Son of Smith Morehouse Aber & Hannah Mariah Aber
Married to 1) Josephine Helen Sweet, b. 1851 in Canada, and married December 31, 1869, Sheldon County, Vermont
Eugene and Josephine had 2 daughters in Racine, Wisconsin. Amy Adelle, b. Aug 27, 1872 and Emma Gene, b. Oct 10, 1870
Eugene appears on the 1870 U.S. census & 1875 Racine, Racine County, Wisconsin state census. The 1870 U.S. census shows him & Josephine living next door to his parents, Smith and Hannah Aber.
During the 1880 U.S. census he is living in Alto Pass, Union County, Illinois in a boarding house owned by Emma Burk
His 2 daughters, Emma & Amy Adelle are living in Racine, Wisconsin with their grandparents in 1880. I assume Josephine died.
Married to 2) Almeda Rendleman, m. March 16, 1881, Union County, Illinois.
Eugene and Almeda also had 2 daughters, Helen (Stricklin), and Harriet (Worts)
Military Service:
Co. I, 51st Wis. Inf.
Enlisted March 23, 1865
Residence: Racine
Rank: Private
Source: Murphysboro Daily Independent, Saturday, January 23, 1926, Pg. 1 & 2
GENE ABER, 73, PIONEER RAIL-ROADER, DIES
Life History Itself Entwined With Building Record of M. & O. Railroad-Petition for Pension is Pertinent Story In Part of Cradle Days of System
Eugene C. Aber, 76 years old, father of Mrs. Charles Stricklin of Murphysboro and Mrs. Charles L. Worts of Jackson, Tenn., pensioned veteran of the Mobile & Ohio road department since 1916, died Friday in Jackson, Tenn., of pneumonia. The body will arrive via the M. & O. Saturday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock for burial Sunday.
Mr. Aber went to Jackson a week ago Friday to visit with his daughter, Mrs. Worts, feeling that the Tennessee winter might be gentler and beneficial to his health. He caught cold and pneumonia ensued. The daughter, Mrs. Stricklin, soon joined him. First reports from the bedside encouraged hope of recovery. A bad turn for the worse ensued Thursday.
Deceased was one of the oldest Mobile & Ohio employees, ranking for years of service with the Conductor William Weeke, with the road 56 years, and B. B. Tolson of Murphysboro, an assistant to the general manager of the system and until recently superintendent of the St. louis division, with the M. & O. 47 years. Mr. Aber's service longevity ranked third with these.
The surviving daughters of his second marriage are Mrs. Charles Stricklin, Murphysboro and Mrs. Charles Long Worts, Jackson, Mrs. Adelle Brown, superintendent of the M. C. D. hospital in Chicago, is the surviving child of his first marriage. Mrs. Brown arrived here Saturday morning. A brother, Frank Aber, lives at Racine, Wis., a sister, Mrs. A. H. Granger, of Phillipsburg, Kansas.
The remains are to be taken to the Aber home at 227 South Fourteenth street. Funeral rites will be held at the Presbyterian church beginning at 2:30 p.m. Sunday the Rev. Lloyd, pastor, presiding for the church. Interment City Cemetery. Masons will have charge of the funeral. He was a member of the Masonic lodge and of the Eastern Star.
In the passing of Gene Aber, Murphysboro must surrender to the great majority another of her most esteemed and worthwhile men.
In the M. & O. personal service records there is nowhere one more indicative of labor than that of Gene Aber, such as was addressed by Mr. Aber to Road Master Sam Cheatham of the system in 1916. His service record in fact is a building record in part of the M. & O. from its infancy, and follows:
Murphysboro, Illinois, August 31, 1916
Mr. S. Cheatham,
Road Master,
Murphysboro, Ill.
Dear Sir-
Since having pneumonia last winter, I have been in bad health, although during the spring and summer I have been out with my Fence Gang. I realize that the exposure of another winter would result in a cold from which I could hardly expect to recover, therefore, I desire to ask the management, through you, for a pension of whatever amount they feel justified in allowing me for my past services.
My continuous service in various capacities for the Cairo and St. Louis, St. Louis and Cairo and Mobile and Ohio Railroads has lasted up to the first of September, 1916- forty-three years and eight months, all of which I spent in the Bridge and Building department.
I have tried everyday to give the company my best services and have always been loyal to my employers. I have tried to be conscientious and faithful in the performance of every duty and in giving my record of service, I shall go a little further back to show that almost all my entire useful man-hood has been spent in the service of this company.
I was born June 10, 1849, and spent my early life in Racine, Wisconsin; entered the Federal Army March, 1865 at the age of sixteen years as a Private in Company "I" of the 51st Wisconsin Volunteers, under Capt. Asa G. Blake. I went through the war without being captured or wounded and was mustered out of service at the close of hostilities.
