Nearly 20 years ago, I picked up a piece of Frisco memorabilia at a Little Rock train show. It was a letter from a locomotive engineer written to his Superintendent dated November 1892. The storyline was interesting in itself and I was fascinated by his beautiful handwriting. His punctuation and spelling were another matter. I was interested to find tidbits of information in the letter concerning Frisco’s early operations. The Central Division had been built in the early 1880’s through Northwest Arkansas and here some 10 years later, we get a glimpse of the staffing locations. The letter has a letterhead address of Chester Arkansas. Today, this is a small hamlet of maybe 75 people. Early in Frisco’s history, an engine facility and turntable was located here to facilitate helper engines used to shove trains north through the Boston Mountains to Winslow. It was a little more than an eleven mile trip up an average 1.5% grade across three trestles and through a tunnel to Winslow. Later, the turntable was moved to Schaberg five miles north of Chester. Evidently, Chester was a crew terminal. Crew districts historically were divided into 100 mile segments given that a basic day’s pay was 100 miles. Looking at the Central Division, it was 104.1 miles from Monett to Chester, 97.5 miles from Chester to Talihina. This makes sense that Chester may have been a crew change point at least for the engine service. The letter mentions “waiting on train crew members to be called in Ft. Smith”. It makes me think that the trainmen had a different district alignment. Early in railroad history, we know that a locomotive engineer was assigned to his own machine. The signature at the end of the letter was noted with his locomotive number. The document has faded and may be hard to read. I’ve tried to recreate it with the original grammatical variations for your reading. What other insights can you draw from the letter? Steve |-| Chester Station, November 15th , 1892 J.R. Groves Esq Supt. R. I Springfield Mo Dear Sir In referring to yours of the 11th and attached complaint of McMantor in regards to Me useing forty Minuetts Eating at Ft. Smith lunch counter on Nov 10th which McMantor say’s caused a delay to train 1/32 of 40 Minuetts and also caused a delay to Special south of One hour & ten Minutes. I arrived at Ft. Smith at 3:45am on 1/32 and having been on duty from 8:20 pm the night before and feeling Hungry I thought I would do Justice to Myself by Eating a lunch. You Must remember that Ft. Smith is the only place that afford’s a lunch counter between Talihina and Chester and after Eating I went up in Office and got orders and went down to the Engine which was 18 cars from office and switched out 3 Cars from Station House track and departed from station at 4:20 am. McMantor failed to Note that I had switched out 3 Cars from House track and he failed to Note time consumed in walking from Engine to office and getting orders and returning to Engine. I cannot understand how I delayed special south 1 Hour and 10 Minuetts when according to the train registered at Ft. Smith by both Conductors train 1/32 was only in Ft. Smith 35 Minuetts and according to McMantor’s Complaint he says train 1/32 only stopped in front of the depot exactly 40 Minuetts and at the close of his complaint he says I delayed spl. south 1 hour & 10 Minuetts. It seems strange that when an Engineman uses 15 or 20 Minuetts Eating a lunch there is complaint made about it. but when an Engineman has to wait at Ft. Smith on train crews that has not been called or so on. times to numerous to Mention & there is nothing said or done about it. It looks very much like the Engine department is expected to move in Military order while the train men do as they feel disposed too. Yours Respt M. J. Stickey Engineer Eng 229
Steve, I am glad you shared the document. It is now preserved on my computer as well as on our web server as well (perhaps more now). It was an interesting read, and a look into some of the aggravations people cause each other perhaps needlessly.
A very enjoyabe letter and piece of history. I plan on passing this along to the person researching the following query, which has been posted at an earlier time. It reads as follows: "On behalf of a friend, I am researching for information about a head-on collision at Buller, Indian territory on June 13, 1893. One of this person's ancestry was the locomotive engineer and was killed in the accident. We cannot find any reference to "Buller, Indian Territory" so am wondering if it was a railroad siding, therefore it is not listed on road maps? Maybe it was Butler? or ?? The location is believed to be near the present towns of Antlers, - Hugo, OK and near the Kiamichi River or a tributary?"
Interesting read. Thank you very much for sharing. Some observations: * Eng 229 should have been a Baldwin 2-6-0 built 1886-1892. Cool. * The ruling grade from Chester to Porter/Schaberg is 1.30% compensated, and Porter/Schaberg to Winslow is 2.35% compensated. This according to my circa 1900's SLSF profile I have. * It has been my understanding that the turntable was originally at Porter (renamed Schaberg circa 1910) and was moved to Chester early-on by reason of the poor location of Porter/Schaberg (it being on 1.3+% grade). The turntable remained at Chester until the end of steam. * It is also my understanding that Chester was a division point until the district was increased in length to Fort Smith, at which point it was relegated to being a helper station with assigned power. An aside: A good friend of mine had a father that worked helper service out of Chester and was very conversant with the railroad history of the region. In all, that was a very neat find and thank you for sharing it with us! It is duly downloaded and cataloged in my Frisco Lines hard drive folder!! Andre
Butler, IT.....the location is now called Eubanks/Dunbar, OK -- north of the only townsite that appears now and on an 1891 map, Kosoma; a few miles north of Antlers. You can find it on Bing maps. If you find Wadena on a current map, it was known as Lapita in the 1890's. It appears that by WWI, Butler's name had changed to Eubanks on most searchable maps I can find.
From the 1887 Frisco Annual Report; "Convenient and ample division terminal facilities have been completed at Chester, Arkansas , Talahina , Indian Territory and Paris, Texas." From the 1897 Frisco Annual Report: "A division point has been established at Fort Smith, Arkansas which enabled us to abandon the one at Talahina, Indian Territory and at Chester, Arkansas which insures a material decrease in our operating expenses for the future". Chester's place in the sun lasted only ten years, Tomd6
