HOME | BOOSTER | CEMETERIES | EDUCATION | GHOST TOWNS | HEADSTONE
MINOTTO | PICTURES | ROADS | JACK SWILLING | TEN DAY TRAMPS
American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project
Internet Presentation
Version 030611
Rev. 111819
FRANCONIA CEMETERY AND GRAVES
MOHAVE COUNTY, ARIZONA
By Kathy Block
APCRP Historian
FRANCONIA, Arizona is a derelict
railroad siding stop, formerly the site of a section house for the Santa Fe
Railroad. It was named by F.W. Smith, a railroad general superintendent, born
1857 in California, for his son Frank. In the 1900 Census, three people were
stationed there. J.R. Carroll was the section foreman with two Japanese RR
Laborers, Inni and Ymoanoto
(no first names). The data indicated that Carroll, Age 26, was born in England
in Dec.1873, had been in the U.S.A. for 13 years, and was nationalized.
The laborers, labeled “Jp N”, were both born in Japan. Inni,
age 25, was born in 1875, and Ymoanoto, age 19, was
born in 1881. Inni had been unemployed for nine
months. All could read and write and speak English, and all were single. They
may have lived in small houses at Franconia. There are ruins of concrete pads
with remnants of foundations and walls to the north of the railroad tracks, and
piles of rusting cans, broken glass, and other debris scattered throughout the
area. Some workers lived in railroad cars that could be hauled from section to
section. These were parked on unused sidings.
A note from Kay Ellermann,
librarian at the Mohave Museum of History and Arts, indicated that: “As far as
I can tell, there was only a section house at Franconia. We have a letter on
file stating that a lady's father was born at Franconia on Oct. 3, 1908. The
Grandfather was a section foreman for the railroad. They could have had a few
houses for workers there also, but I can't find any information to verify it.”
Later Kay wrote that “They probably lived in a section house made from a
railroad car. Most times they went from job to job that way.” She found that
the RR at Franconia had two small wooden houses, valued at $100 each in May,
1887.
Two fascinating legal documents from
the “Solicitor” for the Atlantic and Pacific Railway Company in Albuquerque,
N.M. To the Mohave County Assessor, dated
May 28, 1887, challenge the legality of the assessment of “2 small wooden
houses” at Franconia plus other buildings at Kingman, Yucca, Powell, and East
Bridge for a total of $18,615.38 value.” The grounds for dispute was that “the
improvements and buildings placed thereon for the purpose of operating and
maintaining said road, are, by Act of Congress, exempt from taxation within the
county of Mohave.”
The railroads also built section houses by the
railroad tracks for section crews. They were typically two-room buildings. The
railroad companies divided the tracks into sections between 10 and 30 miles
long and assigned a foreman and crew to tend each section. These workers used
the section houses, which were often near a water tank or well. The ruins at
Franconia had drain holes in the concrete, probably for the kitchen area. They
probably had clap board siding. In 1935
section houses down by the tracks were given away for the hauling from the
site. .
Typical section house
Section
House near Magnolia Plantation, Louisiana.
Wikipedia photo.
Present day ruins of
platform where the section house may have stood.
Workers on the railroad were often
killed by accidents and poor safety practices. Death Certificates for the early
1900s reflected deaths from falling off trains, being caught between cars,
getting run over. No Death Certificate could be found for this man in this news
report, from the June 20, 1903 Mohave
County Miner, Kingman, Arizona: “George Payne, a Santa Fe engineer, was
crushed beneath his engine last Saturday evening while oiling up. The engine
was standing on a side track at Franconia when from some cause it moved ahead
and the unfortunate man tried to get out between the drivers and was caught and
crushed. He leaves a wife and two children.” Possibly the death was
recorded in Needles, CA. This death was two years after a major disaster at
Franconia.
Map
showing RR Sections.
A terrible train wreck was at
precisely 5:12AM on November 20, 1901, about two miles west of Franconia. Santa
Fe Flyers, No.
