Rock Island County IL Archives News.....Particulars of the Rock Island Bridge Catastrophe May 15, 1856
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ken Wright kenneth565@aol.com May 21, 2009, 12:35 am

Maquoketa Sentinel May 15, 1856
Maquoketa Sentinel, May 15, 1856.

Particulars of the Rock Island Bridge Catastrophe

We clip from the Iowa State Democrat the following particulars concerning the
Burning of the Bridge and the Steamboat Effie Afton:

Yesterday about 5 ½ o’clock the splendid steamboat, Effie Afton in attempting to
pass the R. R. Drawbridge ran against the pier, and staved in her bows, and in
her efforts to move away from the drawbridge pier she swung around under the
bridge, on the island side, knocking down her chimneys and instantly setting the
boat and bridge on fire. This span of the bridge soon burnt through and fell
into the river, when the steamboat and the bridge floated down the current
together, while the flames continued to rage with the greatest fury on the boat.
There were a large number of cattle on board and they were with the exception of
a cow, an ox and a calf burned up with the wreck.

At the time the boat took fire there were about a dozen steamboats lying at the
wharf here and on the Rock Island side, and they opened their whistles in a
concert of music, which was so frightful that all the babies in Davenport went
into fits of crying. It sounded like a vast menagerie of elephants and
hippopotamuses howling with rage. The steamboat Effie Afton was worth $50,000
dollars and was owned by the Captain and crew, and had no insurance. She is
lying sunk at the head of Pelican Island, in the river opposite Cannon’s Saw
Mill. We are informed that the Minnesota Packet Company offered $45,000 for the
boat last week. She was as fleet as a deer, and one of the finest, if not the
best boat floating the Mississippi River. Below we give the account of the
accident which the Clerk of the boat handed in to our office.

“Left Rock Island about 5 o’clock this morning (May 6) entered the entrance
through the bridge and had gone fully two hundred feet through, when the wind
and current striking her head, she began to swing. It was impossible to turn her
on account of the rapidity of the current; she swung around against the timbers
of the bridge, tearing all her forward works above to atoms, sweeping her
chimneys and smashing everything  above the cabin as far back as the passage
through the centre of the boat. She lodged against the pier, and when found that
she was still, every person above and below went to work to save themselves and
baggage, which was done, and not one person was lost or the least injured. She
took fire twice which was extinguished both times, but finally took fire again
and was wrapped in a sheet of flames in two minutes-burning one span of the
bridge entirely away.

Many persons had saved themselves and baggage on board the J. B. Carson, that
was made fast to the stern of the Effie Afton, and the balance had gone ashore
over the bridge. After the span of the bridge went down with a crash, the
burning wreck got afloat and floated down the river as far as the head of the
Island, when it grounded and continued to burn to the water’s edge."
B. P. Holmes, Clerk

(Note: In a subsequent lawsuit by the owners of the Effie Afton against the
Bridge Company for obstruction of navigation, the Bridge Company was defended in
court by Abraham Lincoln.)

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/rockisland/newspapers/particul170gnw.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/

File size: 3.8 Kb