DESCRIPTION:
Casey Jones (The Brave Engineer)
Words by T. Lawrence Seibert, music by Eddie Newton
Performed by Irving and Jack Kaufman
Recorded April 1919
Columbia A2809

Perhaps no other folk hero symbolizes Americans' love of railroads more vividly than John Luther "Casey" Jones, engineer on the Illinois Central's famous Cannonball Express. On April 30, 1900, near Vaughan, Mississippi, the speeding Cannonball came suddenly upon a stationary freight train. Ordering his fireman to jump, Jones held the brake with all his strength. He died in the collision but his action saved the lives of many of the passengers. An early folk version of the song is attributed to Wallace Saunders, a railroad worker who knew Casey Jones, but it was never copyrighted. The music and words evolved over the years but the first successful commercial version was published in 1909 by the vaudevillian songwriters, T. Lawrence Seibert and Eddie Newton titled: "Casey Jones - The Brave Engineer" and is sung by Irving and Jack Kaufman in this presentation.