Thursday, April 3, 2008

Railroad Memories of Cedar Vale

Railroad Memories of Cedar Vale

This is an 1880s map of railroads in Chautauqua Co. The green line shows the Denver, Memphis, and Atlantic RR. The red line was the Chicago, Kansas Western RR. At this time the state of Kansas offered a subsidy to the first railroad to go from border to border across the county and the race was on.


The D.M.&A. (later bought by the Missouri Pacific) took the northern route of Wauneta, Lowe, Sedan, and Peru while the CKW (later bought by A.T.& Santa Fe) built across the southern route through Niotaze, Chautauqua, Elgin, Hewins, and then to Cedar Vale.
It seems the D.M.&A. (Mo Pac) won the race and kept building to Dexter, Ark City, Winfield, and points to the west, but the CKW (Santa Fe) stopped in Cedar Vale and made it their western terminus. Both RRs had a depot and stockyards and the CKW had a turntable to head their trains back east to Wayside, Independence and on up to the Kansas City Stockyards.





Key to the graphics on the right:

Across the top is the southern edged of Cedar Vale as it was in the 20s and 30s. By enlarging you should find both depots, both stockyards, and the A.T. & S.F. turntable near the upper left.
The Dandies on the RR bridge are from circa 1915. The shorter fellow is Madison Holroyd Sr. The others are prominent Pioneer Scions I'm sure, but have been unable name them for sure--I'm thinking Mortimer Dosbaugh and Percy Parks. They are on the north bridge (Santa Fe). The parallel bridge behind them was the Mo Pac Bridge.
The next picture is the same group of friends on the same day posing on a vintage locomotive in the Cedar Vale Rail yards.
The last photo shows the Mo Pac on the downgrade coming in from the west from Hoosier toward Taussig and Cedar Vale. The body of water is the Cedar Vale Country Club Lake. Local citizens convinced the RR to make a fill at this place rather than a trestle and the lake was formed.

Random Memories and snippets:

A train arriving in the wee small hours of the morning when no agent was there and blowing that wonderful, mournful steam whistle til someone came to the depot. I know this disturbed many, but I was happy and snug and drowsy listening to it.

Prisoner of War trains that carried German Prisoners to camps in Elkhart, KS and northwest OK. Yes they came through here and were well guarded. Interesting articles have been written about the German boys and how some of them fell in love when helping on the Western Kansas farms. Many stayed here I guess.

The lore I've been told about the elegant Surry that the Baird House Hotel maintained and which met every passenger train.

In 1940 when Wendell Wilkie ran for President on the Republican ticket against FDR he made a campaign stop in Coffeyville and the Mo Pac ran a special train. I think half the town went and oh how I wanted to stow away. and see the spectacle.

Much before our times, but an important part of CV history; In 1904 The Missouri Pacific ran a special train to the St. Louis Worlds Fair. They picked up excited passengers across Southeast Kansas including Dexter, Cedar Vale, and Sedan. Near Knob Noster MO. the train ran head on into a westbound freight. 30 people were killed and 50 injured. There were dead from Cedar Vale, Dexter, and Sedan. The entire story cannot be told here but for those of you who want to delve into a fascinating part of CV history I highly recommend the following short, illustrated book. There Will Be a Wreck! by Lyndon N. Irwin 3902 N State highway UU Bois D'Arc, MO 65612.

Over the years of railroading in our town, many people got their paycheck from the railroad, lived here and spent here. There were section hands, Depot agents, and freight haulers. The names that I can remember are Kyle Sanborn, Ed Venters, Lieb Myers, Wiley Newton, Cyrus McCormick, Charles Ellis, Joe Ellis, Allen Keller, and Dewey Burch in Cedar Vale plus Mr. Akin and the Wineger Brothers in Hewins. I expect you will remember more and I hope you will comment them into the blog.

I personally remember the yearly mad scramble of wheat harvest when our valley was still heavily farmed. The long days. the long lines of Pickups, trucks and trailers, the harvest nerves and short tempers and the waiting to see if we would get enough grain cars to load so we could keep buying wheat. I got proficient in testing loads for weight, moisture, and purity. I also had to get into dusty grain cars and scoop wheat to the ends. There were big levers which used properly under the wheels of a rail car could get it moving and out of the way so a new car could be placed under the down spouts. All a part of my Cedar Vale extra-curricular education.

Velma Kare's dad, Lyman Fesler, told me of having a job in 1937 when he was a teenager, of helping to remove the Santa Fe tracks. They started in Cedar Vale and a locomotive and flat cars would back in from the east and the crew would pull spikes and load the rails on the cars. He told me how many buckets spikes he was expected to fill every day--several. At the end of the day the train would chuff off to the east and unload-or get new flat cars-then back in to yesterday's quitting place for a new day. Lyman had a young friend who stepped backwards off a bridge, fell to the rocks below and was killed. He told me this story 60 years later and it was still on his mind.

