Elizabeth Lowenhiem, A Young Girl At Dutchman's Curve

By Betsy Thorpe

In July of 1918 exciting changes were taking place in Nashville. America was at war and the citizens of Nashville were caught up in the Labor for Victory movement. The Dupont Powder plant near Nashville began production of smokeless gun powder on July first. The Dupont plant at Old Hickory was the largest powder plant in the world and laborers and skilled workers arrived in Nashville everyday hoping to find work.

On the Fourth of July patriotic parades, assemblies,
picnics and band concerts were held in Nashville's neighborhoods and parks. Most businesses were closed for the day and residents used their free time to enjoy the holiday.

It was cool in Nashville on the morning of July ninth. Orioles sang their morning song and more than a thousand grackles filled the sky over Centennial Park and West End Avenue, a quiet dusty road that ended near the White Bridge.

At 3400 West End Avenue twelve year old Elizabeth Lowenhiem and her sister Mary Jane were sleeping upstairs in a screened in porch. Around 7:15 the girls were awakened when their quiet world was disrupted by a very loud noise. By the time Elizabeth and Mary Jane were truly awake the quiet had returned. Their mother, Tessie couldn't tell them what had caused the terrifying sound , but they all knew it came from the west,in the direction of the White Bridge. In a short time the news reached them that two passenger trains had met head on at Dutchman's Curve. Many passengers were trapped and hurt. Suddenly West End Avenue was busy with cars, trucks, buggies, wagons and horse drawn ambulances. It seemed all of Nashville was hurrying west to Dutchman's Curve.

Elizabeth's natural inclination was to comfort and assist her neighbor, and she wanted to help, but she was just a little girl. The trapped and injured train passengers needed strong people to get them out of the wreckage and move them to Vanderbilt, St. Thomas and City Hospitals. Hoping to find a way to help, she accompanied her Aunt Frances who owned an automobile and was a Red Cross volunteer to the accident site.

The first car on the outbound train was a combination mail and baggage car. Like most of the cars on the two trains, the combination car was made of wood. It was shattered by the impact of the collision and disordered mail and contents of the baggage, scattered into the fields of corn growing next to the tracks. Volunteers walking along the banks of Richland Creek, and into the fields gathered the mail and passengers personal belongings. Elizabeth and her aunt carried the collected mail back to town. The hoard of people making their way down West End Avenue to Dutchman's Curve made the drive into Nashville difficult, but they were finally able to reach the Broadway Post Office where they returned the mail.

By early evening the wrecking crew had the tracks cleared and the ten o'clock night train to Memphis left on time carrying wary passengers and the morning's mail. Soon, people in Western Tennessee and points beyond received their mail, thanks in part to the efforts of a determined,twelve year old Nashville girl.

Elizabeth Lowenhiem Jonas Jacobs lived to be 101 years old. She performed many good deeds and acts of kindness in her long and fruitful life, but her early actions in Nashville's biggest calamity is an example of how a community benefits when a child is willing
to be of service.