WEBVTT - Sideshow 7: Collision Course 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:10.640 When Tom Thumb showed up on the scene in eighteen thirty, 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.520 there weren't too many places to go. Back then, there 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:16.079 were only twenty three miles of railroad track in the 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:19.639 whole country, so as you can imagine, getting anywhere was 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.480 pretty tough. This Tom Thumb, though, wasn't P. T. Barnum's 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.600 famous pint size protege that we've already discussed in an 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:30.840 earlier episode. This Tom was a tiny steam engine, one 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.720 of the first ever to be built in America. It 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.839 weighed less than one ton and made its inventor, the 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:42.760 industrialist Peter Cooper, very proud and very excited. The Tom 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:45.480 Thumb steam engine was under the ownership of the Baltimore 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.440 and Ohio Railroad, or the B and O for short. 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:53.120 On July four, eight Charles Carroll broke the first ground 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:56.760 at the lines official commissioning. At years old, he was 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:01.080 the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence. One 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:04.280 day in eighteen thirty, Peter Cooper decided he would take 0:01:04.280 --> 0:01:07.000 Tom Thumb out for a spin on the tracks near Baltimore. 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:09.640 He was out in a rail yard when a horse 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.240 drawn train pulled up alongside him and challenged him to 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:16.800 a gentlemanly drag race. Peter's engine had been known to 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.280 clock speeds as high as fourteen miles per hour, and 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.200 he wanted to test its metal. The two men lined 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.600 up with each other, sitting in parallel on their respectful steeds. 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.040 Paused for a moment, and then we're off to the races. 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:33.279 Down the tracks, they surged at what must have felt 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.479 like breakneck speed, although it's more likely they barely broke 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.200 into the double digits. Peter and his tom Thumb effortlessly 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.039 took the lead, but it wouldn't last. One of the 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:46.160 trains belts had broken loose, and it slowly came to 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.600 a halt. But it wasn't over yet. You see. Peter 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.280 may have lost this battle, but he would end up 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:56.120 winning the war because he had impressed some important people 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.040 that day, people who would be making the big decisions 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:01.760 for the future of the train line. The tom Thumb 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.920 demonstrated promise through its raw power, and the executives decided 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:10.040 that they would convert their entire railroad to steam. Horse 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:14.440 drawn cars were out. Less than a century later, those 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:18.320 twenty three miles of train lines would multiply exponentially by 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:22.120 over one thousand times. In fact, at the railroad's peak 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.600 in nineteen eleven, enough track had been laid throughout the country. 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:29.760 That's hypothetically speaking, it equaled the distance from the Earth 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:33.080 to the Moon, with miles to spare. To say that 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.200 the train was one of the important technological innovations to 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.840 ever hit American shores would be an understatement. Railroads would 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.080 go on to upend almost everything about life at the time. 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:48.080 They changed the way we worked, traveled, and played, and 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.400 those who got to be up close to them, whether 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:54.000 to ride or just look, couldn't help but marvel at 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.600 what the future seemed to promise. The country would never 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.959 be the same. Trains were becoming a spectacle, celebrities in 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:06.760 their own right, and sometimes so were the people who 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:12.280 wrote them. I'm Aaron Manky and welcome to the side show. 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.240 It was only a matter of time before their wishes 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:32.079 would outgrow their hawthorn tree. Jenny and Eddie Ward were 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.720 young enough to remember, but also old enough to know 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:38.320 that life wasn't going to be easy. Their home life 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:42.000 was unstable and money was always tight. Plus there was 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:45.640 a rotating cast of father figures, with their mother always 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.880 searching for a reliable man that could afford them a 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:53.000 better existence. When Eddie was in third grade, he dropped 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.360 out of school and got a job. He had to 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.320 take care of his family after all. Jenny, a few 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:02.320 years younger, loved her brother mightily. He was her caretaker 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.880 and her best friend, and they were inseparable. Together they 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:09.480 could be unafraid of whatever life through at them. On 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:11.440 just about any day of the year, they could be 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.520 found climbing the limbs of their hawthorn tree. They were 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:18.080 happiest there. At one point, Jenny and Eddie strung up 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.440 a crude trap he's made of rope and a bar. