William Henry Gleiss was an engineer on the Milwaukee Road who died in a tragic train crash in 1918. In a story not unlike that of folk hero Casey Jones, Gleiss’ passenger train collided with a freight train at Sprague, Wisconsin. Gleiss slowed his train and saved the lives of his passengers and crew, before his own life was taken when the engine cab and the tender smashed together. Nearly a century later, his great-great-great grandson, Josh Gadbaw, set his story to music.
