Katherine Carroll 'Kate' Shelley (December 12, 1863 – January 21, 1912) was a midwestern United States railroad heroine and the first woman in the United States to. Alarm Clock Program In Vb. Katherine Carroll 'Kate' Shelley (December 12, 1863 – January 21, 1912) was a midwestern United States railroad heroine and the first woman in the United States to.

Contents • • • • • • • Background Catherine Shelley was born in Loughaun,,. Transcriptions of Irish records show her parents, Michael Shelley and Margaret Dwan, to have been married on February 24, 1863. And Catherine to have been baptized on December 12, 1863. However, United States 1880 census records indicate she may have been born in 1865. Her grave site indicates that she was born September 25, 1865 and died January 21, 1912. The family name was originally spelled Shelly, which is how Kate often wrote her name, but the spelling Shelley was later adopted.

Her father was a in Ireland, living on 3 acres (12,000 m 2) and farming 15 more. The family to the United States when Catherine was still a baby. They at first lived with relatives in, then built a home on 160 acres (0.65 km 2) at Honey Creek, near Moingona, and Michael became foreman of a section crew, building track for the. Michael Shelley fell ill and died in 1878.

Margaret was in poor health, so Catherine – by now called Kate – helped support the family by plowing, planting and harvesting crops, and hunting. The 1880 federal census for showed 35-year old Margaret, 15-year-old Kate, both born in Ireland, and Mary (8), Margaret (6) and John (4), all born in Iowa. 1908 map showing the Chicago and Northwestern route through Moingona, the southernmost community on the map.

The railroad crossed the Des Moines River between Moingona and Honey Creek. (Red dots on the map are coal mines.) On the afternoon of July 6, 1881, heavy thunderstorms caused a of Honey Creek, washing out timbers that supported the railroad.

A pusher sent from Moingona to check track conditions crossed the bridge, but plunged into Honey Creek at about 11 p.m., with a crew of four: Ed Wood, George Olmstead, Adam Agar and Patrick Donahue. Shelley heard the crash, and knew an eastbound passenger train was due in Moingona about midnight, stopping shortly before heading east over the Des Moines River and then Honey Creek.

She found the surviving crew members and shouted that she would get help, then started to cross the damaged span of the Honey Creek bridge followed by the Des Moines River bridge. Although she'd started with a lantern, it had failed, and she crawled the span on hands and knees with only lightning for illumination. Once across, she ran a half-mile to the Moingona depot to sound the alarm, then led a party back to rescue two of the engine crew survivors.

Wood, perched in a tree, grasped a rope thrown to him, and came ashore hand-over-hand. Agar couldn't be reached until the flood waters began to recede. Donahue's corpse was eventually found in a corn field a quarter mile downstream from the bridge, and Olmstead, the fireman, was never found.

The passenger train was stopped at, with 200 aboard. The aftermath The passengers who had been saved took up a collection for her.

The children of gave her a medal, and the state of gave her another one, crafted by, and $200. The C&NW gave her $100, a half barrel of flour, half a load of coal and a life-time pass. Lego Ninja Pc Game Free Download. The Order of Railway Conductors gave her a gold watch and chain.

News of her bravery spread nationwide; poems and songs were composed honoring her. The railroad built a new steel bridge in 1900, and named it after her. It was the first and, until the in was opened in 1976, the only bridge in the United States named for a woman. The bridge was rebuilt by the Union Pacific Railroad from 2006 thru 2009. The new structure can accommodate heavy trains, features two tracks and can handle two trains simultaneously at a speed of 70 mph. It was opened in October 1, 2009 as the new Kate Shelley Bridge, one of North Americas tallest double-track rail bridges., a reformer and temperance leader, wrote president Isabella W.