Audio Description: Tipton Ford Mural by Anthony Benton Gude
Press play and discover Anthony Benton Gude's painting Tipton Ford Mural. Hear a detailed description of the artwork, descriptions of the colors and forms in the painting, and how the artist made the work. (Closed captions available on video.)
Tipton Ford Mural, Anthony Benton Gude, 2008, Oil on Canvas
Read Transcript
The Tipton Ford Mural by Anthony Benton Gude is an oil on stretched canvas painting completed in 2008 that measures 6 feet tall by 10 feet wide. The painting is framed by a simple wood frame and is displayed inside the Neosho United Methodist Church. It hangs on a white wall with wood wainscoting below. A wood railing, that complements the church pews, sits several feet in front of the piece keeping the viewer back from the painting.
This piece tells the tragic story of the 1914 Tipton Ford Train Wreck and how the community came together to mourn despite the racial divides of the era. Over forty people were killed in the fiery crash. A mass funeral service was held on the Newton County Courthouse lawn. Victims whose remains could not be identified were placed in a mass grave in Neosho’s I.O.O.F Cemetery.
The backdrop of this painting is a bright blue sky of a warm, summer day amongst rolling hills of green grass with full, green treetops at the horizon line on the left and right. A few dark clouds float over the scene. Two groups of mourners have gathered around a single large cemetery monument in the central foreground. And in the background the scene of the tragic train crash unfolds.
In the background, on the horizon line just left of center, a large fire burns where two trains have crashed into each other and derailed. The trains have collided head on - the one on the left twisting off the track forward and the train on the right off the track and on its side. The twisted and mangled metal structures of the engines are inseparable. The engines of both trains and the cars to the right have caught on fire. They burn bright with yellow and orange flames reaching high in the sky. A thick and dense black and grey smoke billows up from the wreckage. The fire leaves an amber hue on the grass around it. The train tracks from the collision curve and travel forward to the back of a large, grey, stone monument.
The monument, in the center foreground, is a pointed rectangle atop the center of a rectangular prism base. Both are made of roughly carved stone, while the face of the monument has a polished rectangle area which bears the engraving "Sacred to the Memory of" and lists the victims’ names and birth dates. Many flowers are laid at the base - red gladiolas, yellow sunflowers, orange lilies, pink hibiscus, and red roses.
Nine men and women are on each side of the monument, solemn mourners, of various ages, in clean, dressy clothes of the 1910s. Females in long dresses with their hair pinned into low buns and males in suits or dress pants with white, collared shirts. Many have their heads bowed.
The mourners on the left are all black. Expressions of grief fill their faces. The figure standing to the center of the group and taller than the rest is a man with greying hair, in a grey suit, a Bible with a gold cross on its cover is in his hands. He appears to be leading a prayer. One woman to his right has her hands clasped together, head looking up at the sky. An older woman with white-grey hair, a shawl across her shoulders, in the foreground, has her back turned to the viewer and she holds a bouquet of black-eyed susans in her arms.
Mirroring the group on the left is the mourners on the right. This group is entirely white with sorrowful expressions on their faces. The figure standing tallest on this side is a man with greying hair and beard. He wears a dark suit and holds a book reading “Holy Bible” on its cover in his hand. A younger man to the foreground stands profile holding two red roses.
Two communities brought together at a time when the town still was segregated. Rising from the stone are several translucent white figures, the spirits of the deceased, rising together from the monument into the heavens.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, August 5, 1914 approximately 80 people boarded Missouri and North Arkansas train No. 209, a gasoline-powered motor car that ferried residents across the region. Train No. 209 left Union Station in Joplin moving southeast on a Kansas City Southern line, the same line that was being used by a freight train heading northwest. Nobody knows exactly why the southbound train did not pull to the side and wait for the northbound train to pass near Tipton Ford as it had been instructed to do. The crash and fiery explosion injured 34 passengers and killed 43, including the five train-crew members. The crash and the fire made many of the bodies unidentifiable.
The tragic train crash did not discriminate by race. Black travelers, who were on the train leaving Joplin’s Emancipation Day celebration, and white travelers alike were injured or killed. The tragedy stunned the local community. Two days after the accident, more than 5,000 people attended a mass funeral in Neosho. Two black preachers and three white preachers led mourners surrounding 33 caskets on the Neosho square. Of the passengers and crew members killed that fateful day, 33 were unidentifiable and buried in an integrated mass grave at the I.O.O.F Cemetery in Neosho.
Anthony Benton Gude, attended the School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, Massachusetts from 1986 to 1987 where he studied oil painting. He is the grandson of Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton.
This piece tells the tragic story of the 1914 Tipton Ford Train Wreck and how the community came together to mourn despite the racial divides of the era. Over forty people were killed in the fiery crash. A mass funeral service was held on the Newton County Courthouse lawn. Victims whose remains could not be identified were placed in a mass grave in Neosho’s I.O.O.F Cemetery.
