Gasconade River Bridge Wreck
It was with great interest that I read your outstanding article about the Gasconade River Bridge Wreck outside St. Louis, MO in 1855. According to information I've obtained, my great grandfather, Franz Johann Georg Specht (Francis G. Specht), M.D., of St. Louis was a survivor of that train wreck. He was with the German newspaper, Anzeiger des Westens, prior to his graduation from Washington University School of Medicine (Class of 1858), so I don't know why he would have been selected to ride that inaugural train at the tender age of 23! I would be most interested to obtain any info you have regarding a list of passengers, list of injured and dead from the wreck, or any references you could cite where I might obtain this information. It would be nice to validate the info regarding my ancestor.
I am in the process of obtaining a copy of Dr. Specht's obit from an English-written newspaper in St. Louis where it was mentioned that he was a survivor of the Gasconade Train Disaster of 1855 ...
Dot (Wilson) Duncan
Tampa, Florida
Dorothy Wilson Duncan
d/o Dorothy Gibson Dawson and Gerald Franklin Wilson
d/o James Gibson Dawson and Doretta Caroline Specht
d/o Franz Johann Georg Specht and Doretta Caroline (Rosenthal) Specht
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 10:01 AM
4 Comments:
From: "Jim Cawood" jpc37us@yahoo.com
Where are there available detailed reports on the Gasconade bridge wreck? Is there a list of passengers/victims? I'm trying to track down a great grandfather that may have died in the wreck.
—Jim Cawood
From: "Bob" aubucb1@fidnet.com
At the time I wrote the article, I had access to info from the two references listed at the end of the article. You might check with the Missouri Historical Society to see if they have any more detailed information.
—Bob
I read your article regarding the Gasconade River Bridge. My husband & I live ... in a log home. We decided to put an addition on our log home and discovered a resource that ... 20 years ago ... was asked to remove the wooden pilings from the old bridge from the river & dispose of them. He took the timber to his land and will now be selling some of it to us to be used in our new addition. It will be a fun story to tell our friends that this timber was part of this historical moment in history.
Thought you might enjoy knowing that the bridge piling will be used yet again. ...
From: "Candy" fgsltwjn316@bigpond.com
Subject: Gasconade River Bridge Wreck
Thank you for the story of the two horrific train disasters. Please tell me, is there a list of those who were killed in the original accident? I'm trying to sort out a mystery in my family tree. TIA.
—Candy, NSW Australia
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