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.160 As a parent, I am terrified just thinking about it. 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.599 They played for hours at a time, swinging and jumping 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:30.760 through the air, always earth bound, yes, but attempting to 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:35.000 defy gravity, to test physics and fate. They loved it, 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:38.000 and you know what, they were good at it too. 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.720 It's true that we're all products of our environment, but 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.360 one can't help but think that Jenny and Eddie had 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:48.080 appeared in the exact right place at the exact right time. 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:50.680 They were born in the last decade of the nineteenth 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.440 century in Bloomington, Illinois, a city whose legacy would become 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:58.800 inextricably linked with the world of the circus. Bloomingtons had 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.440 become aerial It's ground zero, just two decades after the 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:06.320 flying trapeeze first appeared in Europe. Jenny and Eddie's flying 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:11.000 trapeeze birthright was not one of heritage, but of proximity. 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.120 The history books tell us that a few years before 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:15.360 they were born, some local brothers had set up a 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.720 trapeeze in their barn, replicating the aerial acts that they 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.200 had seen when the circus wagons had passed through town. 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:24.880 They practiced their flips and tricks, much to the dismay 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.760 of their father, who sooner wished they joined the family's 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.680 confection or business than tempt death. But before long those 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.640 brothers had paying customers. People came to watch and eventually 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.800 to train. Want to be acrobats arrived from not just 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.159 all over the country, but all over the world. According 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.000 to one newspaper, the city became the capital of the 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:49.159 aerial Kingdom, making it impossible to visit a circus anywhere 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:53.440 without running into performers who hadn't done time there. By 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.640 nineteen oh three, Eddie and Jenny had graduated from their 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.960 tree and landed their first paying gig at a local fair. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:02.799 It was a twenty mile train ride out of town, 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:07.279 but it felt a world away here under the big top. 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.920 They were reborn as the flying Wards. Their week long 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.240 contract was worth fifteen dollars, but they brought home so 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.120 much more. By passing around a hat to the enthusiastic audience, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:21.440 they managed to collect the equivalent of over ten thousand 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:25.720 dollars in modern currency. The crowd had spoken, they were 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:29.560 a smash hit, and the siblings couldn't believe it. With that, 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:34.880 their professional career had begun. What Jenny and Eddie didn't 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:36.840 know at that moment was that they were on their 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:40.039 way not only to stardom, but to creating a circus 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.760 family dynasty. The world didn't know, it hungered for. It 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:46.280 was the golden age of the circus, and they were 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:49.640 right on time. The Trapeeze was going to be Jenny 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.640 and Eddie's ticket out of town. Countless shows were now 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.919 moving through the country by rail, including P. T. Barnum 0:06:56.000 --> 0:07:00.599 and his entourage. The rail held their future. The following year, 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.600 the flying Wards appeared at the Atlanta Fair. In nineteen 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.200 o five, they were hired by a small amusement company. 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.360 The year After that, the Ringling Brothers circus got hold 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:11.440 of them before they jumped ship to join up with 0:07:11.440 --> 0:07:15.320 the Van Amberg circus. By nineteen twelve, their ranks had 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:18.119 grown to include a rotating cast of friends and two 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:22.920 aerial artist spouses. Jenny married Alec Todd and Eddie married 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:27.040 Mamie Faye. Together they opened a training barn in Iowa, 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.880 and then another back home in Bloomington in nineteen fifteen. 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:33.720 But lest you think this was any old barn, think again. 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.240 That label doesn't quite do it justice. There's was a 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.520 structure built to mimic a circus tent, thirty eight feet 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.360 high with twenty two large windows that made the place 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.960 glow with light. In one of their most famous acts, 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.400 Jenny would hop on a trappies bar above Eddie's own bar, 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.040 who sat with his legs dangling forty ft above the ground. 