Creating Fiction from History: 2/23/2022

Ella Jean Berry was born October 4, 1905, to Franklin and Rosalind Berry, of Dubuque, Iowa. Both of her parents perished at an early age in a horrible train wreck. This unthinkable tragedy occurred the first day of Spring the year that little Ella turned five.

Leaving Ella with her nurse, the Berry's had boarded the Rock Island train which ran from Cedar Rapids to Waterloo, on a business/pleasure trip. Unfortunately for Ella, she never saw her parents again, as the train, a combination of two different trains, ran off the tracks near Green Mountain, over halfway to their destination.

After the...