In December of 1872, when 23 years old, I came to East St. Louis, Ill., with Mr. M. Wood, a fellow townsman, who was then Superintendent of Construction for the Contractors, F. E. Candy & Company, then building the Cairo and St. Louis railroad. Mr. Wood gave me a job as carpenter on the Bridge Gang which was then working at Conologue Junction and I started work the day after Christmas, Dec. 26, 1872, at Conologue Junction, under foreman William Spencer, framing horse leg bents for trestles and shipping them to the front by work train. The crew boarded in Cahokia and walked to and from work.
At that time the road was built from Conologue Junction to a point just north of Columbia, Ill., and track was laid about four miles south of the Junction; the Contractors operated a work-train over this, hauling dirt and other material. Labor was plentiful and cheap and the Contractors worked all the men they could get.
Early in the year 1873, money was very scarce and the construction was taken over by Mr. H. R. Payson, a partner of Mr. Candy; the men were paid off in meal tickets which we paid for board, clothes and other necessaries bought in St. Louis and East St. Louis, having them discounted from 95c to as low as 50 cents on the dollar for cash.
The Cairo and St. Louis railroad was narrow guage and the only road of this guage building or operating into East St. Louis. We framed the trestles at Conologue Junction and shipped them to the front car of the track on work-trains, where they were handled by teams to their final location the track laying following behind. The contractors had two work engines and a few cars.
When I came to the road, East St. Louis was a town of about seven thousand people and quite a railroad center; property was very cheap; we rarely went to St. Louis as we had to ferry across the river.
The Eads Bridge was then under construction and was considered a great engineering feat, the east pier was started 136 feet below high water line and was sunk by using calsonns with air chambers and air locks, something unusual at that time. The west pier was not so deep, as the rock strata slopes upward toward the Missouri shore.
Nothing but work trains were run until the road had been built into Sparta, Ill. The Company then started to operate a regular train. Murphysboro was a small and very tough mining town when the road was built through there. It had one railroad running from Carbondale, Ill., to the Mississippi river at Grand Tower - boats would then run up the Big Muddy when water was high. When the road reached Cairo it was a small swampy town and I have seen wagons loaded with coal almost mired down in the mud on Commercial avenue. We used to be called to Cairo every week or ten days to line parts of the track over between there and Beech Ridge which had been washed out by high water in the Mississippi river; we lined it over without doing any grading and the surface was very uneven and came to be known by the workmen as the "Black Hills".
About this time, I remember the road got a large box car with three trucks under it, which was used exclusively for hauling wheat. Soon after the road was built into Cairo, it went into a receivership and Mr. H. W. Smithers was appointed receiver.
While with the road, I have worked under the following Superintendents: Mr. Chas. Hamilton, Mr. L. M .Johnson, Mr. H. W. Clark, Mr. E. W. Moore, and the present superintendent, Mr. B. B. Tolson, and Roadmasters: Mr. M. Wood, Mr. M. O'Neal, Mr. B. Boyle, Mr. Mike English, Mr. T. Wilkerson, Mr. C. F. Blue, Mr. F. P. Hawkins, and Mr. S. Cheatham.
I was married March 16th, 1881 at Kaolin, Ill., to Miss Almeda Rendleman, sister of Jos. Rendleman, who was Section Foreman at Mt. Glenn, Ill., for thirty years and died in the service of the Company.
While with the Company, I worked as a Carpenter from 1872 until 1878 - six years; Bridge Foreman from 1878 until 1887 - nine years; Supervisor Bridge and Building from 1887 until August 1889 - one year and six months; Bridge Foreman from 1888 until January 1910- twenty -two years; Fence Foreman from January 1910 until the present time - six years. I have during this time been in several small derailments but always managed to (unable to read) without a serious injury. My service has been almost continuous and I went out West in April 1909 to benefit my health and was off four months in 1916 with a case of pneumonia. My left lung pains me a great deal now and I do not think I could stand another on the road.
I am not familiar with the principles of this Company in regard to pensioning its old employees but I have that same abiding confidence in its offices I have held for all these forty-three years and I feel that I am not addressing a Corporation, but men who have also grown up with the property and are familiar with its oldest servants.
I realize the fight against age has closed and I have done my duty as best I could but Times and the World are moving onward, crying always for Vigor and Youth to man her industries; new conditions arise, new difficulties must be met; the wheel of industry must turn in its course and men must follow, to the limit of their endurance, some falling, others forging ahead. Age and long service have impaired my ability to keep abreast the deed and I must choose a slower pace to preserve my remaining energy.
The enclosed letter from my physician, Dr. A. R. Carter, shows my physical condition which is the main reason for this request.