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:58.080 From there, she would drop head first, deadweight like a corpse, 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.360 earthbound like a bomb, and he would catch her, of course, 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:06.000 but with his feet, all of this with no safety nets. 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.960 In nine Hampton magazine wrote up a profile about the Wards. 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:14.680 The reporter had teased Jenny she was as fearless as 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.720 a gladiator, but all wrapped up in more sinewy demure packaging. 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:21.600 Jenny told the reporter that she didn't see why she 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:24.920 would have anything to fear when performing, because she knew 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:27.840 that her brother would catch her because he had to. 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:31.400 But she admitted, without batting an eye, there was something 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:34.400 else that rattled her more than hurtling toward the ground. Ever, 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:40.800 could railroad tracks? Railroad tracks? Asked the reporter incredulously. It 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:43.959 seemed all things considered to be a very silly thing 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:48.000 to worry about. Jenny shot back. Who wouldn't be afraid 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.120 of a great, big engine? She always worried about the 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:54.080 chance that she wouldn't make it across, Perhaps her foot 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:56.880 would get stuck, or she would trip and fall with 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.880 no one there to catch her. It was as if 0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.559 Jenny knew something, something that told her that, for all 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.880 her high flying and death defying acts, trains were the 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:09.800 thing she had to be afraid of. But for someone 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.199 who would go on to make her living being ferried 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.560 from one city to another aboard the iron horse, she 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.439 had to get used to it. But that nagging sense 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.120 of worry she felt it was almost as if she 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:36.439 knew this wouldn't end well. One of America's greatest technological 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:40.839 inventions had revolutionized mass entertainment. No, I'm not talking about 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.200 the television or even the radio. I'm still talking about 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.160 the railroad. Rail had made the country accessible in a 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:51.360 way it never had before, traversing prairies and mountain passes, 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:56.200 cutting through cities and into small towns alike. For decades, 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.760 showman and their entourages had been traveling by wagon. It 0:09:59.880 --> 0:10:03.520 was slow and hard. Barnum himself had acquired a hundred 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:06.640 or so wagons to transport his show, plus a few 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.240 hundred horses to pull them. It was a grinding, hardly 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.400 profitable way to try to squeeze out a living. Just 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.520 weeks after the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in eighteen sixty nine, 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:21.359 a Wisconsin man took his two elephants and two camels 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:25.400 on tour from Nebraska to California. And these companies got 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:28.400 the process down to a science. Weeks ahead of a 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:32.200 circus performance, advertisements promoting the stars of the show would 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:36.040 appear in local newspapers and advertisements. No place in a 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.000 thirty mile radius of their next show was safe from big, 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:43.079 colorful postering. A glittering three mile parade was promised to 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.839 spectators who showed up, and that promise was usually kept. 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:52.280 For rural farming communities especially, the anticipation was palpable. They 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.719 knew that the biggest event of the whole year was 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.840 about to roll into town, and when the circus appeared, 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:02.319 everything else in their life just sort of stopped. In 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.679 the magazine, McClure's called the modern circus a kingdom on wheels, 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.120 a city that folds itself up like an umbrella. The 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.680 writer also wrote that quickly and swiftly, every night it 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.360 does the work of a Laddin's lamp, picking up in 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:22.959 its magical arms, theater, hotel, schoolroom, barracks, home, whisking them 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:26.320 all miles away, and setting them down before sunrise in 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:30.280 a new place, as if by magic. A parade of 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.160 exotic animals would appear at dawn and march down main street. 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:38.120 Townsfolk watched as canvas tents spring up like mushroom caps. 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.800 They could rub shoulders with tattooed ladies and dwarfs, the 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.040 painted likenesses of which stood twenty feet tall on wood 0:11:45.040 --> 0:11:48.360 and canvas to announce their arrival. To say that the 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.439 circus was a spectacle was an understatement. They was here 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.920 that Americans were utterly transported to a world that at 0:11:55.960 --> 0:12:00.400 that time existed only in stories and their imaginations. The 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:04.040 circus train made it real. It was a rolling fantasy, 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.600 a hulking dream machine that rolled into town under the 0:12:07.640 --> 0:12:10.680 cover of night. That's how everyone would get around for 0:12:10.720 --> 0:12:14.760 a good time too. It became standard business practice, so 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.520 in nineteen eighteen, the Flying Wards climbed onto the Haggenback 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:22.079 Wallace circus Train ready for their next tour. It was 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:24.920 an old school set of cars, all made of wood. 