The backdrop of this painting is a bright blue sky of a warm, summer day amongst rolling hills of green grass with full, green treetops at the horizon line on the left and right. A few dark clouds float over the scene. Two groups of mourners have gathered around a single large cemetery monument in the central foreground. And in the background the scene of the tragic train crash unfolds.
In the background, on the horizon line just left of center, a large fire burns where two trains have crashed into each other and derailed. The trains have collided head on - the one on the left twisting off the track forward and the train on the right off the track and on its side. The twisted and mangled metal structures of the engines are inseparable. The engines of both trains and the cars to the right have caught on fire. They burn bright with yellow and orange flames reaching high in the sky. A thick and dense black and grey smoke billows up from the wreckage. The fire leaves an amber hue on the grass around it. The train tracks from the collision curve and travel forward to the back of a large, grey, stone monument.
The monument, in the center foreground, is a pointed rectangle atop the center of a rectangular prism base. Both are made of roughly carved stone, while the face of the monument has a polished rectangle area which bears the engraving "Sacred to the Memory of" and lists the victims’ names and birth dates. Many flowers are laid at the base - red gladiolas, yellow sunflowers, orange lilies, pink hibiscus, and red roses.
Nine men and women are on each side of the monument, solemn mourners, of various ages, in clean, dressy clothes of the 1910s. Females in long dresses with their hair pinned into low buns and males in suits or dress pants with white, collared shirts. Many have their heads bowed.
The mourners on the left are all black. Expressions of grief fill their faces. The figure standing to the center of the group and taller than the rest is a man with greying hair, in a grey suit, a Bible with a gold cross on its cover is in his hands. He appears to be leading a prayer. One woman to his right has her hands clasped together, head looking up at the sky. An older woman with white-grey hair, a shawl across her shoulders, in the foreground, has her back turned to the viewer and she holds a bouquet of black-eyed susans in her arms.
Mirroring the group on the left is the mourners on the right. This group is entirely white with sorrowful expressions on their faces. The figure standing tallest on this side is a man with greying hair and beard. He wears a dark suit and holds a book reading “Holy Bible” on its cover in his hand. A younger man to the foreground stands profile holding two red roses.
Two communities brought together at a time when the town still was segregated. Rising from the stone are several translucent white figures, the spirits of the deceased, rising together from the monument into the heavens.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, August 5, 1914 approximately 80 people boarded Missouri and North Arkansas train No. 209, a gasoline-powered motor car that ferried residents across the region. Train No. 209 left Union Station in Joplin moving southeast on a Kansas City Southern line, the same line that was being used by a freight train heading northwest. Nobody knows exactly why the southbound train did not pull to the side and wait for the northbound train to pass near Tipton Ford as it had been instructed to do. The crash and fiery explosion injured 34 passengers and killed 43, including the five train-crew members. The crash and the fire made many of the bodies unidentifiable.
The tragic train crash did not discriminate by race. Black travelers, who were on the train leaving Joplin’s Emancipation Day celebration, and white travelers alike were injured or killed. The tragedy stunned the local community. Two days after the accident, more than 5,000 people attended a mass funeral in Neosho. Two black preachers and three white preachers led mourners surrounding 33 caskets on the Neosho square. Of the passengers and crew members killed that fateful day, 33 were unidentifiable and buried in an integrated mass grave at the I.O.O.F Cemetery in Neosho.
Anthony Benton Gude, attended the School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, Massachusetts from 1986 to 1987 where he studied oil painting. He is the grandson of Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton.
Large Print Transcript
View Images
Additional Content
Additional Information
A plaque is located in front of the mural. It features gold text on a black background on a wood base. The plaque is set on a solid wood railing and is positioned to the center of the mural.
The plaque reads: The Tipton Ford Mural This beautiful work of art was created by Anthony Benton Gude, a grandson of Thomas Hart Benton. Tom Benton was born in Neosho on April 15, 1889, and spent much of his youth here. He left Neosho in the early 1900's, in quest of an art career. After 1912, his only return trip was in 1962 when he was honored with a one day celebration of his life. Gude was born in 1963 on Martha's Vineyard, the son of Jesse Benton Gude. He began his study of art at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and later studied under Professor Jon Burns in his Technical Painting Class at the Art Student's League in New York City. In 2008, Gude was commissioned to paint the Tipton Ford Mural. This is his second mural to be on display in Neosho. Sponsors for the mural were the Newton County Tourism Council, Fred & Sue Clark, Clark Funeral Home, and the Neosho Business and Industrial Foundaton. The mural was dedicated on December 6, 2008, at the Neosho United Methodist Church. |
Newspaper Accounts
Photos from the 1914 Wreck
Photos from the aftermath of the August 5, 1914 Tipton Ford Train Wreck.
Courtesy of the Frank C. Wallower Collection, (R0057), The State Historical Society of Missouri, Photograph Collection.
Courtesy of the Frank C. Wallower Collection, (R0057), The State Historical Society of Missouri, Photograph Collection.