Kate Shelly

SHELLY

Posted By: Sharyl Ferrall (email)
Date: 1/23/2004 at 15:10:06

Iowa Heroine is Dead.
Boone, Ia., Jan. 29 -- Kate Shelly, Iowa's heroine, is dead here, after a lingering illness at her home near the scene of her heroic act in 1881. During a violent storm thirty years ago Miss Shelley, who was station agent at Moingona, crossed the bridge over the Des Moines river on her hands and knees at midnight to flag a Chicago & Northwestern train and save it from plunging into Honey creek, over which the bridge had been washed away. A year engine with an engineer and two firemen went through the Honey creek bridge which was only a short distance from the Moingona bridge, and Miss Shelley realized she must act quickly in order to save the passenger train from disaster. She stopped the train with her lantern only a few feet from the broken bridge. Through rewards of the Northwestern company, the Iowa legislature, newspaper funds and a Kate Shelly fund sent from all parts of the country, Miss Shelly was settled in comfortable financial circumstances, but with modest industry she remained for many years an agent for the company and Moingona, near her home and the place where she risked her life for her fellow-men.

source:
Alaska Citizen, Fairbanks, Alaska; March 4, 1912

Offsite link was included with post, but is no longer valid ( www irishmidlandsancestry com/content/offaly/people/shelley_kate htm Photos and more about Kate Shelly)