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.000 For Jenny and Eddie and their troop, it was familiar 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.760 and cozy. Their personal quarters of bare bones sleeper car 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.200 was full of bunks stacked two and three high. Overhead 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:38.520 oil lamps kept the cars glowing throughout the night. It 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.480 was a swaltering existence with the bodies of hundreds of 0:12:41.480 --> 0:12:44.559 performers all stacked together in the summer air. But this 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.760 was what the Wards had worked so hard for. To them, 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.599 this circus train was home. Their show that season was 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.080 going to be a good one. They boasted and I 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:59.480 quote twenty five different acts advertising the presence of sixty aerialists, 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:04.520 sixty acrobats, sixty writers, fifty clowns and one hundred count them, 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:08.880 one hundred dancing girls. They also brought along seventy elephants, 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:13.160 eighty horse drawn wagons, twenty trick ponies, and a home 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:17.359 and nagerie of other exotic creatures. That's a lot of numbers, 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.960 but you get the picture. The Wards and Company arrived 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:25.080 in Michigan City, Indiana, on June one, nineteen eighteen, to 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.079 give a charity performance at the Indiana State Penitentiary. All 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.400 things considered, this was going to be a light and 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.040 leisurely performance, and it was an afternoon show, one that 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.480 would give them enough time to wrap up with daylight 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.960 left to burn. As the cars finished loading, they would 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:43.760 head off in stages. The first section of the train 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:46.319 to leave the station at one am, was full of animals, 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:50.760 their handlers, and six sleeper cars. The second, comprised mostly 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.640 of performers, was slated to leave at two thirty am. 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.640 After a long day, the performers all settled in for 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:02.120 the night. Eddie and Mamie together, Jenny and Alec nearby, 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.160 the family and single women carriages were towards the front. 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.360 The married acts were sandwiched in the middle, the single 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:11.480 men roustabouts and trainers all pulled up the rear of 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:15.720 the train. The engine rumbled to life. The passengers felt 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.640 the jolt as their cars began to roll, and turned 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.560 their heads to the windows. The town sailed by like 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:24.520 a silent movie screen. It wouldn't be long now until 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.160 their next stop, which would be early enough to see 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.320 the first light of dawn. The train rattled and shook 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:33.320 across the night. It was creaky at its joints, but 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:36.760 did its passengers a surface. It rocked them to sleep. 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.080 Little did they know that this night would be the 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:44.240 last for many on board. Some, in fact, would never 0:14:44.360 --> 0:15:00.320 wake up again. Alonso, Sergeant, was on a collision horse, 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.720 and he had no idea. Often one never does. We 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.080 spend our lives hurtling toward the future. Are minutes ticking 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.640 on at our seconds winding down, And sometimes it's only 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.120 when we're forced to come to an abrupt stopped do 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:18.200 we realize that we might be out of time. Alonso, 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:21.960 the train engineer at the throttle of engine of the 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:25.800 Michigan Central Line, hadn't gotten much rest in the past day. 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:29.120 He was tired. He closed his cab window to save 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:32.480 himself from the night's chill. He knew these tracks, and 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.640 he knew his job, and he closed his eyes just 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.480 for a few moments. Of course, Alonso knew that he 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.120 didn't have long to go now, but what he missed 0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:44.560 were the two caution signals, and instead of slowing down, 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:49.600 he sped up. Up ahead was the Hagenbach Wallace circus 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:53.760 train with the mechanical issue brakeman Oscar tim was walking 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.040 the rail, taking stock of the situation. They were just 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.840 five miles from their destination of Hammond, Indie Enna. Suddenly, 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:05.320 Oscar heard something he shouldn't have, the smooth rumble of 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.360 the tracks, and then saw something that shocked him, a 0:16:08.440 --> 0:16:11.800 huge plume of smoke and the headlights of an oncoming train, 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.200 one that seemed to have no intention of slowing down. 