I thank you for your efforts in my behalf and remain,
Yours very truly,
(Sgd) E. Aber
Foreman
Married to 1) Josephine Helen Sweet, b. 1851 in Canada, and married December 31, 1869, Sheldon County, Vermont
Eugene and Josephine had 2 daughters in Racine, Wisconsin. Amy Adelle, b. Aug 27, 1872 and Emma Gene, b. Oct 10, 1870
Eugene appears on the 1870 U.S. census & 1875 Racine, Racine County, Wisconsin state census. The 1870 U.S. census shows him & Josephine living next door to his parents, Smith and Hannah Aber.
During the 1880 U.S. census he is living in Alto Pass, Union County, Illinois in a boarding house owned by Emma Burk
His 2 daughters, Emma & Amy Adelle are living in Racine, Wisconsin with their grandparents in 1880. I assume Josephine died.
Married to 2) Almeda Rendleman, m. March 16, 1881, Union County, Illinois.
Eugene and Almeda also had 2 daughters, Helen (Stricklin), and Harriet (Worts)
Military Service:
Co. I, 51st Wis. Inf.
Enlisted March 23, 1865
Residence: Racine
Rank: Private
Source: Murphysboro Daily Independent, Saturday, January 23, 1926, Pg. 1 & 2
GENE ABER, 73, PIONEER RAIL-ROADER, DIES
Life History Itself Entwined With Building Record of M. & O. Railroad-Petition for Pension is Pertinent Story In Part of Cradle Days of System
Eugene C. Aber, 76 years old, father of Mrs. Charles Stricklin of Murphysboro and Mrs. Charles L. Worts of Jackson, Tenn., pensioned veteran of the Mobile & Ohio road department since 1916, died Friday in Jackson, Tenn., of pneumonia. The body will arrive via the M. & O. Saturday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock for burial Sunday.
Mr. Aber went to Jackson a week ago Friday to visit with his daughter, Mrs. Worts, feeling that the Tennessee winter might be gentler and beneficial to his health. He caught cold and pneumonia ensued. The daughter, Mrs. Stricklin, soon joined him. First reports from the bedside encouraged hope of recovery. A bad turn for the worse ensued Thursday.
Deceased was one of the oldest Mobile & Ohio employees, ranking for years of service with the Conductor William Weeke, with the road 56 years, and B. B. Tolson of Murphysboro, an assistant to the general manager of the system and until recently superintendent of the St. louis division, with the M. & O. 47 years. Mr. Aber's service longevity ranked third with these.
The surviving daughters of his second marriage are Mrs. Charles Stricklin, Murphysboro and Mrs. Charles Long Worts, Jackson, Mrs. Adelle Brown, superintendent of the M. C. D. hospital in Chicago, is the surviving child of his first marriage. Mrs. Brown arrived here Saturday morning. A brother, Frank Aber, lives at Racine, Wis., a sister, Mrs. A. H. Granger, of Phillipsburg, Kansas.
The remains are to be taken to the Aber home at 227 South Fourteenth street. Funeral rites will be held at the Presbyterian church beginning at 2:30 p.m. Sunday the Rev. Lloyd, pastor, presiding for the church. Interment City Cemetery. Masons will have charge of the funeral. He was a member of the Masonic lodge and of the Eastern Star.
In the passing of Gene Aber, Murphysboro must surrender to the great majority another of her most esteemed and worthwhile men.
In the M. & O. personal service records there is nowhere one more indicative of labor than that of Gene Aber, such as was addressed by Mr. Aber to Road Master Sam Cheatham of the system in 1916. His service record in fact is a building record in part of the M. & O. from its infancy, and follows:
Murphysboro, Illinois, August 31, 1916
Mr. S. Cheatham,
Road Master,
Murphysboro, Ill.
Dear Sir-
Since having pneumonia last winter, I have been in bad health, although during the spring and summer I have been out with my Fence Gang. I realize that the exposure of another winter would result in a cold from which I could hardly expect to recover, therefore, I desire to ask the management, through you, for a pension of whatever amount they feel justified in allowing me for my past services.
My continuous service in various capacities for the Cairo and St. Louis, St. Louis and Cairo and Mobile and Ohio Railroads has lasted up to the first of September, 1916- forty-three years and eight months, all of which I spent in the Bridge and Building department.
I have tried everyday to give the company my best services and have always been loyal to my employers. I have tried to be conscientious and faithful in the performance of every duty and in giving my record of service, I shall go a little further back to show that almost all my entire useful man-hood has been spent in the service of this company.
I was born June 10, 1849, and spent my early life in Racine, Wisconsin; entered the Federal Army March, 1865 at the age of sixteen years as a Private in Company "I" of the 51st Wisconsin Volunteers, under Capt. Asa G. Blake. I went through the war without being captured or wounded and was mustered out of service at the close of hostilities.
