-of-way follows Dyers Creek south and west out of Tennille through farm land and wooded areas. About four miles from town the rails cross under Deep Cut Road, leaving the creek and apparently climbing along the curved ridge line of Sandy Hill, the name surmised from Sandy Hill Creek, which accompanies the rail line until it reaches the similarly isolated town of Oconee. A modern pilgrimage to the site of the tragedy would not be a quick side trip.

Both newspapers gave numerous details, though many of the details conflict. The Macon paper claims John had temporarily swapped jobs with the unnamed fireman, and was adding his second shovelful of coal into the firebox when the explosion happened. The unmarried brakeman Robert Middlebrooks had come forward to the cab “to be ready to when the engine slowed… to jump from the engine and run ahead and unlock the switch.” Presumably, this switch was at the approach to the upcoming station at Tennille where the single track still splits into multiple tracks. The Savannah Morning News of the same date claims, “The fireman was in the tender and Brakeman Middlebrooks undertook to shovel in coal. As he threw the first shovelful into the furnace there was a loud explosion, and the crownsheet came out in pieces through the opening with terrific force. A large section struck Engineer Grayson squarely in the stomach, lacerating him in the a frightful manner and throwing him five car lengths away. Another piece struck Brakeman Middlebrooks in the left side, crushing his ribs and landing him alongside the engineer.”

The Morning News continued, “The explosion stopped the engine, and the other train hands hurried back to the assistance of the wounded men. They found Engineer Grayson unconscious and bleeding profusely from the wound in his stomach, which left the intestines exposed. The force of the fall had also broken his arms. Middlebrook [sic], although terribly wounded, was conscious and walking about.”

The Savannah newspaper then described in heroic detail how the wounded brakeman walked to Tennille, described the accident, got help for his engineer and crew, and ultimately succumbed to his wounds at 4:00 A.M. Saturday morning. It also says “Mrs. Grayson was wired at her home in Macon…. The Central authorities placed a special train at her disposal, and she reached Tennille several hours before her husband died” at 7:00 A.M that same Saturday.

The heroic journey of the brakeman is missing from the Macon paper. In fact, it claims, “Mr. Middlebrooks, who was standing near when the crown sheet blew out, was so severely scalded that he died…. How the fireman escaped unhurt will never be known [aside: Since he survived, why didn’t you ask him?], and it is little short of a miracle that he was not also killed, as the seat he occupied was almost directly over the crown sheet.” The Telegraph reports, “both men were brought to Macon, Mr. Grayson being brought to his home on Oak Street, and Mr. Middlebrooks to his boarding house on Fourth Street.”

The Family Carries On

John’s hometown paper concluded, “Engineer Grayson… was 35 years old, and leaves a wife and four children. Mr. Grayson’s body was brought down to Savannah last night on the Nancy Hanks and was taken to his brother’s residence … from where the funeral will take place this afternoon. He was a popular young man, and his tragic death was painful news to those who knew him.”

Hattie remarried in 1897, her new husband presumably a widower five years her junior. George Knight was also locomotive engineer. Together they had three additional children. The 1900 census finds Hattie, George, his three children, her four Grayson children, two babies, and Hattie’s 71 year-old former mother-in-law Amelia all living under one roof. Edward F.R. Grayson died of throat cancer in 1901, so Amelia Hale Grayson outlived 8 of her 10 children. She lived with the Knights and her grandchildren until her death in 1910.

Engineer John Gugel Grayson was buried in the Grayson family plot at Laurel Grove (North) Cemetery in Savannah, where among others also lie the remains of his paternal grandmother, his father John L. Grayson, and at least four and perhaps as many as seven of his siblings, There are only three tombstones. John G.’s being the most touching:

“My Beloved Husband John G. Grayson – Who died at the Throttle while in the discharge of his duty.”