about the Creeper name, Tom began his story:
“About fifty years ago…”
“When was that daddy?” one of them asked.
“Never mind. A long, long time ago this land belonged to the Indians. The Indians loved the land and the land returned their love by supplying them with deer, and turkeys, and squirrels, and rabbits, and plenty of fish to eat. Then one day the white men came. The white men decided that a train would be a good way to get supplies over the mountains. In order to build a railroad track, the Indians would have to move. The ones who would not leave their homes were killed and left to rot into the earth. The ghost of one of the Indians came back to haunt the selfish white men. They said that on a still, moonlit night, the Indian’s ghost could be seen creeping along the tracks. The white men decided to name the train the Creeper Railroad, so that the ghost would be at peace.”
The children were very pleased with their daddy’s explanation of the story.
Joseph decided to write about the Indian’s ghost for the essay contest. Even though he was small the first time that he heard the famous family story, he remembered enough of it to write an essay. Alice and William were going to draw pictures for the contest, and Josh and Alan were not going to enter.
The story that Tom told his children was strangely similar to the real story. The actual events leading up to the construction of the railroad line were controversial and shameful.
A small group of Indians were living in the mountains surrounding the proposed route of the new railroad. Most of the Cherokee tribe had been relocated to Oklahoma in what was called the Trail of Tears. The forced move was sponsored by the government for the supposed good of the Indians, however, it was actually a legal means of stealing the Indian’s land. The group of Indians who stayed had strong ties to the land. They had lived in the rugged mountains for generations, and they did not want to leave the remains of their ancestors behind.
The owner of the proposed railroad line was impatient. Rather than negotiate with the proud group of remaining Indians, he hired a ruthless engineer to solve the problem. The engineer came into the area from New York pretending to be a traveling missionary. He walked the entire route of the proposed railroad line and familiarized himself with the people. Meanwhile, a group of men who had served under him in the Civil War, began arriving in Abingdon, two or three at a time. After he learned the habits of the Indians, he sat his strategy for their removal into motion.
Under the cover of darkness he and his men raided the Indian’s modest homes. Even though the Indians were scattered throughout the mountainous area, he and his men were able to destroy nearly all of their homes. Many of the Indians were shot or burned alive. The survivors were incapable of defending their sacred land, subsequently the engineer and the arrogant railroad owner considered the problem to be solved.
The railroad line was built and at the dedication the owner and the engineer stood proudly on the platform. They sipped champagne and prided themselves and each other oh a job well done, and well under budget.
That night the owner of the railroad line and the engineer disappeared from their elegant hotel rooms in Abingdon. Searches turned up nothing, not even a clue to their whereabouts. The day to day operations of the railroad continued in spite of their disappearances. On the anniversary of the first year of operation, the Board of Directors arrived from New York to take a token ride from Abingdon, across the mountains. As the conductor was rounding the bend at the midway point, he noticed objects lying across the tracks. He blew the whistle but the objects did not move. He managed to stop the train, and he and several of the dignitaries walked up to inspect the foreign objects on the track. The ghastly remains of the owner and his treacherous engineer were