In December of 1872, when 23 years old, I came to East St. Louis, Ill., with Mr. M. Wood, a fellow townsman, who was then Superintendent of Construction for the Contractors, F. E. Candy & Company, then building the Cairo and St. Louis railroad. Mr. Wood gave me a job as carpenter on the Bridge Gang which was then working at Conologue Junction and I started work the day after Christmas, Dec. 26, 1872, at Conologue Junction, under foreman William Spencer, framing horse leg bents for trestles and shipping them to the front by work train. The crew boarded in Cahokia and walked to and from work.
At that time the road was built from Conologue Junction to a point just north of Columbia, Ill., and track was laid about four miles south of the Junction; the Contractors operated a work-train over this, hauling dirt and other material. Labor was plentiful and cheap and the Contractors worked all the men they could get.
Early in the year 1873, money was very scarce and the construction was taken over by Mr. H. R. Payson, a partner of Mr. Candy; the men were paid off in meal tickets which we paid for board, clothes and other necessaries bought in St. Louis and East St. Louis, having them discounted from 95c to as low as 50 cents on the dollar for cash.
The Cairo and St. Louis railroad was narrow guage and the only road of this guage building or operating into East St. Louis. We framed the trestles at Conologue Junction and shipped them to the front car of the track on work-trains, where they were handled by teams to their final location the track laying following behind. The contractors had two work engines and a few cars.
When I came to the road, East St. Louis was a town of about seven thousand people and quite a railroad center; property was very cheap; we rarely went to St. Louis as we had to ferry across the river.
The Eads Bridge was then under construction and was considered a great engineering feat, the east pier was started 136 feet below high water line and was sunk by using calsonns with air chambers and air locks, something unusual at that time. The west pier was not so deep, as the rock strata slopes upward toward the Missouri shore.
Nothing but work trains were run until the road had been built into Sparta, Ill. The Company then started to operate a regular train. Murphysboro was a small and very tough mining town when the road was built through there. It had one railroad running from Carbondale, Ill., to the Mississippi river at Grand Tower - boats would then run up the Big Muddy when water was high. When the road reached Cairo it was a small swampy town and I have seen wagons loaded with coal almost mired down in the mud on Commercial avenue. We used to be called to Cairo every week or ten days to line parts of the track over between there and Beech Ridge which had been washed out by high water in the Mississippi river; we lined it over without doing any grading and the surface was very uneven and came to be known by the workmen as the "Black Hills".
About this time, I remember the road got a large box car with three trucks under it, which was used exclusively for hauling wheat. Soon after the road was built into Cairo, it went into a receivership and Mr. H. W. Smithers was appointed receiver.
While with the road, I have worked under the following Superintendents: Mr. Chas. Hamilton, Mr. L. M .Johnson, Mr. H. W. Clark, Mr. E. W. Moore, and the present superintendent, Mr. B. B. Tolson, and Roadmasters: Mr. M. Wood, Mr. M. O'Neal, Mr. B. Boyle, Mr. Mike English, Mr. T. Wilkerson, Mr. C. F. Blue, Mr. F. P. Hawkins, and Mr. S. Cheatham.
I was married March 16th, 1881 at Kaolin, Ill., to Miss Almeda Rendleman, sister of Jos. Rendleman, who was Section Foreman at Mt. Glenn, Ill., for thirty years and died in the service of the Company.
While with the Company, I worked as a Carpenter from 1872 until 1878 - six years; Bridge Foreman from 1878 until 1887 - nine years; Supervisor Bridge and Building from 1887 until August 1889 - one year and six months; Bridge Foreman from 1888 until January 1910- twenty -two years; Fence Foreman from January 1910 until the present time - six years. I have during this time been in several small derailments but always managed to (unable to read) without a serious injury. My service has been almost continuous and I went out West in April 1909 to benefit my health and was off four months in 1916 with a case of pneumonia. My left lung pains me a great deal now and I do not think I could stand another on the road.
I am not familiar with the principles of this Company in regard to pensioning its old employees but I have that same abiding confidence in its offices I have held for all these forty-three years and I feel that I am not addressing a Corporation, but men who have also grown up with the property and are familiar with its oldest servants.
I realize the fight against age has closed and I have done my duty as best I could but Times and the World are moving onward, crying always for Vigor and Youth to man her industries; new conditions arise, new difficulties must be met; the wheel of industry must turn in its course and men must follow, to the limit of their endurance, some falling, others forging ahead. Age and long service have impaired my ability to keep abreast the deed and I must choose a slower pace to preserve my remaining energy.
The enclosed letter from my physician, Dr. A. R. Carter, shows my physical condition which is the main reason for this request.
