R is for Railroads: Coffeyville, Kansas and Daily Train Service 1871-1900
A familiar sight in Coffeyville, Kansas and nearly every other town were daily trains. This is from a 1900 illustration.
Among the lists people keep of lost sounds are the clacking of manual typewriters (or the hum and hushed clack of electric ones), rotary dial phones, a broken record, the piercing screech of a modem connecting. Few young people today have heard, in person, the buoyant sounds of a steam calliope or the piercing call of a steam engine whistle. What did Coffeyville, Kansas sound like in the 1880s and ‘90s?
Except in remote parts of the country, people heard the sounds of trains day and night every day. It is amazing how often trains stopped in towns, often very small towns. The railroad - its depots, flag stations, roundhouses, railroad shops, tracks, cars and routes themselves were very familiar to all our ancestors. They were big places in their lives.
They were also huge employers. Several people in my family tree worked for the railroad or businesses connected to them. Lucius Taylor Barbour; and Tom, Bruce and Charlie Patchett, all worked for railroads in different capacities at some point in their lives. Lucius and Tom worked in the shops where repairs were made. Bruce was a supervisor for the MoPac - the Missouri & Pacific Railroad. Charlie worked a short time in one of the most dangerous jobs, as a brakeman. My great-great grandfather, Myron Cassius Barbour, and my great-grandfather, Clyde Barbour, each ran railroad lunchrooms. Myron’s was in Pittsburg, Kansas and Clyde’s in Stockton, California. They were lunch counters located across the street from the depot. The train would stop, people would rush over to the grill and order something fast. It had to be fast!
Because railroads were such big employers the newspapers regularly featured a “railroad news” section, with titles like “Among the Jolly Railroaders,” or company-specific, like, “Missouri Pacific Notes.” Most of them featured the kind of information found in the “country correspondent” columns, like “Tom Patchett, boiler washer, has resigned. Engineer Russell has gone to Ossawatomie to visit his family. Fletcher Stark is laying off with the mumps. Mrs. M.E. Ray of the Missouri Pacific telegraphic department has returned from vacation.” They provided the “Facebook-type” information of their day. Others, as in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the Barbour brothers came from, were compiled news reports that were mostly, but not always local. In either case, these columns were probably widely read.
Train Traffic Depots
The train first arrived in Coffeyville in 1871 with the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad. In 1880, two trains thundered into Coffeyville everyday, northbound at 8:10 a.m. and southbound at 6:50 p.m. There were only a few hundred people in town, but it was a regional center and gateway to Indian Territory.
By 1890, with a city population of 2,282, arrivals and departures looked like this:
MoPac had passenger trains departing at 1:40 (westbound) and 2:45 (eastbound).
The V.V.I. & W. Division had northbound departing at 8:30 a.m. and 10:55 p.m.
The Kansas & Arkansas Valley Division passenger trains left at 6:15 and 6:20 a.m.
The Missouri, Kansas & Texas line had a northbound train at 9:00 a.m. and a southbound at 6:00 p.m.
The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe had passenger trains departing at 9:30 a.m. and 2:25 p.m. and arriving at 12:20 p.m. and 5:20 p.m.
This was seven days a week.
But they weren’t the only trains. Two freight trains came in on the MoPac each day, and one arrived on the V.V.I. & W each morning and departed each evening. The K. & A.V. freight train arrived at 6:20 a.m. and departed at 8:30 p.m. Finally, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas had freight trains leaving at 12:20 and 1:00 p.m.
That’s a lot of trains, and a lot of steam whistles. But they weren’t the only trains. There were also special excursion trains that would be added to the lines for special occasions. These included Fourth of July celebrations, street fairs and carnivals such as Kansas City’s Priests of Pallas; and religious conventions of groups like Christian Endeavor and the Epworth League. Like a chartered bus, they also took passengers to events like horse races and baseball games. If the game ran into extra innings the train would wait.
How often were my Coffeyville ancestors traveling on the trains? My guess is not often. Author Gerald Carson says few Americans traveled more than a hundred miles a year in the 1880s and ‘90s. And no wonder. In 1893 it was a nine-hour, 15 minute trip to Kansas City (about a two-hour, 45 minute drive today), leaving Coffeyville at 2:35 p.m. and arriving around midnight. Plus, it was expensive. In 1898 a round trip excursion ticket for the very popular Priests of Pallas Festival was $4.95 - equivalent today to roughly $190. Taking the whole family was then quite the big deal. It would also require a hotel stay unless one had family or friends to stay with. No wonder newspapers printed who was going, as when Matt and Eliza Patchett, my great-grandmother’s aunt and uncle, got to go in 1902! (I am sure they would not have made the trip if their daughter Fanelia wasn't living in Kansas City. Her husband, Henry Schaub, worked for a time as a conductor on the street cars there. Matt and Eliza could therefore avoid any hotel and restaurant costs.)
Depots
Coffeyville had two passenger depots, one for the MoPac and one for the Sante Fe Railroads, and separate freight depots. In September 1898 the Coffeyville newspaper described plans for the new Sante Fe depot. The old depot was moved and became the freight depot. The new passenger depot would be almost 96 feet long by 44 feet in width at its widest point, with 13-foot tall ceilings, 22 large windows, extra-wide doors and “old fashioned” fireplaces for heating, which was back in style in modern buildings, the story said. There were to be gender-segregated waiting rooms, a standard thing at the time. The roof would be gabled and have metallic shingles with ornamentation. The depot platform would be made of locally-made Coffeyville vitrified brick, 24 feet wide on its east side. The grounds would be macadamized and beautified. City officials patted themselves on the back that the Sante Fe Railroad thought Coffeyville enough of an up-and-coming place as to have such a fine new depot, one that could make townsfolk proud.
My great-grandfather Clyde was quick to move on from the old horse and buggy and acquire an automobile around 1913. Therefore, trips to nearby towns were not taken by train. It was the same with his brothers-in-law, George, John and Rube Patchett, who were often mentioned “motoring” to different nearby towns. The railroad remained important in their lifetimes, however, and as mentioned above, Clyde spent his last years operating a lunch counter restaurant across from the passenger depot in Stockton, California.
Note: For more information on separate ladies’ cars on trains and waiting rooms in the depots, see my article, “The Ladies Waiting Room” from May 2023.
This article was inspired by an A-Z Challenge – R is for Railroads. The A to Z Family History Challenge was created by other family history/genealogy bloggers a few years ago to inspire people to write one post a week. I’ve also seen one that called for writing a post a day, except Sundays, for the month of April. These aren’t designed to be deep in-depth time-consuming research endeavors (but they can be – and I love doing research). The original idea was doing something quick, maybe posting a photo of a broach inherited from a grandmother and writing about it. Some bloggers came up with themes, one being places of importance in family history. I liked that idea. My A to Z challenge articles will be places, and of course why they matter in my family tree.
Sources:
Newspapers:
“Railroad Time Table,” Coffeyville Weekly Journal, 29 Sept 1887, p. 3.
“Work Begins. No Time To Be Lost In Building the New Santa Fe Depot,” Coffeyville Daily Journal, 17 Sept 1898, p. 1.
“Laying Stone. Work on Santa Fe Depot Progressing Rapidly,” Coffeyville Daily Journal, 8 Oct 1898, p. 4.
Other:
Carson, Gerald. The Polite American: A Wide-Angle View of Our More or Less Good Manners Over 300 Years," London: MacMillan, 1967.
Copyright by Andrea Auclair © 2024
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