Rock Island County IL Archives News.....Terrible Conflagration May 8, 1856
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ken Wright kenneth565@aol.com May 7, 2009, 12:14 am

Maquoketa Sentinel, Maquoketa, Iowa May 8, 1856
Maquoketa Sentinel, May 8, 1856.

TERRIBLE CONFLAGRATION

ROCK ISLAND RAILROAD BRIDGE GONE

STEAMER EFFIE AFTON BURNT

Through the politeness of Mr. R. B. Clancy, who has just returned from
Davenport, we learn that 250 feet of the great Railroad Bridge that spans the
Mississippi at Rock Island, was burned down, together with the splendid new
steamer Effie Afton, on Tuesday last. No lives lost, but the cargo is reported
as being entirely destroyed. It appears that the steamer caught in the bridge,
the river being very full and the current swift, it was impossible to keep
between the piers; consequently she came in collision with the bridge, smashed
her pipes, and in her efforts to free herself, became closely wedged in, that
all efforts to get loose were unavailing.
(In a subsequent lawsuit by the owners of the Effie Afton against the bridge
company for obstruction of navigation, attorney Abraham Lincoln defended the
bridge company.)


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