History of the Great Northern Railroad in Harrington - Part 3

MARJORIE WOMACH | Last updated Aug 20, 2014 4:43pm0

Great Northern Railroad - Part 1, submitted by Marjorie Womach, was published on July 10 and Part 2 on July 17.

Anyone interested in additional information on Northwest railroads may come to The Record office where we have several books for sale on the subject.

In 1921 it was said that in order for the Harrington Harvester to sell its machines at distant towns, they used two small white mules that pulled and scratched their way up the old City Hall hill pulling one of their machines. They wrote that the belly of the mules drug against the ground as they forced their way up the hill. Those were years in which the cream cans lining the platform was a familiar sight as local farmers shipped milk and cream to Spokane via the Great Northern. "Jack Robasse is in receipt of a letter from L A Malgrem, auditor of passenger receipts congratulating him on the marked increase in cream shipments from the Harrington station. For the first seven days of the month there were 50 cream shipments. This means about $1,000 a month coming into this community." (Citizen: 5-09-1924)

In 1926, "Frank Tate, local signal man for the Great Northern Railway at Harrington, received a telegram Sunday morning announcing the death of his father, and left that night on GN passenger train No. 4 for Glyndon, MN. Mr Tate's father was a veteran station agent, whose tenure of service with the same company, and in the same capacity, spans a stretch of 33 years in the endless chain of Time." This was prior to Frank's 1932 marriage to Lois Cobb.

"Following P T Metler's long service here as station agent, J A Robasse served many years in that capacity, and he was followed in 1934 by J D Brady who went from here to Northport, and is now at Douglass. C C McCormick came in 1936 and is still agent, and first-trick operator. 'Chuck' McCormick started his railroading in 1918 in Spokane; he was 'bumped' in 1919 and came to Harrington for a few months, bumping Mr McCain. From here Mac went to stations east of Spokane. Local Employees of the GN. Operators at the depot besides Mr McCormick, include W J Hartman, 2nd trick; L D Christy, 3rd trick; Vernon Nelson, who started his railroad career in 1949 at Okanogan, relief operator. Since Sept 1, 1948, GN employees have been on a five-day a week schedule. Women operators held positions during the war years, and those working at Harrington included Myrtle McFarland (now Mrs Wallace Bramer of Harrington); Betty Mycon (Mrs Rudolph Wagner, Harrington); Nancy Billisborough (Mrs Edwin Long of Moses Lake). Frank Tate is signal maintenance man and Orville Swartz is his assistant. Tate, son of a railroading father, has 34 years of railroading to his credit, twenty-three of which have been put in at Harrington. Harry Watanabe, Japanese, in service with the GN since 1919, is section foreman; Pete Rocco and Dominico Aiello, Italians, with long service records with the company and H McPeak, complete the crew. Better condition of track and road beds eliminates the necessity of large section crews; also, specialized crews come in on work trains to do special jobs. Mr McCormick has furnished The Citizen some interesting data, most of which we all have known in the past, but details of which we soon forgot." (Citizen: 1953)

Hanable McPeak was born in 1898 in Floyd Co, VA and was in the service in WW I. Hanable came to Harrington in 1921 the year after his marriage to Lydia Wegele. Hanable was the father of current Harrington resident Bud McPeak. Bud enjoys telling his recollections of Harrington when he was a young lad. "Hanable was employed by the Great Northern for 28 years, residing at Mohler 17 1/2 years. In 1926 Hanable worked for RR in Harrington until 1935 when he went to Bluestem. He was foreman part of the time. He would put in ties and check tracks. In Bluestem he worked under Harry Hodgey. In Harrington, Harry Watanabe was foreman. In Mohler Jim Masselli was foreman. It was hard physical labor, and Dad died at his 57th birthday on June 4, 1955. Those little motor cars were dangerous, 5 men would fit on one and then in all kinds of weather, off they would go to check the tracks, and fix whatever needed repair. These section crews replaced spikes, replaced bad ties, pull them and replace them. The steam engines were coal-fired, and the men would not hear them coming, as the motor on the motor car made a lot of noise itself. Very dangerous. They would then pick up the motor car and get it off the tracks so the train could go through, and then put it back on the track and continue working. Candy Kuper's husband, Don Walters took Hanabel's place when he left the RR. Frank Tate was a signal maintenance operator, he'd light the kerosene lights when a train was coming, that of course was before the double tracks. They had to put the train on the siding in order to let another train go through." Bud's knowledge of his dad's job was pretty thorough.