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.880 Part of the circus car was on the transition rail, 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:20.920 but the rest of it was still on the main line, 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.840 directly in the path of this billowing beast. Oscar grabbed 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:28.040 an emergency flare and took off toward Alonso Sergeant's train. 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:32.680 Oscar screamed he waved frantically, but Alonso couldn't hear him. 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:35.600 His window was closed, after all, and so he never 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.760 noticed when Oscar threw his burning flare at him. It 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:44.240 bounced off engine as the train sped onward. The few 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.880 who also saw this train coming watched Oscar's efforts in vain. 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.120 In a moment of sheer terror that we can only imagine, 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:53.360 they could do nothing but jump out of the way 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.600 as one fifty tons of steel hurtled straight towards them. 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.920 For the witnesses, we can imagine that time slowed down 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.760 in the seconds before impact, stretching and warping to fit 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.360 the full shape of the situation's horror. All the trainmen 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:10.879 could do now was wait and pray that the folks 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:15.199 inside the train cars were asleep and dreaming. And with that, 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:19.879 Alonso's steam engine made contact with the circus train. It 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.600 plowed into the caboose's steel frame, the air exploding with 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:27.080 gnashing roars and the tearing of steel. The engine's cow 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:31.360 catcher created a plowing, rolling effect, effectively mashing the circus 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:35.560 train into a snowball of twisted metal and sparks. The 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:38.240 next car beyond the caboose was one of the sleeper cars. 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.760 In an instant, a tidal wave of metal smashed through 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:46.720 the old wooden car. It shattered like glass, timber, splinters everywhere, 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:50.879 the walls coming down while smashed kerosene lamps pitched riders 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.920 into darkness. Those sleeping were sucked up in the undertow 0:17:55.000 --> 0:17:59.000 of debris, living breathing bodies being dragged forwards as the 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.639 engine tore through the next passenger car, and then the next, 0:18:03.080 --> 0:18:07.000 and then finally one last one before slowing down. It 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:10.560 was suddenly quiet for a moment, and then came the screams. 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:15.760 A moment later, the train began to burn. When Mamie 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.680 Ward came to she was upside down and folded into 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:21.240 a pocket in the wreckage. With the sound of Eddie 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:24.439 yelling for her from outside, she freed herself and climbed 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.080 to the top of the mountain of carnage. It was, 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:31.840 according to her, as tall as a telephone pole. Eddie, 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.320 who had been thrown from the wreck went back to help. 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.600 There were hundreds of people on that train. Survivors started digging, 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.600 pulling friends and family from the wreckage. They got to 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.800 work excavating frantically, following sounds of wailing and the smell 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.760 of burning flesh. But the smolder grew and the fire 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.160 turned into an inferno. The local fire departments were even 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.480 called in, but with few water sources nearby, there wasn't 0:18:56.560 --> 0:19:00.520 much they could do. One newspaper later reported that the 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:05.280 task of identifying the dead and seriously injured was almost hopeless. 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.440 Not only were many of the bodies burned so badly 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:12.560 that recognition was impossible, but practically everyone on the train 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:16.480 was killed or hurt. The injured and dying were laid 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.399 on the ground next to the tracks. Morticians with their 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.800 horse drawn wagons stood by, making quick work of loading 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:28.399 the unidentifiable corpses and taking them away. Altogether, eight six 0:19:28.400 --> 0:19:31.400 people died and over one hundred and twenty were injured. 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:33.800 The sun rose that day on a new world for 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.760 many of the Circus trains passengers, the ones who were 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.400 left behind to pick up the pieces of that fateful 0:19:39.440 --> 0:19:42.320 summer night. Eddie was hailed as a hero by the 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.240 local papers. He had gone back into the wreckage time 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:48.760 and again, helping who he could, while clearly looking for 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:53.159 someone in particular. Just before he collapsed from exhaustion, he 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:57.399 succeeded and stepped out of the wreckage carrying something. It 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:00.960 was the lifeless body of his beloved sister Jenny. He 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:14.639 hadn't been there to catch her and now she was gone. 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:20.800 Jenny's final train ride took her home to Bloomington's, and 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:23.960 there where it all started. She was late to rest. 