In the initial rush to build across the county, trestles and bridges were used as this was faster. After the contest was over the Santa Fe imported a crew of Italian stonemasons to replace trestles with arched stone bridges. They have left a beautiful gift of their craft behind. The bridges are still there (from Chautauqua to west of Elgin) and are still in good condition and artfully proportioned. The easiest one to see is the multi photographed arch on he river road west of Elgin a few hundred yards beyond Robbers Cave. I became interested and found them all.

Imagine a 13 or 14 year old boy alone in a boat on the Country Club Lake catching crappies at dusk on a summers evening. The ol' Mo Pac steam train leaves Cedar Vale 5 miles east and in the still evening I can hear it all the way--through Taussig, and as it hits the grade up to Hoosier.
I sit there aching for it to arrive as it goes slower and slower up one of the longest grades in Kansas. Finally it lumbers across the dam and I hold up my little string of fish for the crew to see. I'm rewarded with grins, waves and thumbs up signs. What a beautiful day !!!

16 comments:

DFCox said...

You will need to click the pictures and magnify them to see the detail.

Phil Foust said...

What a wonderful story for the generations, Don. Thanks to Gary's venue your memories will keep alive those magically times for younger folks. Thank you so much!

My maternal grandfather was a section foreman for the Missouri Pacific Railroad in Sumner County and I remember fondly being with him and the workers on the small section car maintaining and repairing.

When I was in the eighth grade a group from Cedar Vale Grade School traveled to Kansas City via the rails. We viewed the park as I remember and the Ford assembley plant.

Diane Archer Bradbury said...

Thanks for this, Don. I learned a great deal about the history of the railroad around our hometown. Your story took me back to olden days when life was in many ways much better, or so it seemed.

Nancy Goode Schmid said...

As a little girl I would go to the Wauneta RR with my grandmother Ward where she would hang the mail sack on a pole. The train would whiz by taking the sack with it and someone would toss off another one with the mail for Wauneta.

Unknown said...

Don, I lived in CV from 1937 to 1958 and never heard of the Country Club Lake. How did you get to it from town?? Was there actually a country club? Must have been for the rich people of CV??

Gary White said...

Thanks for a wonderful bit of CV history, Don. Looking at the map of south CV I see the siding on the MOPAC that took off to the north west. My dad's bulk station was on that siding. He would get a tank car of gasoline, which we would pump into the big tanks. He had one of those big levers to move rail cars so he could move the car to the right spot to mate with the pump head.

Looking across the street from the bulk station, I now realize that the sale barns were built on the Santa Fe station grounds. That would account for the streets in that area that I remember were covered with cinders.

I also did not know there was a Country Club in CV. Guess neither Wayne's family or mine would have qualified.

Anonymous said...

Phil,

I remember the trip to Kansas city on the train. Most of us had never been on a train before. We took sack lunches to eat in the park. I also remember being very impressed with the train station when we came in to Kansas City. If I'm right, I think Reva Ramey's parents took some of us to Independence to catch the train.

Bea Howell

Phil Foust said...

Yes, Bea ... Union Station was so very bustling and impressive! It is not remembered who sponsored the trip but it was wonderful for young kids in Cedar Vale to be able to experience the train ride and Kansas City.

Gary White said...

Is that the trip where we went through the Ford assembly plant? I definitely remember that trip, and also eating a meal at the Harvey House in Union Station. It was all quite posh. I seem to remember that my parents were with me at the Harvey House, so that may have been a different trip.

Gary White said...

Now I see that Phil remembers the Ford plant, so it must have been the same trip. I think my parents may have been going to Kansas City to have a new truck outfitted with the big gasoline tanks so they were there already.

Anonymous said...

I too remember the Ford plant tour, but the thing I remember most about that trip was on the train trip to K.C. At that time, I was subjected to the first "dirty joke" I ever heard, and if I remember correctly, it was told by one of my favorite female persons at that time and this.

DFCox said...

The Country Club was formed at the dawn of the 20th century. Mostly it was the businesmen of that time including most of the officers and stockholders of of L. C. Adams Merc. I think Andrew Early, Radcliff, both Dr. Stones, and the Meldrum bros. were founders. It was a private club with dues. Immediate family and descendants were "ex-officio" members. A nice private fishing lake was the purpose and the deal was struck with the Mo Pac to fill that canyon instead of bridge it. On would reach it from the south, entering from the road that goes by the big tank farm and proceeding thru the pasture to the north which belonged to the Adams store at that time.

Anonymous said...

Is the club and lake still there??

DFCox said...

I imagine the lake is still there, but I haven't been there in years. The "Club" ceased to exist in the late 60s or early 70s when the surviving members sold their rights to the new owner of the surrounding land.

Don Burden said...

Great! I'm a Sedan native whose been searching for data on the C,K &W through Elgin, as well as the D,M&A. Your post comes as a real treat.

Some of my earliest memories involve walking down the C,K&W (Santa Fe) roadbed near Hewins and Elgin. I always wondered what type of bridges the SF built along this line. Now I know.

Thanks again

Carrie Williamson Filtingberger said...

What a WONDERFUL post, Don! It is so interesting to hear this, and you have done a magnificent job of conveying the "feel" of the times! Great job, and hope you continue to post more memories