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Introduction
The members of the Wham families have had many occupations over the years: farmer, school teacher, lawyer, professional football player, oil field worker, military, prison warden, law enforcement, doctor, railroad engineer, and no doubt many others. Thanks to Suzanne Morrow Kirklin (granddaughter of Ralph Wham 1909 -1989) who sent me this old article in the Joplin Globe describing the 1946 train accident that killed Leslie Elmer Wham, son of Steuben Dekalb Wham which follows. This jogged my memory and sent me to my files to find a more pleasant article on John W. Wham, train engineer, to get his 50 year gold pass which also follows.
Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO Sunday March 17, 1946
3 BURN TO DEATH IN CROSSING CRASH
Engineer and two others killed when train and truck collide
Bristow, Okla. March 16
Three men burned to death and a fourth man was in a hospital injured tonight as a result of a railroad crossing crash that halved a trailer tank and almost instantly sent gallons of gasoline up in flames. The dead were L E Wham, Oklahoma City, train engineer; Elbert A Coulter, 24, Oklahoma City truck driver; and Jack Reilly, 43, Oklahoma City relief driver. FIREMAN IN HOSPITAL. Guy Dennis, Oklahoma City, fireman on the train, was in a hospital but had a chance to recover physicians said. The collision, which sent fire and smoke billowing 200 feet into the air, occurred at the north edge of the city where a road from the Wilcox refinery crosses Frisco railroad tracks. The engine, mail and baggage cars of the second section of the Frisco Meteor passenger train were damaged, railroad officials said, when it and the freshly loaded truck came together. None of the passengers were hurt. Both train and truck were en route to Oklahoma City. The two men in the truck died almost at once. Wham, the engineer, died later in a hospital.
Page 2 of Emporia Gazette, Emporia, Kansas, March 16, 1946
Two Die in Train Truck Collision
Bristow March 16
At least two persons and possibly four were reported killed when a loaded gasoline transport truck and a Frisco passenger train collided at the edge of Bristow early today Two men in the truck were burned to death when the locomotive burst into flames Police Chief ET Gray said. Neither had been identified The engineer and fireman also were reported to have been badly burned but reports of their death could not be confirmed immediately. Frisco officials named the train men as L E Wham, engineer, and Guy Dennis, fireman, both of Oklahoma City. No passengers were injured, rail officials said. Baggage and mail cars were damaged but the train was not derailed. Gray said the truck pulled out from the refinery and collided with the train at a nearby crossing. The train was the Frisco No 5 passenger train known as the "Twin Meteor” en route from Tulsa to Oklahoma City.
Illinois Central News
John Wham to get 50 year Gold Pass.
One wouldn't think a vice-president of the United States would envy any man his job---unless it might possibly be the president---but in his earlier years vice-president Nixon had an ardent desire to be an engineer, according to an autograph on a photograph of himself and engineer John Wham.
Across the picture he wrote “to John W. Wham who realized the ambition I had as a boy! With the heartiest of best wishes. Richard Nixon”. The photograph was made just two weeks prior to the last presidential election, when Nixon spoke for a few minutes in Centralia from the rear of a special train. John was the engineer on that train from Carbondale to Centralia. After Nixon spoke, he and John had a chat in the car at which time the photo was taken. Nixon had the one he autographed enlarged until it is about two feet square. It now hangs on the wall in John's home. John is, always has been, and even if he lives to be older than Methusaleh, always will be a staunch republican. If his house were afire and he only had time to grab one possession, we will give anyone odds of ten to one that it would be this precious picture. JOHN HAS BEEN around the railroad long enough to earn a fifty year gold pass, which is to be presented to him at a luncheon in Chicago May 31 by Wayne A. Johnston, president of the Illinois Central.
Among other political specials he remembers handling during his long railroad career was a trainload of potential dynamite. On a freight train if there are any cars loaded with explosives the engineer and conductor are notified as to their number and their location in the train for measures of safety. Apparently the railroad officials never realized the dangers inherent in this train, for no “danger” or “explosives” placards were hung on the side of the coaches; but on the locomotive as engineer was John Wham, a radical republican, and traveling engineer Archie Raborn, usually a good nature Irishman, but when it came to politics a hot-headed Dixiecrat; while back on the train were twelve coach loads of rabid howling democrats. Fortunately none of them happened over to the engine, to create a spark that might have set off an explosion heard around the world.
