A piece of Dixon history: Colonel Noble and the Truesdell Bridge disaster

At this time last year, Dixon marked the 150th anniversary of the Truesdell Bridge collapse of May 4, 1873. Thanks to generous coverage by the Associated Press, this tragedy is now widely recognized as “the worst road bridge disaster in American history.”

The horror of the bridge story may be best understood through the experience of one particular Dixonite who was standing on the bridge on that day: Colonel Henry T. Noble.

Regarding Henry

Henry Theophilus Noble first fell in love with Dixon when he arrived from Massachusetts in 1850 at age 20. For the next two years he worked as a clerk in the land office and served as Dixon’s second public school teacher, hired at a salary of $40 a month.

One of his first students was the “tall and queenly” 16-year-old Jane Ann Herrick. By 1852, Henry and Jane had joined forces as teachers, with Jane initiating “a primary department” in the courthouse. On Feb. 27, 1853, 22-year-old Henry and 18-year-old Jane became husband and wife.

Thanks to his experience in the land office, Henry became astute – and eventually wealthy – in real estate and banking. By the late 1850s he was active in many community affairs. He built hotels. He served on the library board. He organized a local militia. And he worked to secure a durable bridge across the river.

He also got involved politically, actively opposing slavery and leading the city’s Fremont Club in support of the nation’s first Republican party. But his business and community pursuits were interrupted on April 12, 1861, when the Confederates fired upon Fort Sumter, starting the Civil War.

Off to war

Known for his patriotism and attention to current affairs, Henry T. Noble became the first man in Lee County to enlist for the Union army. While training in Dixon as a private with the 13th Regiment of the Illinois Infantry, his fellow soldiers elected him to be 1st Lieutenant of Company A, mainly composed of Dixon soldiers.

Throughout the war he was highly respected and eventually promoted to colonel. By war’s end his superiors had formally commended him for his “integrity, energy and efficiency.” When he left the military in 1866 he reunited with his wife and resumed his business interests.

Notably, he purchased part ownership of the Grand Detour Plow Company – previously owned by John Deere – and soon moved all operations to Dixon’s Dement Town to be near the railroad depots. The move was highly productive for the company and for Dixon, as the factory eventually employed hundreds.

That fateful day

That brings us to Sunday, May 4, 1873, the day of the bridge disaster. Henry and Jane Noble were living at the Nachusa House on Galena Avenue.

They had no children, but they had developed a close relationship with one of their neighbors, little Gracie Smith. On that Sunday morning, Gracie urged them to go with her to the bridge to watch the Baptist Church’s baptism ceremony on the north bank of the river.

So, after attending church, Henry, Jane, and Gracie walked down to the Galena Avenue bridge, built in 1869 by L. E. Truesdell. Crowding onto the west sidewalk, the three joined the throng of some 200 people to watch the ceremony in the river below.

Holding Gracie

Col. Noble was holding little Gracie in his arms when Rev. J. H. Pratt baptized the first two candidates. As the third baptism commenced, “a sharp crack” jolted everyone on the bridge.

Interviewed later by the Chicago Times, the colonel said, “I felt the snap just as plain as if I had been standing upon a board and a man had struck it … the bridge then commenced to drop as fast as iron and wood could.”

As they were plunged into the water, Col. Noble was struck by the large 15-foot iron truss that crashed behind him. Distanced from his wife under the water, he managed to hold on to Gracie, and they soon came to the surface of the water, gasping for air.

He tried to swim for shore with Gracie, but a man under the water, desperately trying to save himself, grabbed the colonel’s arm and pulled him under. He then let go of Gracie to keep her above the water.

Pulled ashore

After fighting off the frantic man, the colonel again surfaced. Though injured, he struggled to paddle toward shore.

Sheriff Berkley, busy with retrieving bodies and rescuing the injured, spotted the colonel in the water, extended a plank and pulled him to dry ground. Fortunately, Gracie had already been rescued.

But Jane, his wife for 20 years, was dead. She had drowned, trapped in the water under the 15-foot truss.

The colonel was soaked and injured, but others eventually rowed him to the south side in a boat, which was now the only way to cross the river. He then trudged up the hill on South Galena to the Nachusa House.

The next morning, in his wet clothes he found his pocket watch. When he popped it open, he saw that its hands had stopped at quarter past one. Several newspaper reports then cited Col. Noble’s watch as the official witness of the exact time that the bridge collapsed.

The reporter’s visit

A reporter for the Chicago Times came to Henry’s Nachusa House residence, where Jane’s body was on display, a common practice of the time. Henry graciously received the reporter as they sat and talked near Jane’s coffin.

“She was totally uninjured,” wrote the reporter, “her body showing no bruises, and her face having the aspect of sweet repose.” The reporter added that others spoke fondly of Jane’s excellence and her Christian kindheartedness.

Henry and Jane became two of the surreal statistics of the day. Jane Noble was one of the 46 people who died in the catastrophe, and Col. Noble was one of the 56 injured.

Their story is a microcosm of the terrible calamity, illustrating its horrific deaths and heroic rescues, its impact on men, women and children, and the grief that gripped the entire city.

The rest of the story

But the horror and trauma of that day did not deter Henry’s devotion to Dixon. In the 1870s and 80s, he helped to establish Dixon College. He organized popular events that promoted boating on the river. He became a primary force behind reunions of “the glorious 13th Regiment,” and he helped to compile a history of the regiment.

Throughout his life, as the Telegraph reported, he was known for his generosity, energy and leadership on behalf of the community. As a crowning achievement of his decades of devotion to Dixon, the citizens elected him mayor in 1890.

But only a few days after completing his one-year term, 60-year-old Col. Henry T. Noble was stricken with pneumonia and died only three days later on April 15, 1891. His death was front-page news in the newspaper.

The Telegraph’s editor wrote, “We know whereof we speak when we say that Dixon never had a more loyal friend.”

• Dixon native Tom Wadsworth is a writer, speaker and occasional historian. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament.