Iron Women

201 Pages·2021·7.126 MB·English

by  CHRIS ENSS

Iron Women
The Ladies Who Helped Build the Railroad
Chris Enss
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Copyright © 2021 Chris Enss
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Enss, Chris, 1961– author.
Title: Iron women : the ladies who helped build the railroad / Chris Enss.
Description: Guilford : TwoDot, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references
and index. | Summary: “A history of the contributions women made to the
building of the US railroad system”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020033417 (print) | LCCN 2020033418 (ebook) | ISBN
9781493037759 (paperback) | ISBN 9781493037766 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Railroads—United States—History—19th century. |
Women—United States—History—19th century.
Classification: LCC HE2751 .E67 2020 (print) | LCC HE2751 (ebook) | DDC
385.092/520973—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020033417
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020033418
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/
NISO Z39.48-1992.
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Chapter 1: The Telegraphers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2: Sarah Kidder: The Railroad President . . . . . . . . . . 14
Chapter 3: Helen Hunt Jackson: The Poet’s Railroad Tour . . . . . 25
Chapter 4: Laura Bullion: The Wild Bunch Train Robber. . . . . . 39
Chapter 5: Lillie Langtry: The Jersey Lily and the LaLee . . . . . . 53
Chapter 6: Mary Pennington: The Creator of the Modern
Refrigerator Boxcar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Chapter 7: Miriam Leslie: The Journalist Riding the Rails . . . . . 75
Chapter 8: Women vs. the Railroad:
The Fight for Fairness on the Rails. . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Chapter 9: Olive Dennis: The Railroad Civil Engineer . . . . . . . 98
Chapter 10: Phoebe Snow: The Railroad Pinup Girl . . . . . . . .104
Chapter 11: Julia Bulette: The Madam Honored by the Railroad . .107
Chapter 12: Mary Colter: The Harvey House Architect. . . . . . . 112
Chapter 13: Mary Louise Lawser:
The Santa Fe Railroad Muralist. . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Chapter 14: The Harvey Girls:
The Railroads’ Hospitality Ambassadors . . . . . . . .133
Chapter 15: The Business and Professional Women’s Club . . . . .152
Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186

Acknowledgments
With a deep sense of gratitude, the author expresses her appreciation of
the help given her by a number of interested women and men, among
them being:
Claire Phillips at the California State Railroad Museum Library
and Archives Department in Sacramento, California.
The Research Department at the Nevada County Historical Society
in Nevada City, California.
The staff at the Nevada County Railroad Museum in Nevada City,
California.
The archivists at Harper’s Magazine.
The Society of California Pioneers.
Iris Hanney at Accessible Archives.
Mary Mathias at the National Academy of Engineering.
The staff at the Kansas Historical Society.
Paul Nelson at the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay,
Wisconsin.
The staff at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs,
Iowa.
The staff at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum in Baltimore,
Maryland.
Stuart Rosebrook, editor for True West magazine.
And finally, to Erin Turner, editorial director at Rowman and
Littlefield. I’m grateful beyond words for her continual support and
encouragement.
v
Two women in front of locomotive #4 COURTESY OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE RAILROAD
MUSEUM LIBRARY & ARCHIVES
Introduction
When the last spike was hammered into the steel track of the Transconti-
nental Railroad on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah, Western
Union lines sounded the glorious news of the railroad’s completion. At
2:45 p.m. on that day, the following dispatch was received at New York:
Promontory Summit, Utah, May 10 – The last rail is laid! The last
spike is driven! The Pacific Railroad is complete! The point of junc-
tion is 1086 miles west of the Missouri River, and 690 miles east of
Sacramento City.1
For more than five years, an estimated four thousand men, mostly
Irish working west from Omaha and Chinese working east from Sac-
ramento, moved like a vast assembly line toward the end of the track.2
Editorials in newspapers and magazines from coast to coast praised the
accomplishment, and some boasted that the work “was begun, carried on,
and completed solely by men.” The August 1869 edition of Godey’s Lady’s
Book and Magazine reported, “No woman has laid a rail; no woman has
made a survey.” The article added that
the muscular force and the intellectual guidance have come alike from
men. It is worthwhile for the women who are clamoring for the suf-
frage to reflect whether the right to vote does not imply a capacity for
the hard work of subduing the world, mental and physical, to which so
far only men have been found competent.
We have indicated again and again in this publication what we
believe to be the true sphere of woman: in the home, in society, among
the poor; refining and ennobling social intercourse; alleviating the
misery of the world. She can do these things now; if she contests man’s
work with him, she can do them no longer. Not by her hand can build
the city . . . or the railroad.3
vii
Introduction
Although the physical task of building the railroad had been achieved
by men, women made significant and lasting contributions to the historic
operation. The female connection with railroading dates as far back as
1838, when women were hired as registered nurses/stewardesses in pas-
senger cars. Those ladies attended to the medical needs of travelers and
acted as hostesses of sorts, helping passengers have a comfortable journey.
Susan Morningstar was one of the first women on record employed
by a railroad. She and her sister, Catherine Shirley, were hired by the Bal-
timore and Ohio Railroad in 1855 to keep the interior of the cars clean
and orderly. The feminine, homey touches they added to the railroad car’s
décor attracted female travelers and transformed the stark, cold interior
into a more welcoming setting.4
Miss E. F. Sawyer became the first female telegraph operator when
she was hired by the Burlington Railroad in Montgomery, Illinois, in
1872. The following year, Union Pacific Railroad executives followed suit
by hiring two women to be telegraph operators in Kansas City, Missouri.5
Inventress Eliza Murfey focused on the mechanics of the railroad, cre-
ating devices for improving the way bearings on the rail wheel attached to
train cars responded to the axles. The device, or packing as it was referred
to, was used to lubricate the axles and bearings. Murfey held sixteen pat-
ents for her 1870 invention.6
In 1879, another woman inventor named Mary Elizabeth Walton
developed a system that deflected emissions from the smokestacks on
railroad locomotives. She was awarded two patents for her pollution-
reducing device.7
A cattle rancher’s daughter, Nancy P. Wilkerson, from Terre Haute,
Indiana, created the cattle car in 1881. Using a rack- and- pinion mecha-
nism, she devised sliding partitions that separated the livestock from the
food compartments and water troughs.8
From the mechanical to the ornamental and a combination of both,
women like civil engineer Olive Dennis and architect Mary Colter made
their marks on the railroad in the late 1890s. While employed with the
Baltimore and Ohio, Olive introduced reclining passenger seats and
individual window vents that not only allowed fresh air into the car but
viii
Introduction
Women played a significant role in shaping the American railroad. Many worked
in machine shops welding and sorting washers. CALIFORNIA STATE RAILROAD MUSEUM
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES
also trapped dust. The refinements were quickly adopted by railroad lines
across the country.
Mary Colter was the chief architect and decorator for the Fred Har-
vey Company. Harvey developed the Harvey House restaurants and hotels
that served rail passengers on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
Mary designed and decorated Harvey’s eateries and inns. She considered
the La Posada Hotel in Winslow, Arizona, to be her finest work.
In addition to Mary Colter’s architecture and decorating style, Fred
Harvey’s establishments were further enhanced by the “attractive and
intelligent young women of good character” who worked at his eat-
ing houses throughout the West. Dressed in their starched black- and-
white shirts, bibs, and aprons, the always beautiful Harvey Girls served
ix