It was dark and stormy in the early morning hours of Sunday, October 23, 1887 as Wabash westbound train Number 5 pulled out of Moberly, Missouri at 2:39 AM. It was running late as it departed with mail, coaches, and Pullman’s for Kansas City, nine cars total. In the lead was engine 1299, an American wheel arrangement, with 62 inch drivers. Although the engine was referred to as a “small Healey” it was capable of speeds over 50 MPH on good track, and had been rebuilt not long before. At the throttle was engineer John Mathias, an experienced man, not knowing this would be his last run

They continued to lose time as they worked their way across Missouri. The dispatcher had records showing them twenty minutes late at Brunswick, 23 minutes late at Carrollton, and 25 minutes late at Lexington Junction.

The storm had moved on, and the rain had stopped as they entered the city limits of Missouri City just before 7:00 AM.  The fireman was in the process of oiling valves as they approached a small bridge over a stream running from right to left into the Missouri River.  The engineer saw the tracks ahead were out of line and applied the air brakes and the steam brake on the engine.  The fireman knew there must be a problem, and prepared to jump, but looked back into the cab in time to see engineer Mathias stand up.  The fireman thought Mathias was attempting to throw the engine in reverse.  The fireman jumped to safety and the engine plunged into the chasm with the collapsing bridge.  The mail car followed, and laid over the engine, then the express car, with one end of it still on the embankment.  Mathias was pulled from the wreckage by his co-workers with a mashed shoulder and a badly cut scalp.  He would die a few minutes later.

The coroner was called and he hurried to Missouri City. But when he arrived he found that the body had been moved to Liberty.  Having been sent on a wild goose chase, his opinion expressed at the coroner’s inquest may have been biased.  He stated that the accidental death had been caused by the railroad’s faulty bridge.

John’s wife, Martha Mathias, hired a Moberly lawyer and brought suit against the railroad for $5000.  It was filed in Clay County February 2, 1888.  She contended the bridge had been negligently designed and built, and that it had not been well maintained.  She also contended that according to railroad rules, after a heavy rain the Section Foreman or one of his men should have inspected the bridge before any trains were allowed to pass over them.  Obviously no such inspection had been made.

Depositions were taken from witnesses and the case came before the court in the June 1888 session.  A court recorder captured the statements made before the judge and jury.

The Wabash was not about to pay $5000 without putting up a fight.  Was the rain exceptionally heavy, exceptional enough to require an inspection?  Was the overnight rain only locally heavy, and did the Section Foreman know to make an inspection?  Was the bridge really faulty, or just overcome by nature?  Then a big can of worms was opened, how fast were they going?  It seems that the city of Missouri City had a 6 MPH speed limit.  If the engineer had been traveling at that speed, he should have been able to stop the train in 200 – 300 feet from where he could have first seen the bridge with the misaligned tracks.  They contended, and the fireman testified, that the train was running probably close to 25 MPH.  So, if the engineer was speeding, he had caused the accident himself.

The widow’s lawyers brought in expert witnesses, former engineers, who stated that according to the time table the railroad had not allowed extra time for their trains to observe the slow speed limit and had thus required their employees to ignore it.  Officials argued that being on time at the next station was not as important and that the 7 or so minutes lost at Missouri City could easily be made up before the next major point in the schedule.  They admitted that there was a fine when the mail was late arriving at Kansas City, but did not know how late the train had to be before the fine was levied or how much the fines were.

Exhibits A and B were the official employee timetables issued by the railroad.  One was taken from the bulletin board from the engineers’ and conductors’ register room in Moberly.  It shows, not only the times the trains were to arrive and depart each point, but also the rules of operation, including maintaining and inspection of bridges.

The jury was given their instructions about how to decide the major questions.  Were the bridge inspection and maintenance negligently faulty?  If only the widow had shown proof that it was.  Was the engineer obeying the town speed limit?  Based on testimony given the jury must decide.

The verdict was that the case against the Wabash was dismissed at the plaintiff’s cost of $170.65.

Was justice served or did the lawyers for the railroad just do a better job of presenting their case?  Several issues remained uncertain, but the burden of proof was on the plaintiff.  More than a century later it is impossible to second-guess the jury’s conclusion.