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296 Ballads and Songs of Michigan
121 THE SENO WRECK
For a discussion of the wreck on the Chesapeake and Ohio in 1890 and for texts see Cox, pp. 221-230. The Michigan text howe\er, is entirely different from the versions in Cox except for the similarity of rhythm and a few scattered expressions. For a version which is very similar to the Michigan form see Combs, pp. 200-303.
The present version is from the manuscript of Mrs. Russell Wood, Kalkaska, who had obtained the song from the singing of Mr. Jim Richardson, a lumberman, near Kalkaska.
1 It was on a New Year's morning in nineteen hundred thirteen, Engine eight hundred and twenty went down in fire and steam. It was on this sad morning about eleven o'clock
When the Seno bridge at Wyandotte began to tremble and rock.
2 When the engine reached Wyandotte, the engineer was there; Ed Webbers was his name in full; he had dark and wavy hair. He pulled his engine to the bridge; the flag man he was there Holding out the red flag crying, "Cross here, i£ you dare!"
3 Lewis Meadows was the bridge man, a true and abiding man, Stood there giving orders and signals with his hand. Conductor Lane went across the bridge to stop on the other side; He did not know that Webbers was taking his last ride.
4 Brakeman Williams gave the signal; the engine started on,
And when they reached the trestle they knew that Webbers was
gone. The bridge rocked for a moment and then went thundering down. You could hear the engine crash below with a sad and mournful
sound.
5 There were thirteen men upon that bridge when it went thunder-
ing down; Six of them were rescued, and seven o£ them were drowned. Were these men religious? This I do not know, But when the Saviour calls us, we'll surely have to go.
6 Ed Webbers was the engineer, a true and abiding man, Went down with his engine, the throttle in his hand. |
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