In honor of
Labor Day, the theme for this week is work. As I look at the occupations that
have been documented within my family history. There have been musicians,
teachers, butchers, grocers, iron workers, sellers of real estate, travel,
insurance, spirits, and grain. There have also been fishermen, soldiers,
telephone workers, and jewelers. One occupation that seems to run through
several lines is railroaders.
The first in
the line of railroad workers was Leopold Peterson, a Swedish immigrant who settled
in Boston, MA in 1869-70.[i]
Leopold
lived and worked in Boston as a cabinet maker, suggesting some kind of training
or apprenticeship in woodworking. In 1873 Leopold married Caroline Neilsson and
they began their family with the birth of Anne L in 1874 and John William in
1876.
PULLMAN CAR INTERIOR
 |
| Photo credit: Chicago Historical Society |
Shortly
after Leopold received his citizenship papers in Boston, the family moved to
Chicago. IL. The Chicago voter’s registration shows that Leopold had lived in
Chicago for 10 years and had been naturalized in Boston in 1877.[ii]
Census records
for 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920 all record Leopold as a carpenter or cabinet
maker, with the 1900 census showing that his two sons Frank and Edwin were also
working at a “car shop”. Frank was a machinist while Edwin was a 17-year-old
car painter. While there
is no specific mention that Leopold worked for the Pullman Company in Chicago,
the fact that the family lived in the Hyde Park area of the city and the Pullman Co used
carpenters/cabinet makers and car painters indicates to me that he did, indeed,
work for the Pullman Co. A query to the
South Suburban Genealogists, who hold the Pullman records did not yield
results.
Leopold’s
son Edwin left the Pullman Co to join the Chicago Park Police, but his son
Harold would return to railroad work and co-incidentally Harold’s father-in-law
Murl Ferguson also worked for the railroad. Murl and his brother had left farming
in southern Illinois for Chicago and work on the railroad sometime during the 1920’s. Another of Leopold’s
grandsons, Earl Gibney Peterson, also worked for the railroad joining the
Chicago and Northwestern Railroad on 13 Oct 1947 as a trainman.[iii]
The Chicago
and Northwestern Railroad was a major employer in the Chicago area and like the
telephone company often hired the children and siblings of their employees.
Over time
the industry has changed with automation playing a large role in the changes.
Currently my son-in-law is working for the railroad as a conductor. Today freight
trains only use a two man crew but the crew is limited to working twelve hours
or less. Other safety measures control rest time and training.
The railroad has been a steady employer and many families can count themselves
as recipients of the benefits of “Working on the Railroad”.
[i] US
Circuit Court -Boston, Massachusetts. 1791-1992 M1299. Naturalization Records.
, Boston, MA.
[ii] Ancestry.com.
Chicago, Illinois, Voter Registration, 1888 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:
Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001.
[iii] Chicago
and North Western Railroad Employee Records. Chicago & North Western
Historical Society, Berwyn, Illinois.
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