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Biographical Info
John Luther “Casey” Jones (March 14, 1864 – April 30, 1900) was an American railroader who died when his passenger train, pulled by locomotive Number 382, collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi.
Jones was born in rural southeastern Missouri, and his family moved to Cayce, Kentucky, after his mother, Ann Nolan Jones and his father, Frank Jones, a schoolteacher, decided that the rural areas of Missouri offered few opportunities. In Kentucky, he acquired the nickname “Cayce,” which he chose to spell as “Casey.”
Jones’ lifelong goal was to be an engineer.
After joining the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, he excelled at his job and was eventually promoted to brakeman on the Columbus, Kentucky, to Jackson, Tennessee, route. Following this, he was promoted to fireman on the Jackson, Tennessee to Mobile, Alabama route.
During the summer of 1887, a yellow fever outbreak affected numerous train crews on the Illinois Central Railroad. Jones saw an opportunity to advance his career more quickly as a fireman on that line. He joined Illinois Central on March 1, 1888, and began operating a freight locomotive between Jackson, Tennessee and Water Valley, Mississippi.
A few years later, on February 23, 1891, he was promoted to engineer.
In January 1900, Jones transferred to the “Cannonball Express” passenger run between Memphis and Canton, Mississippi, part of a run between Chicago and New Orleans.