Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1877 — A Brave Brakeman. [ARTICLE]

A Brave Brakeman.

“ I have often heard of the brave and daring deeds of engineers, firemen and brakeinen,” said a well-known cattle dealer yesterday in the hearing of a Bee reporter, “ but I never witnessed a more daring feat than that performed by Pat O’Keefe, a brakeman on the Grand Island division of the Union Pacific railroad. It was on Durfoe & Gasman’s cattle train, on Thursday afternoon. Conductor Jennings had charge of the train. We were running pretty fast for a freight train—about twenty-two miles an hour—equal to passenger-train time. The cars jolted fearfully. When we were within about a mile and a half of Shelton station, the door of one of the cars flew off, having been kicked from its fastenings by one of the * rambunctious ’ steers. Pat O’Keefe, the brakeman, saw the door fly off, and yelled out, ‘ For God’s sake, stop the train,’ but his voice was stopped by the rattle of the cars, and did not reach the engineer. The next thing I saw was a steer jump off the car. The animal landed on his feet, and skipped off at a lively gait, entirely unharmed, and went to grazing. That’s a fact, as strange as it may seem. I expected to see the whole car-load follow him, but they didn’t; for O’Keefe had by this time climbed down the side of the car, between the bars, and, hanging hold with one hand, he took his hat in the other and waved it back and forth in the open door in the faces of the steers, and thus kept them at bay until we arrived at Shelton. I wouldn’t have done that for the whole train of cattle, with the cars and engines thrown in. He saved twenty head of cattle which the company would have had to pay for had they been lost. That brakeman deserves promotion.” —Omaha Bee.