Automobile wreck down steep bank

Automobile wreck down steep bank

Automobiles

Railroad tracks

Rivers

Traffic accidents

Traffic accident victims

Traffic fatalities

A man is laid out between the railroad tracks and the river with a wrecked automobile and a group of men standing nearby. An article in the October 20, 1926 Jackson County Journal describes an automobile accident claiming the life of Thomas J. Woodard. The automobile went over a 50-foot bank onto Southern Railway near Forney Creek. Woodard died within minutes and his two nephews survived. Woodard was a lumber and real estate man active in politics, business and social affairs and well known in western North Carolina. The photographer, “Doc” Kelly Bennett (1890-1974), was a prominent pharmacist in Swain County, NC. Owner of the Bryson City Drug Company, Bennett served as alderman and mayor of Bryson City, on the Swain County Board of Education, as well as several terms as NC State Senator and NC State Representative. He participated in numerous other initiatives and organizations. Known as the “Apostle of the Smokies,” Bennett was an instrumental figure in the movement to create the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. He was also an avid photographer, skillfully documenting a wide variety of people, places, and events in Swain County and the surrounding area.

Bennett, Kelly, 1890-1974

Kelly Bennett Collection

1926-10-16

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

negatives (photographs)

eng

StillImage

66588

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/66588

Swain County (N.C.)

3.5" x 5.75"(dimension)

Picturing Appalachia