I thank you for your efforts in my behalf and remain,
Yours very truly,
(Sgd) E. Aber
Foreman
Son of Smith Morehouse Aber & Hannah Mariah Aber
Married to 1) Josephine Helen Sweet, b. 1851 in Canada, and married December 31, 1869, Sheldon County, Vermont
Eugene and Josephine had 2 daughters in Racine, Wisconsin. Amy Adelle, b. Aug 27, 1872 and Emma Gene, b. Oct 10, 1870
Eugene appears on the 1870 U.S. census & 1875 Racine, Racine County, Wisconsin state census. The 1870 U.S. census shows him & Josephine living next door to his parents, Smith and Hannah Aber.
During the 1880 U.S. census he is living in Alto Pass, Union County, Illinois in a boarding house owned by Emma Burk
His 2 daughters, Emma & Amy Adelle are living in Racine, Wisconsin with their grandparents in 1880. I assume Josephine died.
Married to 2) Almeda Rendleman, m. March 16, 1881, Union County, Illinois.
Eugene and Almeda also had 2 daughters, Helen (Stricklin), and Harriet (Worts)
Military Service:
Co. I, 51st Wis. Inf.
Enlisted March 23, 1865
Residence: Racine
Rank: Private
Source: Murphysboro Daily Independent, Saturday, January 23, 1926, Pg. 1 & 2
GENE ABER, 73, PIONEER RAIL-ROADER, DIES
Life History Itself Entwined With Building Record of M. & O. Railroad-Petition for Pension is Pertinent Story In Part of Cradle Days of System
Eugene C. Aber, 76 years old, father of Mrs. Charles Stricklin of Murphysboro and Mrs. Charles L. Worts of Jackson, Tenn., pensioned veteran of the Mobile & Ohio road department since 1916, died Friday in Jackson, Tenn., of pneumonia. The body will arrive via the M. & O. Saturday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock for burial Sunday.
Mr. Aber went to Jackson a week ago Friday to visit with his daughter, Mrs. Worts, feeling that the Tennessee winter might be gentler and beneficial to his health. He caught cold and pneumonia ensued. The daughter, Mrs. Stricklin, soon joined him. First reports from the bedside encouraged hope of recovery. A bad turn for the worse ensued Thursday.
Deceased was one of the oldest Mobile & Ohio employees, ranking for years of service with the Conductor William Weeke, with the road 56 years, and B. B. Tolson of Murphysboro, an assistant to the general manager of the system and until recently superintendent of the St. louis division, with the M. & O. 47 years. Mr. Aber's service longevity ranked third with these.
The surviving daughters of his second marriage are Mrs. Charles Stricklin, Murphysboro and Mrs. Charles Long Worts, Jackson, Mrs. Adelle Brown, superintendent of the M. C. D. hospital in Chicago, is the surviving child of his first marriage. Mrs. Brown arrived here Saturday morning. A brother, Frank Aber, lives at Racine, Wis., a sister, Mrs. A. H. Granger, of Phillipsburg, Kansas.
The remains are to be taken to the Aber home at 227 South Fourteenth street. Funeral rites will be held at the Presbyterian church beginning at 2:30 p.m. Sunday the Rev. Lloyd, pastor, presiding for the church. Interment City Cemetery. Masons will have charge of the funeral. He was a member of the Masonic lodge and of the Eastern Star.
In the passing of Gene Aber, Murphysboro must surrender to the great majority another of her most esteemed and worthwhile men.
In the M. & O. personal service records there is nowhere one more indicative of labor than that of Gene Aber, such as was addressed by Mr. Aber to Road Master Sam Cheatham of the system in 1916. His service record in fact is a building record in part of the M. & O. from its infancy, and follows:
Murphysboro, Illinois, August 31, 1916
Mr. S. Cheatham,
Road Master,
Murphysboro, Ill.
Dear Sir-
Since having pneumonia last winter, I have been in bad health, although during the spring and summer I have been out with my Fence Gang. I realize that the exposure of another winter would result in a cold from which I could hardly expect to recover, therefore, I desire to ask the management, through you, for a pension of whatever amount they feel justified in allowing me for my past services.
My continuous service in various capacities for the Cairo and St. Louis, St. Louis and Cairo and Mobile and Ohio Railroads has lasted up to the first of September, 1916- forty-three years and eight months, all of which I spent in the Bridge and Building department.
I have tried everyday to give the company my best services and have always been loyal to my employers. I have tried to be conscientious and faithful in the performance of every duty and in giving my record of service, I shall go a little further back to show that almost all my entire useful man-hood has been spent in the service of this company.
I was born June 10, 1849, and spent my early life in Racine, Wisconsin; entered the Federal Army March, 1865 at the age of sixteen years as a Private in Company "I" of the 51st Wisconsin Volunteers, under Capt. Asa G. Blake. I went through the war without being captured or wounded and was mustered out of service at the close of hostilities.