3 westbound and No.4 eastbound collided head-on on a sharp curve
west of Franconia, described in news accounts as “a small flag station 35 miles
SW of Kingman.” There was only a single railroad track at this time. They could
not have seen each other until they were within a few hundred feet of each
other. The collision immediately killed every fireman on the two trains and
many other people and destroyed three engines, the dining cars (one on each
train), one Pullman, and two composite cars. The eastbound train was pulled by
two oil burning locomotives and the second engine exploded, throwing the
burning oil into the wreck and setting the cars on fire! Details of the accident did not fully emerge
until 1906, when the lawsuit “Santa Fe Pacific R. Co. V Holmes, 202 U.S. 438
(1906) was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 18, 19, 1906. Both the full text of the case and the case
preview are available on the Internet on Open. Jurist Blog. Briefly, the defendant, one of the engineers
who was severely injured, sued for, and won $9,000 on the grounds that the
collision was caused by the negligence “of a fellow servant”, of “the master,”
- the RR company.
The train dispatcher, representative
of the company to “promulgate orders for the running of trains, and not a fellow
servant of the engineer,” had “disobeyed the orders, rules, and regulations of
the company.” The dispatcher failed to take into account “what a prudent man
would have taken into account and done.” The colliding trains were regular
passenger trains. The eastbound passenger train
failed to receive vital information that the westbound train was running
six minutes late from Yucca but then it passed
Franconia SIX MINUTES AHEAD OF TIME. The operator of the westbound train had
approached Franconia station for orders and received, by semaphore signal, that
there were “no orders from the train dispatcher.” So, he didn't stop at
Franconia.
Meanwhile, the eastbound train from Needles
would have reached and been placed on the siding at Franconia two or three
minutes before the westbound train came thru. Due to the six minute error, they
collided one and a half miles west of Franconia. The east bound train was going
40 to 50 miles per hour and the westbound train was running 60 to 70 miles per
hour!
What a fatal difference six minutes
made.
There were poignant descriptions of
the deaths in the Mohave county Miner.
J.B. WILLIAMS,
engineer of the west bound train jumped and was severely injured.
L.HOLMES
(who later won the lawsuit), jumped, and was buried in the oil from the
overturned tank and was so weak it was “only by the greatest effort or will
that he managed to keep his head above the oil.” The oil was burning all around
him, and had he not been dragged out in time, he would have burned to death!
P. M. McELLIGOTT, engineer of the first
east bound engine, was instantly killed in jumping.
J.L. MORSE,
conductor, was on the engine with him and was badly injured by jumping.
F. GOLDSCHMIDT,
fireman, was instantly killed.
H.E. BRAUNHARDT,
baggage master, was instantly killed.
W.I. CASE
could not initially be found. Later, his charred remains were identified by the
general outline of the features.
W.H. ARMITAGE,
fireman, was later identified by scraps of clothing in which was his watch and
keys. His body was found hanging in the firebox of his engine, completely
incinerated.
SAM BROWN,
waiter, was never found.
ROBERT HIGGINS,
conductor of the west bound train, was in the baggage car at the time of the
wreck. He was surrounded by flames and gave himself up as lost, but “the
thoughts of the good wife and babies at home gave him wonderful strength and he
tore himself loose and was soon placed on the train under the care of the
doctors. He was badly crushed and died in Los Angeles.”
WALTER DAVERAGE,
a colored waiter, “was so badly burned that he died while being taken aboard
the relief train.
The charred bodies of several “tramps”
were found later in the wreckage. Two were reported to have boarded the train
just before the wreck and three others at Needles.
No Death Certificates were found for
any of the victims, suggesting they were recorded in California or elsewhere.
The bodies were taken by train to Needles after the wreck.
R.M. Bryant, who was working a bridge gang
near the scene of the disaster, was awakened by the crash and ran with his men
to the scene and saved lives and property. A relief train from Kingman with Dr.
Ealy aboard was quickly sent. The wounded and dead
were placed in one of the Pullmans and met at Mullen by relief train from
Needles carrying doctors and nurses. Four bodies were taken to Needles. Another casualty was a coffin carrying the
body of a young woman from San Francisco to Pittsburg. It was entirely consumed
by the fire. Only three passengers were injured and 14 employees and trainmen
were also hurt. All the mail and baggage in both trains was destroyed.
The news article concluded: “In the
history of the Santa Fe road no worse wreck than this has ever occurred, and we
hope it will be long before we have another to report.” Unfortunately, there
was another train wreck near Franconia in 1945!
The
pile of wreckage from the train wreck west of Franconia.
Photo courtesy Mohave Museum of History
and Arts.