ON ANOTHER OCCASION early in his railroad career John was the fireman on a special train rushing a carload of scenery back here for a musical comedy at the Pittenger Grand. Through an oversight on someone's part, the car had been allowed to pass through Centralia and on down to Cairo before it was discovered that it's destination was Centralia. It was getting uncomfortably close to show time, with what promised to be a well filled opera house, when the car was located. Engineer Bill Hays with John as his fireman was given an engine, the carload of scenery and a rider coach for the crew, and ordered to take the bridle off his iron horses and get here as quick as he could. John doesn't remember how quickly they covered the division but they broke all speed records that had ever been made up to that time and for years afterwords. Slowing down over the Main street crossing at Carbondale, they picked up trainmaster Frank Hatch on the engine. Sailing down through Richview Hollow, with the locomotive rocking and rolling like a sail ship in a typhoon and threatening to leave the rails, trainmaster Hatch said rather emphatically “ Well if I was off this engine---I'll tell you one thing---I wouldn't get on it again. I'll sure be glad when we get to Centralia---if we ever make it.” They did make it despite the trainmaster's gloomy forebodings and the show went on with very little delay before the first curtain.
JOHN WAS BORN on a farm eighteen miles east of Centralia. In his teen-age days he used to go north and shuck corn as did hundreds of other men from various places in southern Illinois. John said his first few days in the corn fields were financially depressing since he was paid by the bushel; but after he got the hang of it he could keep up with any of the other corn huskers. He has shucked as high as 120 bushels a day, which is a good days work in any man's corn field.
UNLIKE MOST FIREMEN, when John went to work for the Illinois Central at Centralia October 18th 1906, he didn't have any desire to be an engineer; he just wanted to be a fireman. At night he used to watch with fascinated eyes the passing trains as the firemen threw open the fire doors for another charge of coal, with the glowing fire box stabbing the high heavens obliquely with a big broad band of light, and he thought he would be delighted to do the same job the rest of his life. He enjoyed firing an engine just as much as he thought he would, but when it came time for promotion he had to accept it with the rest of his class. He was promoted to engineer in June 1912. Thereafter for a number of years, he worked alternately as fireman and engineer. He has worked practically all over the St. Louis Division. For some time he worked between St. Louis and Cairo on freight and passenger runs. Since 1945 he has been a passenger engineer between Centralia and Cairo.
JOHN AND MISS LOTTIE Bula of Luka were married November 27th 1907. They have five children; Rosemary, whose husband Philip Dace is an electrical engineer for an industrial concern in Chicago, while Mrs. dace is an industrial nurse for the American Can Co.; Valdean, who is a motorcycle policeman in Washington D.C.;Robert M. Wham, attorney at Springfield with the Illinois National Casualty Co.; Anna Margaret of Griffith, Ind., whose husband Theodore B. Tom is a research chemist for Standard Oil Co.; and Martha whose husband Earl Koelling is head of the Employment Bureau here. They also have nine grandchildren. Mrs. Wham's father's brother, George Bula is a train dispatcher at Indianapolis. Her brother, E.L. Bula is a telegraph operator for the Southern Pacific at Deming, New Mexico. The Wham's son-in-law, Philip Dace, is the son of the late John Dace ticket agent at the passenger station here for so many years.
JOHN WAS ON the Marion County board of supervisors for eighteen years. He is a member of the Masonic, the 100F,the Moose, the Engineer's and Firemen's Lodges. Mrs. Wham is a member of the Ladies Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineer's. She is a member of the Methodist Church, while John belongs to the Baptist. They have owned several homes in Centralia. Their present location is at 318 North Elm which they purchase in 1945. Gardening and politics are John's chief hobbies and he does both on a big scale. Sometimes he has gardens both here and in Cairo, and most of what he raises is distributed among his neighbors and friends.
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