- Anderson Drake was a convict back in 1883
- A two-timin’ felon with a shady disposition and a troublesome history
- Every morning he crossed the Tuckasegee River with a boatload of other inmates
- Spent his days on a chain gang building railroads for the state - song by Haywood County, North Carolina musicians Buddy Melton and Milan Miller immortalizing the Cowee Tunnel disaster.
On 30 December 1882, nineteen convicts, all African American, tragically died while working on a chain-gang. After the Civil War, it was common practice to find any excuse to imprison newly freed black men and boys. It was also common practice to "sell" these prisoners to businesses for their labor. Often the labor was ardurous and many worked to build the railroads. Such was the case with the Cowee Tunnel 19.
On this day, the workers were traveling by boat across the Tuckasegee River in western North Carolina to get to the worksite. It had rained the evening before and the river crossing was a bit choppy. There was a little water in the boat and as the boat rocked to and fro, the swishing water was frightening to the men. They were afraid the boat was sinking. Even as the guards told them to settle down and not move around, they tried to move to one end of the boat and it capsized. Nineteen men were chained together and they were dragged down to the bottom of the river by the weight of their shackles. The guards and eleven other men were carried downstream and rescued.
Although there were newspaper accounts at the time, these men were all but forgotten and buried in mass graves. Their families did not know what became of them. The tunnel was also said to be haunted. [1]
The Cowee Tunnel 19
- Moses Brown, 25 • Warren County, North Carolina
- Oren Brooks, 22 • Orange County, North Carolina
- Charles Eason,15 • Martin County, North Carolina
- Sampson Ward, 55 • Onslow County, North Carolina
- Allen Tillman, 18 • Anson County, North Carolina
- Robert Robinson, 27 • New Hanover County, North Carolina
- Thomas Miller, 30 • Chesterfield, South Carolina
- James Fisher, 18 • Polk County, North Carolina
- Nelson Bowser, 30 • Hertford County, North Carolina
- John Newsom, 20 • Hertford County, North Carolina
- George Tice, 21 • Iredell County, North Carolina
- Jerry Smith, 33 • Wilson County, North Carolina
- George Rush, 44 • Richmond County, North Carolina
- David Dozier, 52 • Edgecomb County, North Carolina
- Jim McCallum, 18 • Gaston County, North Carolina
- Albert Cowan, 22 • Rowan County, North Carolina
- Louis Davis, 29 • Vance County, North Carolina
- Alex Adams, 25 • Washington County, North Carolina
- John Whitfield, 20 • Wayne County, North Carolina
Sources
- ↑ Rakestraw, Emory Rakestraw. "This Haunted Tunnel In North Carolina Is Not For The Faint Of Heart," Only in Your State, 5 September 2016 <https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/north-carolina/haunted-cowee-tunnel-nc/> : accessed 9 August 2019.
See also:
- Woodward, Garret K. "1882 Cowee Tunnel Disaster comes into 21st century spotlight," Smoky Mountain News, 19 June 2013 <https://www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/10992-1882-cowee-tunnel-disaster-comes-into-21st-century-spotlight> : accessed 8 August 2019.
- Vaillancourt, Cory. "The Cowee Tunnel Disaster - In Story And Song," Blue Ridge Public Radio News, 24 April 2019 <https://www.bpr.org/post/cowee-tunnel-disaster-story-and-song#stream/0> : accessed 8 August 2019.
