Two railroad men: One killed; one survives to tell the story

The Pioneer Fast Mail Locomotive, “Missouri,” as published in the Macon Republican newspaper July 4, 1903. The stack and firebox were later altered in order to burn coal instead of wood. The photograph from which the engraving was made was obtained through the courtesy of Mr. Kenyon, foreman of the railway paint shop at Hannibal. newspapers.com

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

The neighborhood of Fourth and Adams, in South Hannibal, was still sparsely populated in 1859, when Stephen Corydon Cutler and his young family lived there during pre-Civil War years.

Cutler moved from his home state of Maine in the late 1850s in order to go to work for the fledgling Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad - the first direct east-west rail connection across Missouri, completed in 1859.

Born July 8, 1826, by the time S.C. Cutler was working as a conductor out of Hannibal, he was 33 years old. He and his wife, Emily Taintor Cutler, were parents of two young children, Ella A., born in 1850, and Henry Otis, born in 1852. 

Early on he earned a reputation as an “ever genial and polite conductor.” On Nov. 13, 1860, A.K. Miller, editor of Hannibal’s “Daily Messenger,” penned: “We had frequently heard Mr. C. highly extolled for his many good qualities, and as a universal favorite with the traveling public.”

Mr. Miller wasn’t the only editor to extend praise for S.C. Cutler’s fine work.

On. Dec. 29, 1860, the Hannibal Daily Messenger reprinted a complimentary news item on Cutler’s behalf, previously published in the Chillicothe Chronicle. 

“We found Mr. Cutler, the Conductor of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, the same obliging gentleman as ever. He treats everybody with becoming respect. He has many hard cases to deal with - such as those who represent themselves as poor and in distress, and unable to pay their passage. He never treats any such rudely. May he live a thousand years and his shadow never grow less.”

But the Chillicothe Chronicle’s wishes for S.C. Cutler’s long life failed to come to fruition.

Fate intervenes

On Tuesday night, Sept. 3, 1861, just nine months after the Chillicothe editor’s published praise, S.C. Cutler succumbed to injuries received in one of the most horrific rail catastrophes in Missouri’s history.

It would later be termed the Platt River Disaster. Rebels were blamed for the insurrection.

There were at least two Hannibal railroaders aboard the west-bound train: S.C. Cutler, who died of his injuries, and Abram Mirick Hagar, baggage-master on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, who survived and was able to summon help from citizens and physicians in nearby St. Joseph. He also served as spokesman for news accounts, which were distributed by wire around the globe.

Quoting Hagar, the Daily Missouri Republican of St. Louis reported in its Sept. 6, 1861 edition: “The train consisted of the locomotive and tender, one freight car loaded with the California mail, a baggage car containing a large quantity of express matter baggage, and way-mail and two passenger coaches. There were from 85 to 100 persons on board - many of them being ladies and children.”

Unbeknownst to the passengers and crew, “the torch of the incendiary had been applied underneath the bridge, burning the timbers below the track. After the fire had progressed a certain degree, or sufficiently to weaken the bridge, so that it could sustain little more than its own weight, the flames had been extinguished, thus making the work a mere shell and a trap of death.”

The bridge had a 100-foot span, and was positioned about 35 feet above the river.

The engine fell, turning completely over and landing on its side, half burying itself in the quicksand. “The freight car followed, thundering upon the up-turned wheels of the engine. Then came the baggage car, which dropped with crushing weight upon the freight car and flattening the latter completely out, and tearing it to splinters.

“Rapidly the two passenger coaches rushed into the chasm, descending at an inclination of about forty-five degrees, amidst the shattering of the cars and the piteous shrieks of the terrified passengers.”

At midnight, A.M. Hagar left the wreck to go to St. Joseph to solicit help. Walking five miles, he then found a hand car on which he traveled the rest of the way.

At 3:15 a.m., a locomotive pulling three flat cars and a passenger coach arrived at the scene, with blankets, sheets and first aid supplies.

Among those killed:

Lieut. Shaw, of the First (or Eighth_ Kansas regiment;

Frank Clark, engineer;

S.C. Cutler, conductor;

Martin Field, United States Route Agent;

Charles Moore, fireman; and

J. Fox, brakeman.

Also listed as killed:

Barclay Coppie, of the John Brown raid notoriety, together with five or six men with him, who were en route to join Montgomery’s Kansas regiment.

Among the wounded:

Mr. Launsberry

Sidney Clark

The Macomb Journal reported on Sept. 20, 1861, that passengers, mail and troops would be transferred across the Platt River by other conveyances until the bridge could be repaired.

On Sept. 14, 1861, an additional detail regarding S.C. Cutler’s last moments was published in the Quincy Whig and Republican. 

When A.M. (Abe) Hagar reached Mr. Cutler, after the fatal plunge, “he was still sensible, although the whole of one side of his head was badly crushed. The last words he spoke were to an injured passenger, an officer in Col. Jennison’s command.

“He held out his watch and said, ‘Give this to my wife.’ The man was too much injured to reach the watch, and it dropped from his hand into the river, when he expired.”

Ironically, S.C. Cutler had recently accepted a position with a railroad back east, and this was to have been his last run for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad.

The Hannibal Messenger published a dramatic account of the events surrounding the Platt Bridge Disaster. That story was reprinted in the Salem Weekly Advocate in its Oct. 3, 1861, edition.

“Further developments of the Platte Bridge Disaster. The crime still more heinous. We are informed an old citizen of this city (Hannibal), a mechanic, who was in St. Joseph at the time of the Platte Bridge disaster, and who was on the ground the next day, that he was informed by those on the train that there were some sixty or seventy men standing on the opposite bank of the Platte River and witnessed the train go down, and when the wail arose from the wounded they broke and run, but afterwards returned and robbed the dead of their revolvers, watches and other valuables. Hannibal Messenger, 12th.”

The Alton Telegraph noted in its Sept. 27, 1861 edition, that ten or twelve rebel prisoners were brought to Quincy, Ill., from St. Joesph, and that two or three of them were known to have been concerned in the burning of the Platt River Bridge.

Early engines carried

names, not numbers

Isaac N. Wilber, who was master mechanic of the Burlington shops at Hannibal in July 1903, told the Macon Republican for its July 4, 1903 edition, that In 1857, there were 13 engines - wood burners with 16-inch cylinders. They were named:

Missouri,

Albany,

R.M. Stewart,

Hannibal,

St. Joseph,

Gov. Polk,

Marion,

Shelby,

Macon,

Linn,

Livingston,

Caldwell, and

Buchanan.

Note: Archie Hayden of Hannibal collaborated with the author on this story. He believes that the engine which was wrecked in the 1861 Platt River Disaster was named the “Shelby.” He has information that the engine was removed from the sand at the bottom of the Platt River on Sept. 30, 1861.

This 1860 map represents the route that the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad took across Missouri. Wikipedia

Mary Lou Montgomery retired as editor of the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post in 2014. She researches and writes narrative-style stories about the people who served as building blocks for this region’s foundation. Books available on Amazon.com by this author include but are not limited to: "The Notorious Madam Shaw," "Pioneers in Medicine from Northeast Missouri," "The Historic Murphy House, Hannibal, Mo., Circa 1870,” “Hannibal’s ‘West End,’ and the newest book, “Oakwood: West of Hannibal.” Montgomery can be reached at Montgomery.editor@yahoo.com Her collective works can be found at www.maryloumontgomery.com