The Browning Series -- Part 9A, the Death of Charles Otho Browning pt 4 - Corrections

When last I wrote all those months ago, we had been discussing the death of Charles Otho Browning from a train accident in Springfield, MO. At that time I had posted a picture of where I believed was the correct location of the accident site. Since that time my cousin T. did some more research and that research was incredible! -- and intelligent! -- and proved me wrong!

Sooooo wrong! Hah!

So without further ado I will present to you HER interpretation, in HER words, of the site of Charles' accident. She has put together a .kmz file overlay showing the location. In order to use this you should go download Google Earth (which you should have anyway!) and then click on the file. It'll sworl you down into a mashup of the world of today and the world of 1889:

"This is a GoogleEarth map of the train yard in Springfield, MO using Sanborn maps from 1884-1891 to piece together a bigger picture of what the town looked like at the time of the accident. The maps are from different years but its close enough that we can get an idea of what it looked like. You can:

- zoom in close and read the descriptions on the buildings - making assumptions as to the Dr office above which drug store Charles was taken to, even the undertaker is listed on one!

- turn the overlay maps off and look at the street “today” by using the slider bar midway down on the left

- pan around any direction

- grab the little orange man on the right and “drop” him onto the street and walk the streets (of today), so to speak.

I am quite sure this is the correct location (different from the location that shows on the blog) because in the upper left corner is "Anchor Mills" and the stock yards are shown just across the tracks. The articles also mention Campbell & Boonville streets as being full of onlookers. "

For the record, I think my cousin T. is correct. Huge props to her!

As a last aside, I think this is a very creative use of Google Earth and the historical maps that are available to us as genealogists. I hope this gives someone else an idea!