On a blog (Trainorders.com) was this
statement: “While visiting my grandfather
for the holidays, he told me a story about him being involved in a train wreck
somewhere east of Needles, Ca. . . somewhere in the
Arizona desert. The train he was on was pulling out from a siding when another
train came along from the rear and smashed into one of the cars. He was then
enlisted to help pull out survivors and pick up body parts that were lying
about.” Replies from readers led to a government site that yielded a full
report of this incident, plus a quote from a news report courtesy of the Mohave
Museum of History and Arts.
“Score
Hurt in Train Wreck at Franconia: Local Doctors Help Administer to Those Injured” read a headline in the Kingman Miner of August 23, 1945. In
this incident, a Santa Fe passenger train crashed into the side of another at
the Franconia siding. The Interstate Commerce Commission report gives some
interesting details. The report addresses “Accident at Franconia, Ariz. On August 21, 1945, caused by a train fouling the main track immediately
in front of a following train.”
Briefly, a westbound passenger train,
carrying naval doctors, corpsmen, and nurses had pulled into the siding at
Franconia about 1:32 p.m. It was running one hour and 58 minutes late when it
passed the last open office at Yucca, 12.5 miles east of Franconia. The weather
was clear, no wind. To permit another west-bound mail-express train to pass,
which it did 3 minutes later, the passenger train remained on the siding. Then
it took another 10 minutes to allow a section crew to perform track work on the
siding, after which the section foreman permitted the train to proceed. As it
began to move westward on to the main track, a third westbound train traveling
about 65 miles per hour hit the second train. The crew of this train had no
information that the mail train had been instructed to pass the first train. The
signal given by lights east of the siding was “proceed”. The engine men on
lookout had their view severely restricted by a curve and high embankment
adjacent to the track. When the engine of this third train was about 3,000 feet
east of the siding-switch, the engineer observed that a passenger train was
occupying the siding. He reduced his speed in order to identify the train on
the siding and exchange signals if necessary. By the time he was closer, at
1,600 feet east of the west siding switch, he observed
that the train on the siding was moving westward and that the front portion was
entering the main track. He frantically
moved the brake valve to the emergency “STOP” position, but he collided with
several of the train cars that had entered the main track!
The flagman of the train on the siding
had placed two “torpedoes” (small explosive cartridges placed on a RR track and
detonated by the train wheels as a signal to the crew) on the north rail of the
westward bound main line after the mail train passed, When the train on the
siding started to move westward, he placed a lighted 5-minute fuse on the
westward main track about 4,000 feet east of the west siding switch. When he
saw the third train advancing, he was giving stop signals with a red flag when
the engine of this train was passing him! However, the engine men were positive
afterward that no warning signal was seen or heard prior to the collision. These facts were vigorously disputed,, as the flagmen of the third train and the section foreman
said they saw a burning fuse after the accident. The engineer of the train
pulling out from the siding claims he didn't see a red signal to indicate the
third train was coming or he would have stopped his train.
Typical 1901 2-6-2 engine.
Photo courtesy Mohave Museum of History and Arts.
In the collision, the third car of
this passenger train was derailed to the north and tipped over on its right
side. Two more following cars derailed, The engine of the train that hit the
other was derailed and stopped about 120 feet west of the point of collision at
a 45 degree angle and was badly damaged. The second train had 17 cars and was
traveling about 5 m.p.h. The train that collided was
also a passenger train, with 9 cars, and was going 40 m.p.h.
As a result of the collision, 49
passengers, 5 Pullman employees, and 3 train-service employees were
injured. No deaths resulted. The Kingman
train station was immediately notified and two doctors and three nurses rushed
to the Santa Fe hospital to help care for the injured. Also three American Red
Cross instructors came to the scene of the accident, but weren't needed because
the train carried medical personnel who administered first aid and supervised
loading the injured into a Santa Fe car which took them to Needles. A sheriff
and his deputies took charge of the wreck scene until special agents of the
railroad arrived. A Captain Barnes of the Kingman Army Air Field flew to
Needles to help. All credit was given by the train members and passengers to
the naval men who were riding in the wrecked car and quickly helped passengers
more seriously injured.
According to the passengers on the
train that was struck, they first felt a slight jar and then a heavy impact as
the oncoming engine first sideswiped and derailed a car and then plowed into
and thru the side of the Pullman! The most serious injuries were a broken neck,
a crushed chest, and a severely crushed leg.