In November, 2001, following a two year period of interim ministering by Terry Van Blaricum, Pastor Bill Bull and his wife came to Harrington as the resident minister. Rev. Bull was born in 1944 and met his wife Bonnie in Princeton, Idaho. They have been married more than 40 years. They were the parents of three adult children by the time they moved here, Julia, Jeffrey and Janice.

Pastor Bull’s early career was in the lumber industry in Northern Idaho as a U.S. Forest Service smokejumper, as a switchman/brakeman for the Union Pacific Railroad and as a police officer for more than 22 years, and then he eventually became a police chaplain.

One of Pastor Bull's first sermons in Harrington was about his personal experience of listening to God, waiting on God, and following God's will for his life, regardless of the seeming impracticality of the decision.

The Harrington Nazarene church family were fortunate to meet Bill's mother, Margaret, who had been a strong influence in his life. During their time in Harrington, their daughter, Janice, and granddaughter, Emily, stayed with them while her husband, Keith Daniels, and household were in transition to move to Alaska.

Bill and Bonnie remained in Harrington until the fall of 2009 when they moved to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley where Bill became an associate pastor and Bonnie became a teacher's aide with special needs children. He claimed to be retired for eight months after having served over 15 years in two rural churches. Actually he is now office manager for First Church in Lewiston, 8 – 3 p.m., visitation minister for the hospital, rest homes and shut-ins and is supply minister for many of the churches of their vicinity. He has authored three books, The Shelter Tree and The War Letters, with the third unpublished. He was last in Harrington for the 75th anniversary celebration in 2013.

With Pastor Jim Beattie in Ridgefield, Wash. performing a marriage ceremony, he enlisted Rev. Bill Bull to preach Sunday, July 27, and organized a pot luck dinner to encourage socializing after the morning worship service.

Pastor Bill opened the service with prayer followed by three hymns with Billie Herron at the piano. He fully expected that each present would hear a message from God, noting that we serve the same God that rolled back the Red Sea, spoke from a burning bush, walked on the Sea of Galilee, allowed His Son to die for our sins and rolled back the stone on Easter morning. His Scripture was taken from Isaiah 43.

Following his concluding remarks, the congregation sang "Something Beautiful" and retired to the social room for a potluck dinner. About 22 were present for the event which allowed Pastor and Bonnie to speak at length with those they had known previously.

Summer Reading Program

The third session of the Harrington Public Library's Summer Reading Program was full of excitement. Not long after counting the 23 heads of little scientists, a great commotion was heard from their reading room, the door burst open and the young and old alike marched outside to the parking lot, where a "real" scientist had set-up a scientific lab for an experiment. The younger children sat in a semi-circle in front of the large table and the others stood and waited with anticipation for the "performance" to begin. Some of the parents were also present to view this show.

Placing a large bottle of carbonated soda on the table, and gaining the attention of her audience, the scientist placed a Mentos hard candy into the bottle and without shaking the bottle, the soda immediately fizzed and exploded out the neck of the bottle, rising nearly four feet into the air. In case the children were not paying strict attention, she repeated the process using more candies than in the first trial. Rather than shoot higher in the air, the soda dispersed sideways and only a portion went up.

The children then returned in an orderly manner to the reading room. Following their creative and artistic time, Meka Eaton read several stories to the children, most of whom enjoyed her enthusiastic storytelling.

This allowed the scientist to set up the reading room with a final experiment for them. In this experiment, "Toothpaste for Elephants", the scientist mixed hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, yeast, and food coloring. The concoction foamed and rose out to fill the beaker, and continued to foam down the sides. Some of the children's faces were a joy to see as they tried to comprehend the experiment. Of course, the children were warned this is "toothpaste" in name only, and is not edible, not even for elephants!