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:29.320 Eddie would never recover. On June, just a few days 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.560 after the accident, the caskets of fifty six train wreck 0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:35.480 victims were buried in a common grave at Showman's Rest 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:39.640 Cemetery in Forest Hills, Illinois. Only thirteen of them had 0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:44.440 been identified. The rest were charred beyond recognition. If you 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:46.720 were to visit there today, you'd find that many of 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:50.040 the headstones in that plot are inscribed with unknown male 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:53.600 and unknown female, But if you look closely enough, you'll 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:56.800 be able to find more affectionate names, such as Baldy 0:20:57.160 --> 0:21:01.880 Smiley and four horse Driver. Ever since, Showman's Rest has 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:05.040 become the final resting place for hundreds of circus folk, 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:10.440 from roustabouts to owners and everyone in between. Some neighbors 0:21:10.440 --> 0:21:12.720 claim that they can hear the sounds of phantom elephants 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:15.800 at night, but as the records show, no elephants were 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:18.920 actually buried there. I suppose we'll just have to chalk 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:23.240 it up to the zoo nearby. Oh and almost unbelievably, 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:28.800 the Hagenbach Wallace Circus only canceled to performances. Assistance came 0:21:28.840 --> 0:21:31.760 from the Ringleing Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:36.720 the form of equipment, animals, and performers. Survivors of the 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:40.159 wreck were able to perform once again, because even in 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:44.120 the face of extraordinary tragedy, it seems the show must 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:52.520 go on. In a world where many of us spent 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.000 a lot of time at home during the pandemic, it's 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:57.760 amazing to imagine the ways will travel and the things 0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:00.360 will see in the years ahead. The way we move, 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:03.439 the where, the how, and with whom. All of it 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:07.320 gives shape to our lives in truly meaningful ways. But 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:10.000 we're not done just yet. Stick around through this brief 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:12.840 sponsor break to hear one more tale about the side 0:22:12.840 --> 0:22:17.320 show and maybe find some inspiration for your next road trip. 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:24.560 It's hard to say if he ever knew it, but 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.760 one of the quite literally biggest celebrities in the world 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:34.199 was so unanimously loved. His beginnings were quiet and his 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:37.560 life was good, but that all changed when his mother 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:42.199 was shot and killed. He was kidnapped from Sudan and 0:22:42.280 --> 0:22:45.440 forced to walk hundreds of miles before being taken by 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:49.119 boat to Paris, where he was brought to the Jordan Duplont. 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.240 It was France's botanical garden, a jewel in the eyes 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:57.639 of biologists working to understand the secrets of the natural world. 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:05.720 His life there, well, it was pretty bleak. His transfer 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:09.919 was eventually negotiated in the form of a trade. He 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:13.000 would go to the London Zoo in exchange for a rhino, 0:23:13.280 --> 0:23:16.920 a jackal, two eagles, a pair of dingos, a possum 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:22.200 and a kangaroo. There, Jumbo the elephant would become a star. 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:27.080 Even though he was a smaller African elephant. The calf 0:23:27.119 --> 0:23:30.720 would grow to a hearty twelve feet tall, and they're 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:35.640 under the watchful eye of his caretaker, Matthew Scott, Jumbo flourished. 0:23:36.080 --> 0:23:39.280 He was sweet, and he was gentle, and within a 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:43.040 few years he was giving writhes to children, including those 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:47.160 of Queen Victoria, a boy named Winston Churchill, and if 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:51.119 the legends are true, even a young f dr. The 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:54.440 public loved him and they came to visit him by 0:23:54.480 --> 0:24:02.399 the tens of thousands. But this situation wasn't built to last. 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:06.359 At around age twenty, the beginning of the teenage years 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:10.159 of an elephant if you will, he began acting moody 0:24:10.440 --> 0:24:13.000 p t. Barnum caught wind of this and offered to 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:17.919 take Jumbo to America. After much protest from tens of 0:24:18.040 --> 0:24:22.520 thousands of Londoners and from Queen Victoria herself, Jumbo once 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.199 again boarded a ship and set sail west towards his 0:24:26.280 --> 0:24:32.920 new home. Barnum, ever, the opportunist, was able to conjure 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:37.080 a crowd for Jumbo's arrival. According to some sources, it 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:40.320 was the largest crowd New York City had ever seen. 0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:45.520 Before long, Barnum had made Jumbo an even bigger star. 0:24:46.400 --> 0:24:49.400 He became the face of many products and a household name. 0:24:49.440 --> 0:24:55.000 At that the term Jumbo became synonymous with giants. Together, 0:24:55.240 --> 0:24:58.680 they logged tens of thousands of miles on the circus train, 0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:05.280 breaking a ten records everywhere they went. But all good 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:08.800 things must come to an end, it seems. In September, 0:25:10.320 --> 0:25:13.200 as Jumbo and his entourage were loading into a circus 0:25:13.200 --> 0:25:17.240 train after a show, an unscheduled train came barreling down 0:25:17.240 --> 0:25:21.840 the tracks and t boned the friendly giant. Jumbo perished 0:25:22.000 --> 0:25:27.199