In December of 1872, when 23 years old, I came to East St. Louis, Ill., with Mr. M. Wood, a fellow townsman, who was then Superintendent of Construction for the Contractors, F. E. Candy & Company, then building the Cairo and St. Louis railroad. Mr. Wood gave me a job as carpenter on the Bridge Gang which was then working at Conologue Junction and I started work the day after Christmas, Dec. 26, 1872, at Conologue Junction, under foreman William Spencer, framing horse leg bents for trestles and shipping them to the front by work train. The crew boarded in Cahokia and walked to and from work.
At that time the road was built from Conologue Junction to a point just north of Columbia, Ill., and track was laid about four miles south of the Junction; the Contractors operated a work-train over this, hauling dirt and other material. Labor was plentiful and cheap and the Contractors worked all the men they could get.
Early in the year 1873, money was very scarce and the construction was taken over by Mr. H. R. Payson, a partner of Mr. Candy; the men were paid off in meal tickets which we paid for board, clothes and other necessaries bought in St. Louis and East St. Louis, having them discounted from 95c to as low as 50 cents on the dollar for cash.
The Cairo and St. Louis railroad was narrow guage and the only road of this guage building or operating into East St. Louis. We framed the trestles at Conologue Junction and shipped them to the front car of the track on work-trains, where they were handled by teams to their final location the track laying following behind. The contractors had two work engines and a few cars.
When I came to the road, East St. Louis was a town of about seven thousand people and quite a railroad center; property was very cheap; we rarely went to St. Louis as we had to ferry across the river.
The Eads Bridge was then under construction and was considered a great engineering feat, the east pier was started 136 feet below high water line and was sunk by using calsonns with air chambers and air locks, something unusual at that time. The west pier was not so deep, as the rock strata slopes upward toward the Missouri shore.
Nothing but work trains were run until the road had been built into Sparta, Ill. The Company then started to operate a regular train. Murphysboro was a small and very tough mining town when the road was built through there. It had one railroad running from Carbondale, Ill., to the Mississippi river at Grand Tower - boats would then run up the Big Muddy when water was high. When the road reached Cairo it was a small swampy town and I have seen wagons loaded with coal almost mired down in the mud on Commercial avenue. We used to be called to Cairo every week or ten days to line parts of the track over between there and Beech Ridge which had been washed out by high water in the Mississippi river; we lined it over without doing any grading and the surface was very uneven and came to be known by the workmen as the "Black Hills".
About this time, I remember the road got a large box car with three trucks under it, which was used exclusively for hauling wheat. Soon after the road was built into Cairo, it went into a receivership and Mr. H. W. Smithers was appointed receiver.
While with the road, I have worked under the following Superintendents: Mr. Chas. Hamilton, Mr. L. M .Johnson, Mr. H. W. Clark, Mr. E. W. Moore, and the present superintendent, Mr. B. B. Tolson, and Roadmasters: Mr. M. Wood, Mr. M. O'Neal, Mr. B. Boyle, Mr. Mike English, Mr. T. Wilkerson, Mr. C. F. Blue, Mr. F. P. Hawkins, and Mr. S. Cheatham.
I was married March 16th, 1881 at Kaolin, Ill., to Miss Almeda Rendleman, sister of Jos. Rendleman, who was Section Foreman at Mt. Glenn, Ill., for thirty years and died in the service of the Company.
While with the Company, I worked as a Carpenter from 1872 until 1878 - six years; Bridge Foreman from 1878 until 1887 - nine years; Supervisor Bridge and Building from 1887 until August 1889 - one year and six months; Bridge Foreman from 1888 until January 1910- twenty -two years; Fence Foreman from January 1910 until the present time - six years. I have during this time been in several small derailments but always managed to (unable to read) without a serious injury. My service has been almost continuous and I went out West in April 1909 to benefit my health and was off four months in 1916 with a case of pneumonia. My left lung pains me a great deal now and I do not think I could stand another on the road.
I am not familiar with the principles of this Company in regard to pensioning its old employees but I have that same abiding confidence in its offices I have held for all these forty-three years and I feel that I am not addressing a Corporation, but men who have also grown up with the property and are familiar with its oldest servants.
I realize the fight against age has closed and I have done my duty as best I could but Times and the World are moving onward, crying always for Vigor and Youth to man her industries; new conditions arise, new difficulties must be met; the wheel of industry must turn in its course and men must follow, to the limit of their endurance, some falling, others forging ahead. Age and long service have impaired my ability to keep abreast the deed and I must choose a slower pace to preserve my remaining energy.
The enclosed letter from my physician, Dr. A. R. Carter, shows my physical condition which is the main reason for this request.
