Muscogee County GaArchives Photo Group.....Circus Accident, Nov. 22, 1915 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 April 24, 2007, 2:41 pm Source: Ledger- Enquirer, Special Sesquicentennial Supplement II Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/circusac12659gph.jpg Image file size: 13.6 Kb Circus Accident Big News By Jim Houston Special Sesquicentennial Supplement II Ledger- Enquirer, Sunday, April 23, 1978. S-15. Tragic events made national news headlines in 1915, just as they do in today’s newspapers. In the nation’s newspapers of Nov. 23, 1915, the dateline of Columbus was found in newspapers across the country, heading a story of tragedy that completed for space with reports of Mexico’s Pancho Villa’s growing defeats, Serbian forces overwhelming Bulgarians in a World War 1 battle at Monastir and the sinking of the German Battleship “Markgraf” in the Baltic Sea. The war reports were pushed aside in the Columbus Enquirer-Sun, where a tragic collision of a Macon passenger train and a Columbus-bound circus train was reported on at least a third of the Newspaper’s front-page display. The circus train of Con T. Kennedy Shows was enroute to Girard, Ala. (now part of Phenix City) on Nov. 22, when it collided with the passenger train at Bull Creek, about six miles east of Columbus. Fire swept the tangled wreckage of the circus train, killing at least 15 persons and many of the circus animals. The fire was so intense only six bodies were recovered, including one torso never identified. Nine other persons’ bodies were never recovered and were presumed dead in the flames. The news accounts of the tragedy show the engineers of both trains jumped from their engines when the collision became obvious. Many of the performers and workers were trapped in the wreckage and died despite attempts to rescue them from the growing flames. One witness reported watching a man trapped in the wreckage use a hatchet to cut off his foot, in order to flee the blazing wreck. The heat was so intense that one man was identified as an operator of the penny arcade only because melted pennies were found in his pockets. A man and wife were identified only from the watch and necklace found on their bodies. The circus never performed in Girard, although replacement equipment enabled the circus to keep its Albany engagement the next week. More than 62 years after the tragic train collision, however, Columbus retains a memorial to the accident and the people and animals who died here. In the northwest section of Riverdale Cemetery, a monument stands, placed there by Con. T. Kennedy Shows, ‘… in memory of their comrades who lost their lives in a railroad wreck near Columbus.” Engraved on the back of the circus tent –shaped, granite marker is a poem to those whose circus careers ended in Columbus ; “ We’ll not forget thee, we who stay To work a little longer here. Thy name, thy faith, thy love shall be On memory’s tablet bright and clear. And when o’er-wearied by the toil of life Our heavy limbs shall be, We’ll come and one by one lie down Upon dear Mother Earth with thee.” I have posted pictures on the Find A Grave site for Riverdale Cem. on this subject, look under Shows, I posted it under Con T. Kennedy Shows Good luck to all Christine G. Thacker File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/circusac12659gph.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 3.9 Kb