When tragedy struck
A new historical display on the 1926 GF&A train wreck is at the Sopchoppy Depot
Nelson Martin was inspired by local historian Mays Leroy Gray’s story on the wreck that appeared in The News in 1992.
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN Editor
Nelson Martin has created a historical display on the October 1926 train wreck in which the GF&A engine crashed into a new Overland car that had stalled on the tracks, killing several members of one of the prominent Wakulla families – the Ferrells. The story was researched and written by local historian Mays Leroy Gray and appeared on the front page of The Wakulla News in January 1992.
Inspired by the story, Martin contacted Gray and got his permission to do a condensed version of Gray’s story and added some photos to illustrate the display.
According to Gray’s story, on Oct. 28, 1926, members of the Ferrell family took a trip to a poultry farm in Gossitt Mill to buy chickens and turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
On the trip were Sarah Emma Ferrell, her daughter Jonnie M. Ferrell Sutton and her husband, Ira Sutton; and Annie C. Moore Gerrell, wife of Emmett Ferrell Sr.
They planned an afternoon outing in Ira’s new Overland automobile.
Annie Moore Ferrell was experienced driving the family Model T Ford and wanted to learn to drive Ira’s Overland car. After they went to the farm, they got in the Overland car for their return trip to Ivan along the rutted road.
An example of a 1926 Overland automobile.
As they reached the railroad crossing – a rough, rutted crossing, obscured by dense woods – Annie slowed the car and carefully began to cross the steel rails. To her horror, the motor stopped and the car stalled.
As Gray wrote:
“As they looked to their right, in the direction of Arran, the frightened passengers saw the unmistakable profile and heard the approaching sound of a steam locomotive pounding over steel rails: 260 tons of steel and freight moving at 30 miles per hour, arrow-straight in their direction...
A GF&A train at Carrabelle station in 1906.
“With its drivers churning, its chime whistle at full blast and its distress warning echoing for three miles throughout the woodlands around Gossitt Mill, the steam locomotive continued to bear down upon the railroad crossing and the stalled automobile.”
Annie and Ira frantically tried to start the engine. “With a terrifying crash, the GF&A train smashed into the right passenger side of the new Overland car with great violence, causing death and destruction.” Sarah Ferrell and her daughter Jonnie Sutton were killed instantly and Annie Ferrell died three days later. Ira Sutton survived with many broken bones by holding on to the train’s cowcatcher.
At the station in Springhill, Mr. Desse Cook was waiting for the train to pick up a boxcar loaded with turpentine and rosin from his still. “I never saw the train moving so fast,” he said. “The train engineer was continuously blowing the steam whistle, long mournful blasts, a sound of distress.” Family members were buried in the Sutton-Ferrell cemetery near Ivan. The inscription says: “She faltered by the wayside and the angels took her home.” The remains of the Overland car are still in the woods where they were pushed off the train tracks.
Nelson Martin investigating the remains of the 1926 Overland in August.