Draft:John Burton Watkins

Submission declined on 1 November 2024 by Dan arndt (talk).

This submission appears to be a news report of a single event and may not be notable enough for an article in Wikipedia. Please see Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#NEWS and Wikipedia:Notability (people)#People notable for only one event for more information.

If you would like to continue working on the submission, click on the "Edit" tab at the top of the window.
If you have not resolved the issues listed above, your draft will be declined again and potentially deleted.
If you need extra help, please ask us a question at the AfC Help Desk or get live help from experienced editors.
Please do not remove reviewer comments or this notice until the submission is accepted.

Where to get help

If you need help editing or submitting your draft, please ask us a question at the AfC Help Desk or get live help from experienced editors. These venues are only for help with editing and the submission process, not to get reviews.
If you need feedback on your draft, or if the review is taking a lot of time, you can try asking for help on the talk page of a relevant WikiProject. Some WikiProjects are more active than others so a speedy reply is not guaranteed.

How to improve a draft

Wikipedia:Contributing to Wikipedia – a basic overview on how to edit Wikipedia.
Help:Wikitext – how to use the markup
Help:Referencing for beginners – how to include references
Wikipedia:Article development – how to develop your article
Wikipedia:Writing better articles – how to improve your article
Wikipedia:Verifiability – make sure your article includes reliable third-party sources

You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article.

Improving your odds of a speedy review

To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags.

Add tags to your draft

Editor resources

Easy tools: Citation bot (help) | Advanced: Fix bare URLs

Declined by Dan arndt 27 days ago. Last edited by Dan arndt 26 days ago. Reviewer: Inform author.

Resubmit

Please note that if the issues are not fixed, the draft will be declined again.

Comment: iagenweb.org, Findagrave and play.google are not reliable sources. Theroadislong (talk) 15:54, 1 November 2024 (UTC)

John B. Watkins (1831-1873) was the Superintendent of the Iowa Divisions of the Chicago & North Western Railway from 1870 until he was killed in a tragic railroad accident on 30 October 1873. Nearly the entire C&NW Rwy. management team was witness to the accident. "...Albert Keep, President of the road; James Howe, General Manager; Marvin Hughitt, General Superintendent; John B. Watkins, Superintendent of the Iowa Division; M. Johnson, Chief Engineer; W. Ferry, Director, and Horace Williams, President of the Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska Railroad Company, who were on a tour of inspection over the road." ^[1]

The accident occurred a few miles west of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The town of Watkins, Iowa was named for him.^[2] The town was platted in 1874 near where he died.^[3]

During the early morning hours on 30 October 1873 the managers of the company were eastbound on the road from Council Bluffs, the western terminus of the division, headed back to Chicago when the train became stalled. It was overtaken by a freight train that was unable to stop in time to avoid a collision. Supt. Watkins was crushed between the Director's car and the Pullman sleeping car, expiring after about 20 minutes.^[4]

Watkins was previously Master of Transportation for the Iowa Division under Division Supt. Isaac B. Howe. ^[5] Subsequently he replaced Howe as Supt. when Howe became Chief Engineer. ^[6] After Watkins death Howe covered the Supt. position in addition to his other duties. In the early morning hours Howe received the following telegraph from Supt. Hughitt:

"C. Rapids 30 ...    Isaac Howe  ...   Mr. Watkins is dead.  Will you break the news to his wife in your own way.  M.  Hughitt"

References

^ https://www.nytimes.com/1873/10/31/archives/shocking-railroad-accident-a-railroad-official-caught-between-two.html | quote= SHOCKING RAILROAD ACCIDENT A RAILROAD OFFICIAL CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO CARS, AND CRUSHED TO DEATH. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Oct. 30 Published: October 31, 1873; the New York Times
^ Chicago and North Western Railway Company (1908). A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways. p. 136.
^ The History of Benton County, Iowa, Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, &c. Western Historical. 1878. p. 328.
^ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81650180/john_burton-watkins
^ https://iagenweb.org/clinton/records/directories/1869/clintonbusinesses.htm
^ https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=UY0pAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA154.w.157.0.0&hl=en

[1] ttps://www.nytimes.com/1873/10/31/archives/shocking-railroad-accident-a-railroad-official-caught-between-two.html | quote= SHOCKING RAILROAD ACCIDENT A RAILROAD OFFICIAL CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO CARS, AND CRUSHED TO DEATH. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa, Oct. 30 Published: October 31, 1873; the New York Times

[2] Chicago and North Western Railway Company (1908). A History of the Origin of the Place Names Connected with the Chicago & North Western and Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railways. p. 136.

[3] The History of Benton County, Iowa, Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, &c. Western Historical. 1878. p. 328.

[4] ttps://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81650180/john_burton-watkins

[5] ttps://iagenweb.org/clinton/records/directories/1869/clintonbusinesses.htm

[6] ttps://play.google.com/books/reader?id=UY0pAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA154.w.157.0.0&hl=en

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]