T.B. Bott

Was it Scott or Bott? Was it Junior or Not?

In the immediate aftermath of the wreck at Thaxton, Pullman sleeping car number 289, “Beverly”, dangled at the edge of the washout until the embankment soon gave way. The massive sleeper car plunged into the pit, crushing the first-class coach that had already fallen in. Amongst the passengers who were in the sleeper car that night was a Richmond man that Norfolk & Western listed as T.B. Bott. ¹ 

He was most likely Thomas B. Bott from Richmond, but that still could have been one of two men. According to the 1889 Richmond City Directory and census records from around that time, a T.B. Bott Senior and a T.B. Bott Junior lived in Richmond. Both men were also at an age that made it possible for them to be on the train. ^{2 3 4} 

At least one newspaper reported Bott’s name as T.B. Scott, and there also happened to be a Thomas B. Scott living in Richmond in 1889 as well. ^{5 6} But this seems likely to be an error, since the exact same account of Bott’s activities after the wreck is printed in other papers but with T.B. Bott listed as his name.

One thing we do know about Bott (or Scott) was that he acted heroically to help save some of his fellow passengers in the sleeper car. As the men and women inside the “Beverly” sleeper car struggled to escape from the wreckage, Bott and a man named W.J. Barksdale snatched a lamp and used it as a battering ram to open an escape route for the others to crawl through the roof of the crumpled car. ^{7 8} 

Do you think you know who the T.B. Bott was on the train that night? If you think he might have been an ancestor of yours, or if you have some additional information that might help identify him, I’d love to hear from you. Thanks!

Sources

1. Fourteenth Annual Report of The Railroad Commissioner of the State of Virginia, J.H. O’Bannon Superintendent of Public Printing, Richmond, VA, 1890: p. xlv. http://books.google.com/books?id=CFopAAAAYAAJ
2. J.H. Chataigne, Chataigne’s Directory of Richmond, VA, 1889, p. 145.
3. Census record for Thoms. Bott, Year: 1880; Census Place: Richmond, Henrico, Virginia; Roll: 1371; Family History Film: 1255371; Page: 142A; Enumeration District: 082.
4. Census record for Thomas B. Bott Jr, Year: 1900; Census Place: Richmond, Monroe Ward, Richmond City, Virginia; Roll: 1738; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 77; FHL microfilm: 1241738.
5. “That Awful Wreck”, The Daily Virginian (Lynchburg, VA), July 6, 1889, p. 4.
6. J.H. Chataigne, Chataigne’s Directory of Richmond, VA, 1889, p. 460.
7. See note 5 above.
8. “Scenes of Terror.”, The Richmond Dispatch (Richmond, VA), July 4, 1889, Whole Number 11857: p. 3.