Train moguls and the Robber Barons

Mike,

I am watching an AMC tv series called "**** on wheels" - it seems to be a representative view of what those times were like. It is pretty grim at times.

I think the history books tell most of the big stories. It was a time of dynamic leaders, unsavory business practices, and cutthroat financial tactics that would be definitely illegal today - in fact many of them are precisely because they were carried to such extremes back then.  

Railroads definitely helped with the westward expansion, but they did as much, or more, to give the east's economy a steroid injection, too.  Although not purely historical (but based greatly on history), the old TV mini-series starring Richard Jordan, The Captains and the Kings, has a lot of that history, many, many scenes with railroads and locomotives, etc., of that period (sort of what the plot is about) and the atmosphere of that period and the railroads and how they were built up as businesses and run.   

Thanks Turtle and Lee,

I wonder if, given the richness of history some stories are told others not. Just like the Civil War stories when told from a certain perspective, may overlook some important facts or details.

Perhaps, we shall never know the shady dealings of a few kingpins!

Mike Maurice

Mike-I would say that most of the stories are untold.  We only read about the bigger projects, and frequently those stories are limited to the basic outline and the major characters.

I read a book on the construction of the B&O's initial line to Wheeling and one interesting aspect was how often construction was delayed because some contractor ran out of money.  If we read about financial problems at all, it is usually when the railroad company itself runs out of funds.  We don't see as often the struggle contractors had in raising the funds necessary to buy supplies and pay their workers.

Think about that for a minute, please.  If the "stories" are untold, and the events occurred 100 to 150 years ago, obviously all the folks are long gone that COULD have "told the stories". Right? 

You want to read a recent book, "Railroaded" by historian Richard White.  

It details the seamy underside of the transcontinentals' development, with an emphasis on economics and social history.

Another recommendation:  Chapter 11, "Robber Barons and Rebels," of Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States."

Great reading for a balanced perspective, Zinn describes many of the "empire builders" as we know them as the first beneficiaries of the welfare state--utilizing any means possible to create and maintain monopolies, enmeshed banking interests, artificially high prices, an exploited workforce, and a government that feigned neutrality but answered primarily to the wealthy and connected.

I get a bit of a kick out of the phrase "Robber Barons". Ok, so they were pretty tough customers who employed tactics that later became illegal, those "robbers" created industries (railroads, oil, steel, copper, food processing, etc.) that created billions of dollars of wealth for this country and employed multiple millions of people. Contrast those men with the current crop of shysters on Wall Street that skim billions of dollars off of going enterprises, pour the proceeds into their pockets and pay tax rates lower then their secretaries. They have hurt millions of people (some of whom are on this board) and given back absolutely nothing.

If you are looking for "untold stories" from the standpoint of the individual railroad worker during the 1865-1900 time period any one of these should provide some insight.

The American Railroad Network, 1861-1890 – Taylor - a good history of the development of that aspect of the railroad infrastructure

Diary of a Roundhouse Foreman – Reilly - first person accounts of working on the mechanical force between 1890 and 1910

Early Day Railroading From Chicago- Prescott – first person accounts of working on the C&NW- 19th Century

Early Railroad Days in New Mexico, 1880 – Tice – first person accounts of running surveys for the AT&SF before any of the rails had been laid.

Forty Years a Locomotive Engineer- thrilling tales of the rail – Reed – Northern Pacific RR – 1800’s

Ma Kiley: the life of a railroad telegrapher – Jepsen – first person work in 1800’s

On the Mountain Division – Parson – 19^th century railroading – conductor accounts

Railroading in the Eighties – history of the U.S. railroads on a year-by-year basis (1881-1889) as told through quotations of newspaper articles.

Reflections of a Civil War Locomotive Engineer A Ghost-Written Memoir – Harris

Reminiscences of A…Railroad Engineer – Wilson – first person accounts of a civil engineers experiences of working on the railroads in the 19th Century

You should read up on the Credit Mobilier scandal; bribing Congressmen was plenty illegal even in the Gilded Age.

Of course today we would just call it job creators exercising free speech.

Certainly some (like the Big Four) were interested in building a working railroad while defrauding the government along the way;  for others (like Thomas Durant of the Union Pacific) it was entirely about the fraud.