Continuation:

Arlie Bischoff worked for the railroad for 30 years, and saw work at Wilson Creek, Wenatchee, Kettle Falls, Rosalia, Essex and Libby, MT. He had a position in Harrington from 1961 to 1972 as a laborer, yes, pick and shovel, and Arlie said "Pick and Shovel was like slave labor, had to keep the section running, drive spikes and fix crossing planks." Hours were from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. except when he was foreman, and he didn't like that very much, as "it was a 24 hour a day job, if anything went wrong, the foreman had to go, no matter what". In 1972 he was out on machines, he would use a motor car, speeder, to patrol the tracks from Bluestem to Lamona, and that was double track. He mentioned working with Len Long, John Lamb and Gary Studheit, and quickly added, that he could share his manuscript with me to include all the men he ever worked with on the rails. From 1972 through 1983 he used an electomatic tamper-liner, which is said to correct the alignment of the rails and make them level; 1983-1988 Arlie used a Mark 3 Tamper with switch lifter. Arlie could have been a teacher as he wanted to fully describe the various jobs he had. "A 'gandy' is a nick-name for a section hand. The gandy would work a six day week, ten hours long, with tasks such as hand digging in the ties, tamping them tight with a spade, sweeping the switch points clean during a blizzard, shoveling tons of ballast and tamping it under the tracks, and swing a spike maul."

"Frank Tate retires from Great Northern. Frank Tate retired Sept 1 from service with the Great Northern, that started in 1916 when he was in high school. He worked summers during the four year stretch of high school. He went on with the company steady in 1920, working at Glinden, near Fargo, North Dakota. Frank was born at Fargo. He worked at Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1921 he came to Washington and to Harrington in 1923. He has been signal maintenance man. His mother, the late Mrs Jennie Tate, lived here with her son for several years. In 1931 Frank and Miss Lois Cobb were married. July 23, 1958 Frank sustained a fractured leg in an accident one mile west of Canby. he was on the motorcar and he succeeded in getting the car off the track out of the path of the on-coming train, but a hubcap of the engine caught in his overall leg--and he came out of the accident with a severe fracture. He was in Sacred Heart hospital 17 weeks. His injury was severe--and less courageous men would have ended their physical work at that point. He proclaimed 'I'll return to work. His friends and relatives shook their heads at the thought. For many week he battled, but never gave up. Eventually he was able to hobble with crutches, a painful, hard ordeal--but he was determined. Later a cane was his helper. After 21 months, Frank did return to work. The Tates own their home and take pride in their yard and home. An avid reader, Frank will probably catch up on his reading. He also enjoys walking. Mr and Mrs Tate are leaving this weekend for salmon fishing on the coast. They plan to do some traveling, and enjoy recreation for which heretofore they have had too little time." (Citizen: 9-16-1965)

Sunday, June 29, an interview was conducted with Ed Lust, 92, living in Spokane Valley. He came to work at the Great Northern Harrington Depot on Aug 1, 1955 and worked there until he retired in 1980. The depot was still there. He and Al Kleckner retired at the same time. Ed had the Relief Job there, his week started at midnight Thursday night to 8 a.m. Friday; Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m .; Monday and Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 12 midnight. His duties included copying train orders, taking care of the few telegrams, and getting information on the phone. Ed worked at Kettle Falls in 1952 for a couple of years. His wife had relatives in Davenport and it was Ed's aim to get on at Harrington. Ed was a hard worker, and said that with five children one had to work a little extra to take care of the family needs. He farmed some for Ray Reker and also hayed for Jimmy Graham. Ed expressed pride in his position with the Great Northern, "It was a good railroad when it was Great Northern. When it became Burlington Northern, you became just a number". Ed will turn 93 in August, but is not planning a big party. He shared some of his memories of WW II when he was in Radio Intelligence in Europe. He went through Germany, spent some time in Austria but on D-Day, he was sitting on the coast in England. Mina and Clain were in Davenport waiting for his return. Typical of most elderly golfers, Ed has a few complaints about his shoulders aching. His last trip to Harrington was for the 50th year anniversary of the Harrington Golf and Country Club, as he was one of the original members.