One sailor lost a hand, Contusions, lacerations and broken bones were
also reported. When the injured arrived in Needles, ambulance planes from the
Las Vegas air field ferried the most seriously injured to the Las Vegas base. The
naval doctor on the train badly needed morphine. He attracted the attention of
a passing military aircraft by spelling out the word “morphine” with bed sheets
near the train and the morphine was rushed by train from Needles! A sailor who
had been riding in the wrecked Pullman had escaped unharmed. When he was later
climbing out of the ambulance plane, he slipped and struck his head and
“knocked himself cold.”
The investigation ultimately blamed
the accident on train signals at Franconia that didn't provide adequate
protection for movements from siding to main track and that the accident was
caused by a train ”fouling the main track” immediately in front of a following
train. They recommended that the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company
“provide adequate protection for movements from siding to main track.” The
signals were tested and functioned perfectly after the wreck. At that time, in
1945, in a thirty day period proceeding the day of the wreck, an average of
66.8 trains moved daily on the tracks. The maximum authorized speeds were 100
miles per hour for passenger trains hauled by diesel electric engines, 70 to 80
miles per hour for passenger trains trained hauled by steam engines, and 50
miles per hour for freight trains. The number of tracks thru Franconia had been
doubled from one track to two, plus siding, in April of 1923, when the Santa Fe
railroad spent millions of dollars to build double train tracks from Chicago to
Needles.
When we visited Franconia, it seemed
as if a freight train roared by in each direction every ten minutes or so! Many
carried shipping containers and truck trailers- no old-fashioned boxcars.
Two trains passing near
the curve in tracks east of Franconia.
Photo by Ed & Kathy
Block
The “official” Franconia Cemetery lies
just north of the railroad tracks and several concrete slabs that probably once
were foundations for a section house and some outbuilding. The Cemetery is shown on various maps and
appears on several Mohave County cemetery lists. Remains of at least 6 male
graves were scattered in random pattern to the north of and east of the slab.
Also, a bone, possibly human vertebrae, was partly buried just to the east of
the large slab. One grave was marked with a decaying wooden cross possibly made
from RR ties and tipped to its side. Another had a semi-upright decayed wood
marker. None had writing on them. One
sunken burial had pieces of either a wood lining or wood coffin around the top,
possibly this grave had imploded. Some
burials were marked with rings of stones. The entire area was littered with
broken glass, pieces of metal, old cans, and other trash. Another grave had
remnants of a chicken wire fence that may have enclosed it. There was no
“Franconia Cemetery” sign.
Further to the north, towards the
Black Mountains, Ed discovered five little concrete slabs with drain holes and
remnants of foundations and walls. They may have been section crew houses.
|
|
|
Cross
marks male grave near concrete slab, N. side RR. Wooden marker on another
grave.
|
|
|
Remains
of wooden coffin or grave liner on sunken grave. Chicken wire by
grave.
To our surprise, the south side of the
RR tracks had 8 possible male graves near an old hobo camp. There were also two
pet graves. The human graves were between the frontage road along the RR tracks
and an ATV trail below an embankment to the south. Some were randomly placed
near the pet graves and others were facing north towards the RR tracks in sort
of a row with rocks for headstones. None, except the pet graves, had any
indication of names. It is impossible to determine if the original Franconia
cemetery extended on both sides of the tracks or if these graves were later
developed for possible hobo deaths? At one time, several years ago when we came
to this area, the camp was very actively used, with a BBQ, old couch, and crude
table under a large tree. All has been since removed, possibly by the BLM,
which owns most of the land, or the railroad? Only a folding chair by one pet
grave remains.
|
|
|
Pet grave, S. side
RR tracks. Male grave in background Pet grave
|
|
|
Ed Block rests
amid row of rocks marking graves
Random grave near a tree
I researched Death Certificates and
also checked Find-A-Grave. Here is a list of possible burials at Franconia
Cemetery. Only one definitely stated “Franconia” as a burial place. Unfortunately, the other Death Certificates
were the skimpy, mostly blank forms, which had been recopied from county
records in the 1930s. Even though they say “Franconia” for town, they do not positively
state burial there. This area was about
30 railroad miles northeast to Kingman, and about 25 railroad miles southwest
to Needles. A body could have been shipped to one of these towns by train.
Here's some who might be interred in one of the graves we found:
ARNOLD, J.C. No birth date. Died 11-18-1896. Heart Failure “near Franconia.” No burial place.
