Date Night at the Library

Last week, I got my monthly library email of what’s happening at the library. I always scroll through it to see if there is anything happening that would be fun or interesting to go to. There was a talk about the Greatest Train Disaster in Neenah/Menasha history. BINGO. The hubby loves trains and I like history. I asked what the hubby had on 9/9. He said he was open and when I told him what was going on, he said he’d like to go. THEN he took a baseball game for that night. Okay, no problem… I figured I’d go to baseball and walk at Sunset Park. Not a big deal. WELL, baseball got cancelled so we could go to the train talk.

The hubby has heard about the Greatest Train Disaster in Neenah/Menasha before and has seen pictures. I didn’t even know there was a train disaster until I saw the email. Since I’m a history geek, especially stories that may not be well known, I was excited to hear this story even though the description didn’t give much information except it said PowerPoint.

The program started at 7pm. We got there about 6:50 and it was standing room only but there were putting out more chairs. Since we were the first people waiting for chairs, we got front row which turned out to be good since the speaker forgot to use his microphone at times.

The speaker went through the history of the disaster.  He talked about what led up the disaster… 2 men from Menasha deciding to have a barn party just south of Neenah. Because only the rich had cars in 1911, the entire group traveled by hay wagon. On the way to the barn, they stopped to pick up 3 quarter barrels of beer. Since it is theorized that they were celebrating a wedding, the party went on to the wee hours of the morning. Around 2:30 AM, they headed back to Menasha. It was so foggy that a man had to walk in front of the wagon with a lantern. When they got into Neenah it was less foggy and the man got back in the wagon. As the wagon approached a graded railroad crossing, the driver didn’t see anything and started to make his way over the tracks. He glanced back and saw a light and tried to get the horses to move faster. BAM!  It was too late and the locomotive hit the wagon by the back wheel and dragged the wagon about 800 yards. It was a gruesome sight.  13 people were dead at the scene with several others injured. Limbs were strewn along the tracks. A 1 year girl was sitting on her mother’s lap and ended up on another woman’s lap unhurt. After the investigation was complete, a billboard was ruled as the cause of the accident since it blocked the view of the train coming. Alcohol was never a factor. The speaker was the son of the little girl who was sitting on her mother’s lap.

It was very interesting to learn about especially since the speaker didn’t explain his connection to the disaster until the end. There were also several other relatives of victims in the audience. The hubby was quite impressed by the presentation and even saw a few pictures he hasn’t seen before.  I enjoyed the entire presentation since I had no knowledge of the disaster. The presenter certainly did his research.

For a date night at the library, a place the hubby normally doesn’t visit, it was a nice night out. I will continue to search out interesting talks at the library and go whenever one strikes my fancy. IF it appeals to the hubby and he’s free, that’s even better.