An interview with Betty Mycon, former employee of the GNRR, revealed that the Great Northern ran advertisements for a 4-week training session to enable women to join their work force during the war. Betty graduated from John Rogers high school in Spokane in 1944, attended the training and was carried by a Great Northern to Harrington in June. She was a Great Northern telegrapher, and could use the telegraph machine, but said quite honestly that they had a private telephone line to the railroad that negated the need for much use of telegraphing orders. She would receive the orders for the train by phone, and then put the orders in the "hoop" where the conductor would then grab the orders as the train went through the area. Betty worked 4-12 and said that Myrtle Bramer worked the midnight shift. At that time McCormick was manager or the depot agent. And this telephone that she used was not at all like the cell phones of today. Oh, no, and not like the phones that preceded the cell phones. Betty used one of those large wooden, battery-loaded crank phones. "I wonder what happened to that old phone when the depot was removed?" Betty enjoyed visiting about the days of yore, when she would help pull the pallets from the train. "In those days, beef ready for the market was brought in, sometimes a half of a cow. And Jim Davidson would go to the railroad and get his grocery orders." As Betty recalls, she earned $400 a month, and that was good money for the day. When she worked for the railroad she lived with Mrs Belle Talkington, and paid for her board and room. Betty was pretty animated as she spoke of meeting "Prince Charming" who she married the following May, 1945, and became the woman known in Harrington as Betty Wagner. Myrtle Bramer was born in 1925 and worked in Harrington for the GN, like Betty, when she first moved to Harrington in 1943. Myrt died in 1971.

"Dispatcher's Career Spans Three Decades. Edwin Haugan, who has worked for the Great Northern in Harrington since 1952, (with 2 years off for Army service), dispatches his final messages Wednesday from the local station. Haugan originally was a telegrapher for the GN and has seen many changes over the years including a merger creating the Burlington Northern. When asked what the most exciting thing was that had happened while he was on duty, he related the following story, 'Some girls from Davenport had borrowed a car and come over to watch their boyfriends play ball against Harrington. Not realizing that the street behind the depot was not a through street, their car wound up straddling the main track.' After getting the girls to safety, Haugan headed down the track with a warning flare to stop a freight due any minute. It was too late, the train was coming around the bend and in a matter of seconds the car was airborne. No one was injured, but you can imagine the story those girls had to tell about why they were late getting home." (Photo Caption: 2-23-1984)

A discussion of the GNRR would not be complete without some mention of Dr L F Wagner. "Dr Wagner Has Been GN Surgeon 46 Years. Dr L Wagner, Great Northern surgeon and examining physician for employees, has held that position since 1907. In the first years of his appointment, accidents on the railroad were common and he was frequently called out for professional service. To facilitate his transportation problem, the doctor purchased a speeder that tracked on the rails. It was driven by a gas engine--but often the doctor had to do a foot race behind the volocipede to get the motor started. Often the engine lacked power to negotiate a grade, which required another turn of pushing the thing. The doctor's experience with this not-always-convenient convenience during the five or six years he had it, were as varied and colorful as Jack Benny and his Maxwell. Dr Wagner relates one experience, when he was called to Mohler: 'As my speeder sneezed down the tracks, I was aware No. 27 (fast mail) was soon due, so I stopped at a crossing this side of Mohler, set the machine off onto the road, and waited in it for the fast mail to pass. As 27 sped along, the trainmen saw my machine along the tracks so when they pulled through Harrington, they rushed into the station and reported the train had 'hit the doctor's speeder, knocked it off the tracks and someone should go out right away and see about the situation.' After the train passed, I set my put-put back on the tracks and continued west. While I was on the tracks I wasn't within four miles of that mail train.' In due time railroad safety measures were much improved and the doctor was called out less frequently. He was a bit weary of boosting the speeder off and on the tracks and pushing it up grades so he sold it to a man up north where the railway schedule included about three trains a week. Ironically, the speeder was hit and wrecked by a train." (Citizen: 3-13-1953)

Other than the shipping of grain, the noise of the trains passing through town and an occasional complaint about the condition of the railway crossings, little notice is paid of the trains; yet in the hearts and minds of many of our present day residents, the RR brings back memories of by-gone days, hard labor, a different way of life. For the majority, the railroad is seen for the importance it has played in the development and survival of the town. What began as the Great Northern Railroad with its tracks completed on Nov 1, 1892 moved into history by the Burlington Northern's closure of the depot in Harrington on Feb 15, 1984.

To be continued next week