1904 New Market Train Wreck

Alice Coker had not been born when the 1904 New Market, TN train wreck happened at the farm she was raised on, but she can remember the first hand account her father gave her. On September 24, 1904, Coker's father, Joseph J. Whitaker was harvesting corn when he heard the two trains swiftly making way toward one another. He knew there was going to be a crash, so he tied his horses up to a wagon and went to watch the wreck. "The sound of the crash was heard for miles," says Coker. Alice Coker resides in LaFollette, while her son, John lives on the family farm in New Market.