GOMEZ, Antonio. Born
about 1882. Died 5-11-17, Age about 35. Laborer. Variola, confluent. This
is the only burial whose DC says “Franconia” for place.
LOWRY, Thomas. Born
1865 England. Died 2-5-1898. Age
33. Knife wound inflicted by Wm. Reardon No burial place.
RIYARD, John D. Born 1860 Michigan. Died 11-11-1907. Age 47. Married, white, gunshot. “12 miles S. Franconia.” No burial place.
UNKNOWN.
Died 3-3-1894. Exposure. 3 miles W. Franconia. No burial place.
UNKNOWN.
Died 7-9-1896. Exposure.
Found west of Franconia. No burial place.
UNKNOWN.
Born 1868. Died 5-17-1926. Listed on Find-A-Grave for Franconia. Note on Find-A-Grave: “I
don't understand, they knew when you were born, they knew when you died, but
they didn't know your name. God bless and sleep well.” No DC, no burial place.
More research would be possible at
these unknown graves sites on both sides of the railroad tracks.
At present, the area slightly to the
east of Franconia, on the north side of the railroad tracks, is popular for
metal detecting for meteorites. Also, beautiful white quartz rocks are abundant
amid basaltic volcanic rocks. A large gypsum mine is located further north of
this site.
|
|
|
Chondite
meteorite like those found E. of Franconia. Beautiful quartz rocks found east of Franconia.
In the 1970s, an Arizona Department of
Transportation maintenance site was located north of I-40 at Franconia exit,
but is inactive. A possible threat to the cemetery has been proposed, but
doesn't seem to have been constructed as yet. Franconia Technologies, a
subsidiary Waste Management Inc. acquired in March, 1993,” owns a fully
permitted but as yet undeveloped landfill site, located in Franconia, on the
Santa Fe rail line.” The site has a permitted capacity of 10 million tons, with
room available for expansion. There is no limit on the number of tons received
per day. The site would have “soil regeneration facilities” to remediate
contaminated soil, and waste would be transported to the site by either truck
or rail. However, “construction will not begin at the site until a waste stream
is available. At this time (1993), no waste contracts have been completed.“ Today, in 2011, there's still no activity.
I wish to thank Kay Ellermann, Librarian, Mohave Museum of History and Arts,
for unearthing various photos and research materials; Neal Du Shane for his helpful suggestions and
for making the titles on the Section House sketch; and my husband, Ed Block,
for insightful comments and editing. Any
errors or interpretations of history and facts are entirely the author's.
Directions to Franconia Cemetery: Take
Exit 13 off I-40, which goes east to Kingman, west to Needles. Franconia Road
Exit is 7 miles east of Exit 9 where Highway 95 goes south to Lake Havasu City.
Drive north towards the railroad tracks, about 1 mile. The paved road becomes
dirt. At the RR tracks, turn left on a
well-used ATV track. Go about 1 mile to a point below an embankment. Walk up the bank to an old hobo camp. The graves are
scattered for the “hobo camp cemetery” to the east of a pile of old tires, two
pet graves, and a sign hanging from a tree branch. For the “Franconia Cemetery” the easiest
access is to carefully cross, on foot, the two busy railroad tracks and siding
directly north. Look for the large
concrete slab along the tracks. This is the referent for finding the Franconia
Cemetery. The graves are to the north and east of this concrete slab. Instead
of walking across the railroad tracks, it is possible to drive east (right)
about .5 mile, cross the racks on a steep, gravel road, then go west (left) along the tracks about 1 mile until
you spot the concrete slab by the tracks. This frontage road is rough dirt, not
very suitable for a passenger car.
|
|
|
Cross tracks to N.
by pile of tires and pet grave Sign at
former hobo camp. Pet grave in background.
Map showing location of
Franconia Cemetery and graves.
Detail map of Franconia
Cemetery and graves.
American Pioneer & Cemetery Research Project
Internet Presentation
Version 030611
WebMaster:
Neal Du Shane
Copyright ©2011
Neal Du Shane
All rights reserved. Information contained within this
website may be used
for personal family history purposes, but not for financial profit of any kind.
All contents of this website are willed to the American Pioneer & Cemetery
Research Project (APCRP).
HOME | BOOSTER | CEMETERIES | EDUCATION | GHOST TOWNS | HEADSTONE
MINOTTO | PICTURES | ROADS | JACK SWILLING | TEN DAY TRAMPS