Tom, you might be interested in this book - Sam Johnson: The Experience and Observations of a Railroad Telegraph Operator (1878) - Clippinger. The book is available in reprinted hardcover.
Clippinger’s book details the work experiences of a railroad telegraph operator in the late 1860’s. It has chapters grouped into four “Epochs” corresponding to the four major towns/locales where Sam Johnson worked: Princeton, Indiana, Wasatch, Indiana, Newtown, Indiana, and Poverty Flat, California.
Based on my knowledge of railroads it appears the first epoch in Princeton was working for the Pennsylvania Railroad. The author gives the reader an excellent picture of the grueling hours and exhausting conditions a station agent/telegrapher faced working in a local train station in the late 1860’s. In Johnson’s case the work was made even more arduous because he contracted malaria shortly after he arrived at Princeton.
It is obvious the author has changed the names of the towns but a little checking of Google maps reveals the following:
There is a town of Princeton, Indiana, however, the description of the towns on the rail line to the east and west of Princeton match the towns to the east and west of Pierceton, Indiana. The town of Wasatch, Indiana is a deliberate pseudonym; details in the book indicate it is west of Fort Wayne which would suggest it could be the town of Warsaw, Indiana. As a guess I think the author may have chosen a pseudonym for Pierceton because of his having contracted malaria there and the name Wasatch because of his very poor opinion of the place.
There is no town of Conroy, Ohio but there is a town of Convoy which matches the book description of its location and there is a Poverty Flat, California however, it is south of Sacramento and not in the eastern foothills. I would guess that the Poverty Flat of Clippingers book is now known by some other name just like the 1860’s town of Hangtown, California is now known as Placerville.