I thank you for your efforts in my behalf and remain,
Yours very truly,
(Sgd) E. Aber
Foreman
Married to 1) Josephine Helen Sweet, b. 1851 in Canada, and married December 31, 1869, Sheldon County, Vermont
Eugene and Josephine had 2 daughters in Racine, Wisconsin. Amy Adelle, b. Aug 27, 1872 and Emma Gene, b. Oct 10, 1870
Eugene appears on the 1870 U.S. census & 1875 Racine, Racine County, Wisconsin state census. The 1870 U.S. census shows him & Josephine living next door to his parents, Smith and Hannah Aber.
During the 1880 U.S. census he is living in Alto Pass, Union County, Illinois in a boarding house owned by Emma Burk
His 2 daughters, Emma & Amy Adelle are living in Racine, Wisconsin with their grandparents in 1880. I assume Josephine died.
Married to 2) Almeda Rendleman, m. March 16, 1881, Union County, Illinois.
Eugene and Almeda also had 2 daughters, Helen (Stricklin), and Harriet (Worts)
Military Service:
Co. I, 51st Wis. Inf.
Enlisted March 23, 1865
Residence: Racine
Rank: Private
Source: Murphysboro Daily Independent, Saturday, January 23, 1926, Pg. 1 & 2
GENE ABER, 73, PIONEER RAIL-ROADER, DIES
Life History Itself Entwined With Building Record of M. & O. Railroad-Petition for Pension is Pertinent Story In Part of Cradle Days of System
Eugene C. Aber, 76 years old, father of Mrs. Charles Stricklin of Murphysboro and Mrs. Charles L. Worts of Jackson, Tenn., pensioned veteran of the Mobile & Ohio road department since 1916, died Friday in Jackson, Tenn., of pneumonia. The body will arrive via the M. & O. Saturday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock for burial Sunday.
Mr. Aber went to Jackson a week ago Friday to visit with his daughter, Mrs. Worts, feeling that the Tennessee winter might be gentler and beneficial to his health. He caught cold and pneumonia ensued. The daughter, Mrs. Stricklin, soon joined him. First reports from the bedside encouraged hope of recovery. A bad turn for the worse ensued Thursday.
Deceased was one of the oldest Mobile & Ohio employees, ranking for years of service with the Conductor William Weeke, with the road 56 years, and B. B. Tolson of Murphysboro, an assistant to the general manager of the system and until recently superintendent of the St. louis division, with the M. & O. 47 years. Mr. Aber's service longevity ranked third with these.
The surviving daughters of his second marriage are Mrs. Charles Stricklin, Murphysboro and Mrs. Charles Long Worts, Jackson, Mrs. Adelle Brown, superintendent of the M. C. D. hospital in Chicago, is the surviving child of his first marriage. Mrs. Brown arrived here Saturday morning. A brother, Frank Aber, lives at Racine, Wis., a sister, Mrs. A. H. Granger, of Phillipsburg, Kansas.
The remains are to be taken to the Aber home at 227 South Fourteenth street. Funeral rites will be held at the Presbyterian church beginning at 2:30 p.m. Sunday the Rev. Lloyd, pastor, presiding for the church. Interment City Cemetery. Masons will have charge of the funeral. He was a member of the Masonic lodge and of the Eastern Star.
In the passing of Gene Aber, Murphysboro must surrender to the great majority another of her most esteemed and worthwhile men.
In the M. & O. personal service records there is nowhere one more indicative of labor than that of Gene Aber, such as was addressed by Mr. Aber to Road Master Sam Cheatham of the system in 1916. His service record in fact is a building record in part of the M. & O. from its infancy, and follows:
Murphysboro, Illinois, August 31, 1916
Mr. S. Cheatham,
Road Master,
Murphysboro, Ill.
Dear Sir-
Since having pneumonia last winter, I have been in bad health, although during the spring and summer I have been out with my Fence Gang. I realize that the exposure of another winter would result in a cold from which I could hardly expect to recover, therefore, I desire to ask the management, through you, for a pension of whatever amount they feel justified in allowing me for my past services.
My continuous service in various capacities for the Cairo and St. Louis, St. Louis and Cairo and Mobile and Ohio Railroads has lasted up to the first of September, 1916- forty-three years and eight months, all of which I spent in the Bridge and Building department.
I have tried everyday to give the company my best services and have always been loyal to my employers. I have tried to be conscientious and faithful in the performance of every duty and in giving my record of service, I shall go a little further back to show that almost all my entire useful man-hood has been spent in the service of this company.
I was born June 10, 1849, and spent my early life in Racine, Wisconsin; entered the Federal Army March, 1865 at the age of sixteen years as a Private in Company "I" of the 51st Wisconsin Volunteers, under Capt. Asa G. Blake. I went through the war without being captured or wounded and was mustered out of service at the close of hostilities.
