I am doing research on the Royal Palm-Ponce de Leon wreck which happened near my home town of Rockmart GA. Interested in find- ing descendants of crew members involved and/or people who knew them. Would be delighted to locate photographs of any crew mem- bers involved.

-- Lamar Wadsworth (LW.Sou.Ry.steam@juno.com), May 07, 1998

Answers

Lamar--I suggest that you send in a note to the editor of Ties and ask that a notice be placed in the Among Ourselves section. You might also check with the local historical societies andd the Southeast Railway Museum in Duluth, GA for contacts. Good luck--Larry

-- Larry Puckett (lpuckett@geocities.com), May 07, 1998.

What year did the wreck occur?

-- Carl Pugh (cpugh@iw.com), June 26, 2001.

Check with the Atlanta History Center. They have a lot of the SR Historical files. There was a folder on that particular wreck which contained old newspaper accounts. The History Center has a web site. You can link from the Southeastern Rwy Museum's site: srmduluth.org & check under Odds & Ends. Scroll down. I think there were articles in Ties many moons ago.

-- Conrad Cheatham (ccheatham@ureach.com), December 23, 2001.

23 1926 around 6 40P.M.

-- carl pugh (cpugh@iw.com), February 21, 2003.

the public library in Rockmart also has many articles about the wreck.

-- Billy Walker (bwalker153@comcast.net), June 02, 2003.

Although I posted my original question about this wreck when I was researching an article for the Rockmart Journal on the 75th anniversary of the wreck in December 2001, my interest continues. Just this past Tuesday, I spoke by phone with Mrs. Opal Williams, 87, of Toledo, Ohio. Mrs. Williams, who was 10 years old at the time, was a passenger on the Ponce de Leon. She is very sharp and alert and has vivid memories of the wreck. She was in the day coach that telescoped the dining car. I don't know whether any other survivors of the wreck are still living, but there probably aren't many. Then, Friday night, I spoke with Casey Corrie in Dallas, TX, who is a great- grandson of Arthur Moisson Corrie, engineer on the Royal Palm. I've had the good fortune to connect with descendants or relatives of Arthur Corrie, Stonewall Jackson "Stoney" Keith (regular engineer on the Ponce de Leon), Ponce de Leon fireman Henry Ralph Moss, Royal Palm conductor Tom Randall (who lived at Rockmart), and Ponce de Leon flagman Mike McElhaney. I now have photos of Corrie, Keith, Moss, and Randall.

-- Lamar Wadsworth (lw.sou.ry.steam@juno.com), August 10, 2003.