Jacob Alvin Darst 1864-1924

Jacob Alvin Darst (1864-1924), the son of John Darst (1818-1895); the son of Jacob Darst (1785-1852); the son of Samuel Derst (1754-1791); the son of Abraham Derst (1725-1772), our Pfeddersheim immigrant.

COMPELLED TO STOP

"SOMETHING" WARNED ENGINEER

TO PUT ON BRAKES.

One More Substantiated Story of Pre-

monition That Saved Train From

Disaster --- Unable to Make

Any Explanation.

Jake Darst is one of the best known and least emotional of all the engineers on the Oklahoma division of one of the big trunk lines of the southwest, says the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.He can make the time, and he likes to make it, and nothing makes him more peevish than a useless stop that will cause him to "whip his engine" up and down grade in order to make up the lost minutes. He pulls, with the help of engine No. 1032, the fast train that comes up out of Texas on the stroke of midnight, and roars across the state of Oklahoma by the time the sun is a few degrees above the prairie skyline. He insists with the placid insistence of a big man that he arrive at the end of his run on time. His fireman suffered grievously because of this ambition.

They were shoving the telegraph poles behind them at the even rate of 55 miles an hour one summer morning about two years ago. Leaving the junction north of one of their few stops they raced across the outskirts of the Darlington reservation, climbed to the crest of Okarche Hill and settled back on either side of the cab to "watch the drivers roll." There was nothing to keep them from tearing off the mileage between Okarche Hill and the Cimmaron river at the rate of 60 miles an hour or upward. Just why he did it, the engineer could never tell, but his hand suddenly shot out, seized the throttle, shut off the steam, and an instant later set the air brakes. The heavy train jarred to a stop, while the fireman looked wonderingly at him from across the cab. Without saying a word, Darst swung down from the cab and ran forward along the track. A few feet away from the engine pilot he saw the crumpled body of a man lying between the rails.

When the train crew came running forward a few moments later the engineer confided to the little group that "something" had made him stop in spite of the fact that he had not caught sight of the body till he was within a few feet of it. In the meantime a frantic dispatcher was trying to get a message to train No. 12 with the highly important information that the bridge over Dover creek was in bad shape and that speed of all trains would be reduced to 12 miles an hour over that suddenly important culvert. The unusual stop gave him time to receive and forward that message to the now belated train. The train was saved from the consequences of a dilatory track walker's carelessness by the few minutes lost in stopping and picking up the body found on the right of way.

8 MAR 1911 - Sheboygan Press, Sheboygan, Wisconsin