In December of 1872, when 23 years old, I came to East St. Louis, Ill., with Mr. M. Wood, a fellow townsman, who was then Superintendent of Construction for the Contractors, F. E. Candy & Company, then building the Cairo and St. Louis railroad. Mr. Wood gave me a job as carpenter on the Bridge Gang which was then working at Conologue Junction and I started work the day after Christmas, Dec. 26, 1872, at Conologue Junction, under foreman William Spencer, framing horse leg bents for trestles and shipping them to the front by work train. The crew boarded in Cahokia and walked to and from work.
At that time the road was built from Conologue Junction to a point just north of Columbia, Ill., and track was laid about four miles south of the Junction; the Contractors operated a work-train over this, hauling dirt and other material. Labor was plentiful and cheap and the Contractors worked all the men they could get.
Early in the year 1873, money was very scarce and the construction was taken over by Mr. H. R. Payson, a partner of Mr. Candy; the men were paid off in meal tickets which we paid for board, clothes and other necessaries bought in St. Louis and East St. Louis, having them discounted from 95c to as low as 50 cents on the dollar for cash.
The Cairo and St. Louis railroad was narrow guage and the only road of this guage building or operating into East St. Louis. We framed the trestles at Conologue Junction and shipped them to the front car of the track on work-trains, where they were handled by teams to their final location the track laying following behind. The contractors had two work engines and a few cars.
When I came to the road, East St. Louis was a town of about seven thousand people and quite a railroad center; property was very cheap; we rarely went to St. Louis as we had to ferry across the river.
The Eads Bridge was then under construction and was considered a great engineering feat, the east pier was started 136 feet below high water line and was sunk by using calsonns with air chambers and air locks, something unusual at that time. The west pier was not so deep, as the rock strata slopes upward toward the Missouri shore.
Nothing but work trains were run until the road had been built into Sparta, Ill. The Company then started to operate a regular train. Murphysboro was a small and very tough mining town when the road was built through there. It had one railroad running from Carbondale, Ill., to the Mississippi river at Grand Tower - boats would then run up the Big Muddy when water was high. When the road reached Cairo it was a small swampy town and I have seen wagons loaded with coal almost mired down in the mud on Commercial avenue. We used to be called to Cairo every week or ten days to line parts of the track over between there and Beech Ridge which had been washed out by high water in the Mississippi river; we lined it over without doing any grading and the surface was very uneven and came to be known by the workmen as the "Black Hills".
About this time, I remember the road got a large box car with three trucks under it, which was used exclusively for hauling wheat. Soon after the road was built into Cairo, it went into a receivership and Mr. H. W. Smithers was appointed receiver.
While with the road, I have worked under the following Superintendents: Mr. Chas. Hamilton, Mr. L. M .Johnson, Mr. H. W. Clark, Mr. E. W. Moore, and the present superintendent, Mr. B. B. Tolson, and Roadmasters: Mr. M. Wood, Mr. M. O'Neal, Mr. B. Boyle, Mr. Mike English, Mr. T. Wilkerson, Mr. C. F. Blue, Mr. F. P. Hawkins, and Mr. S. Cheatham.
I was married March 16th, 1881 at Kaolin, Ill., to Miss Almeda Rendleman, sister of Jos. Rendleman, who was Section Foreman at Mt. Glenn, Ill., for thirty years and died in the service of the Company.
While with the Company, I worked as a Carpenter from 1872 until 1878 - six years; Bridge Foreman from 1878 until 1887 - nine years; Supervisor Bridge and Building from 1887 until August 1889 - one year and six months; Bridge Foreman from 1888 until January 1910- twenty -two years; Fence Foreman from January 1910 until the present time - six years. I have during this time been in several small derailments but always managed to (unable to read) without a serious injury. My service has been almost continuous and I went out West in April 1909 to benefit my health and was off four months in 1916 with a case of pneumonia. My left lung pains me a great deal now and I do not think I could stand another on the road.
I am not familiar with the principles of this Company in regard to pensioning its old employees but I have that same abiding confidence in its offices I have held for all these forty-three years and I feel that I am not addressing a Corporation, but men who have also grown up with the property and are familiar with its oldest servants.
I realize the fight against age has closed and I have done my duty as best I could but Times and the World are moving onward, crying always for Vigor and Youth to man her industries; new conditions arise, new difficulties must be met; the wheel of industry must turn in its course and men must follow, to the limit of their endurance, some falling, others forging ahead. Age and long service have impaired my ability to keep abreast the deed and I must choose a slower pace to preserve my remaining energy.
The enclosed letter from my physician, Dr. A. R. Carter, shows my physical condition which is the main reason for this request.
I thank you for your efforts in my behalf and remain,
Yours very truly,
(Sgd) E. Aber
Foreman
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
