Thirty Years Ago the Jamestown Freight Station Was an Insignificant Affair – Interviews With Veterans in the Service
It was 30 years ago today that Frank S. Jones, ticket agent at the uptown office of the J. C. & L. E. railway and local freight manager for the Pennsylvania Railroad, began his career as a railroad man in this city. He has previously assisted in building and afterwards caring for the stock yards which were, years ago, located on the flats of East Jamestown, but on May 19, 1872, he was enrolled as one the regular employees of the Atlantic & Great Western railroad, now an important part of the main line of the great Erie system. Since that time Mr. Jones has devoted himself to railroad work with only a few brief intermissions.
In speaking of his experiences Mr. Jones said: “I went to work on the stock yards in 1868 and in 1872 I entered the regular employ of the company as a freight handler. E. W. Norris was station agent at that time, but, in 1873 he was superseded by F. C. Jewett. R. J. Bootey was clerk in the freight office and about that time W. B. Wood also became a clerk there.
“In those days the freight house stood on the south side of the main track midway between the present freight house and the passenger depot. There was one short siding which ran down back to the depot. We loaded and unloaded cars from this track into the station. To the north of the main track was a longer siding known as the passing switch. The loading switch would not hold more than half a dozen carloads and as there was no switch engine to move them, when we had taken the incoming freight and reloaded them with outgoing merchandise, we had to wait until the way freight came along to haul them out and replace them with fresh cars. In those day a great deal of the loading and unloading of cars was done directly from and to the wagon. William Harrison was the other freight handler, at that time, and I think W. D. Bowen joined the force soon afterward.
“The principal shippers were the Cane Seat Chair factory, Wood & Co., who manufactured bedsteads and whose shop stood on the site of the Warner block, Schildmacher & Bau-[unreadable], makers of dressers, whose factory was at the foot of Main Street, and Chase & Son who had a woodseat chair factory where the Arcade building now stands. Jamestown was a great shipping point then, as now, for butter and on buying days we handled many hundreds of tubs. Allen & Hitchcock, dealers in flour, feed and seeds, received more freight in those days than any other mercantile establishment in the town.
“One of the greatest changes that has taken place in the freight business within the last 30 years is the reduction of time in transit. In 1872 and for years afterwards six days from New York was quick time in which to receive a shipment. More frequently the goods would be two or three weeks on the road and if an anxious consignee came down to the freight house and made a kick about the non-arrival we used to tell him he had better go down the road and hunt them up. Nowadays there is a kick if a shipment is more then 36 hours on the way and the boys do not give the kicker any back talk, either. Freight was just as likely to go astray as it was to come through straight in those good old times, and if a man came to the freight house with a letter from the shipper or some other proof that his goods were lost we would say: “That is too bad, we are so sorry,” and that was all the satisfaction he could get out of us. I was practically yard master for the Erie for a number of years and I took charge of the first yard engine ever located at this station. I think the busiest years I ever experienced in the Erie railroad yards were those when the Buffalo & Southwestern and the Chautauqua Lake railways were being constructed.
“In 1887 I left the Erie and took the position of freight agent for the Jamestown & Chautauqua railway. Since then under the various managements that have controlled the road I have been conductor, general agent and superintendent.”
As Mr. Jones’s reminiscences were found interesting by some of his companions in the railroad business were interviewed. R. J. Bootey, the present superintendent of the Chautauqua Steamboat company and the General Manager of the J., C. & L. E. railway, was asked to relate his experiences.
“There is not much to tell,” he replied, “except that the manner of doing business in a railroad office 30 years ago would not be tolerated now. When I entered the freight office of the old Atlantic & Great Western railroad the oil boom was at its height and Franklin was the center of activity. Shippers were rather careless in those days about making out shipping bills and it frequently happened that we could not tell to what station a shipment should be billed. We used to have a saying in the office, that was more pungent than pious: ‘Bill it to Franklin and let it go to h–l.’ So when in doubt, we used to make out the bill to Franklin but how many of the goods ever reached the other place I am not prepared to state.”
William Harrison is probably the oldest railroad man in point of service in this city. He entered the employ of the Atlantic & Great Western railroad in 1862 and except for two years on the police force and the short time it took him to learn that there is no more money driving a dray than there is in handling freight, he has been in the railroad business ever since. He worked a short time for the Jamestown & Chautauqua railway, but aside from this his services have been given to the Erie and he has worked under every agent that the road has had in Jamestown.
“James Barton was the first railroad station agent Jamestown ever had,” said Mr. Harrison in telling of his experiences. “He was afterward sent to Franklin. The freight business in those days did not amount to a great deal. If we received a car load from New York once a week we thought we were doing a great business. We do more business in a day now than we did in two months then and we do not make so many mistakes in two months as we did then in one day. The first serious accident that happened was the blowing up of the locomotive Salamanca, old No. 1, on Dexterville bridge in 1863.” Mr. Harrison’s reminiscences were corroborated by those given by Mr. Jones.
Daniel Moynihan, who is still employed in the Erie freight house, tell The Journal that he entered the employ of the Erie railroad, then the Atlantic & Great Western, when he came back from the war 36 years ago, and most of the time since then he has worked in the freight handling department.
“When I first went railroading,” said Mr. Moynihan, “the freight house, freight office, ticket office, express office, waiting room, water tanks and woodshed were all in one building. All the locomotive burned wood in those days and the woodshed was the biggest part of the establishment. Aside from the shed the structure was not much larger than the present Wells Fargo Express office. The main siding was to the north of the main track next to the bank and the freight house was on the south side. We used to place planks from the cars to the depot platform and carry or roll the freight across. When a train came along we had to pick up our planks and knock off work until it passed. The system of handling freight is not much different now than it was in the old days, but the methods have improved and the volume of business has increased immensely.”
Source: Jamestown [NY] Journal. 19 May 1902.