  I would like to second "Railraded" by Richard White, it is more of a financial story than anything. It goes into detail about the financial wizardry of the late 1800s.

  Yes a lot of contractors went out of business but it must be remembered the owners of the railroad were also the owners of the contracting companies.

  Standard busness practices in those days required a "gift" of company stock before any legislation could be considered, sometimes an entre state legislature would recieve a gift of company stock. They played by different rules in those days.

  My local library has a great collection of old railroad books that have many stories of the railroads. I have been trying to find and reread a story I read about a cattle train on the Texas & Pacific that was carrying a "drover car". The cowboys got hold of a bottle of whiskey and tried to shoot out the lanterns on the caboose. The conductor and train crew took umbrage with this behavior.  The train crews and cowboys were known to have trouble getting along, the railroad men averaged north of thirty years old while the cowboys were south of twenty. The railroads forbade drinking on duty while the cowboys considered it a duty to drink. Anyhow so the story goes, as the train approached Ft. Worth the cowboys passed out drunk and the train crew cut the drover car out of the train and sent it rolling down a seldom used spur where it was found the next day by a thrice weekly mixed freight. The sobered up cowboys were still angry when the train put the drover car on the front end and pushed it on into the next town.

Douglas 

Thanks Guys,

I guess I have some heavy reading to do! Check back with me in about a month!

I knew a properly placed question would bring about "the Skinny" on the subject, see this is the place to come for this sort of information to OGR not anyplace else! You've just made a really serious subject 150% clearer. the big heavy books gloss over it, asking questions about it works for me. THANKS AGAIN!

Now, I've got the whole story.

Mike Maurice

Thankfully there is always more to the story--which is why historical research is so interesting, and illuminating.

We can never assume that the sources of information about the past are dried up, or fully documented. There's always another attic to search, another family bible to discover, another newspaper, journal, or regimental history to unearth.

Jeff C

A Treasury of Railroad Folklore, editor B.A. Botkin and Alvin F. Harlow; Bonanza Books, New York, 1989.

I like this book for its short stories.  Each story has the source listed, giving one a wealth of further books to look up. 

Nathan

That's certainly the truth! The more things change the more they stay the same, only now things are legal.

Mr Bohanan, I do believe you are about to get your job back.

Robber Barons??  Nah, what it was (at that particular point in time) was Manifest Destiny.

Mr. Robert S. Butler does have an excellent list though.

There is the possibility that a diary written by one of the principals was stuffed in a desk drawer after their death and gets passed around through the years, only to be found by a descendant or donated to Goodwill or a museum.  Happens on occasion.

I guess one could take the "untold stories" statement literally but there is another way to view it...

Every mountian is unclimbed until you have stood on its summit.

Every country is unexplored until you have left your footprints in the dust.

...and

Every book is new until you have read it.

  In that light, any book written by anyone from the 19th Century is an untold story until you have taken the time to read it.

  I was looking over the book pile this morning and I found a couple of others that you might want to consider.

  A Church On Wheels - Rust - published 1905 - subtitled 10 years on a Chapel Car.  Rust was a minister on one of the formal chapel cars (literally churches on wheels) which moved from town to town across the west to bring churches and church services to towns that did not have a permanent church for religious services.

  Orphan Trains - O'Conner - not so much oral history as a history of the effort.

  There is a book

  We Rode the Orphan Trains - Warren which is oral history but since these were live interviews made in the 20th Century the narriative is for the early part of the 20th Century.

  Tales of the Telegraph - Brady - 1899 - A first person account of his adventures as a telegrapher for the railroads, military, and business.

  Forty Years on the Rail - George 1887 - he was a conductor and this is his story.

  Clear the Tracks - Bromley - started his career in 1880.  This is an "as told to" with the ghost writer Page Cooper but it is still a good read.

'Tunnels, Nitro, and Convicts'

A very interesting story happened in our area of the western NC mountains after the Civil War where the RR used convicts from Raleigh NC to hand lay the tracks up 1000' of elevation in 3 linear miles from the lowlands just east of here up to Asheville.

Check out         http://www.amazon.com/Tunnels-...ilroad/dp/1452067716