About
1925 Joel Jr. was sitting on the front steps of the restaurant (Figure 1, #1) in
Reger. This small restaurant was operated Wallace and Alpha
Lovell.
About that time the local farmers were herding about two dozen
cattle down Main street (#3) from the north toward the stockyard (#4) directly
across from the restaurant. When they had most of the cattle
in the stockyard, the northbound Quincy, Omaha and Kansas City Railroad train blew its whistle as it
approached the Reger railroad depot (#5).
Joel is the young man on the left in his knickers and great stockings.
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Figure 1
1897 Map of Reger, Sullivan Co, Missouri
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The sudden noise scared the
remaining cows in the road outside the stockyard. Sadly, they
bolted south rather than north and ran toward the railroad tracks. At
least one bull ran directly into the driver wheels of the still moving
engine similar to the one show in Figure 2. Needless to say, the
poor beast was killed instantly but the impact and remaining
interaction with the carcass pushed the locomotive off the tracks and
eventually into a southside farmer's field (#6) down the tracks from
the station about 100 yards. The locomotive, its coal tender and a few
freight cars ended up in the dirt down the embankment on their sides.
Fortunately, before the engine fell over, the engineer and fireman
jumped free of the impending rollover.
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Figure 2
This is a locomotive similar to the one involved in the crash at Reger.
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