Railroad Diary Of Grant G. Brown, Spokane, Portland And Seattle Railway Company

GRANT C. BROWN

Publication: Written by Grant C Brown, 1908, St Paul

First edition. 48mo. 2 1/2" x 4" original black cloth with a fold-over inserted cloth clasp and an internal pencil holder (pencil not present), n. p. (234 pp.), complete with calendar sheets and vital statistics (at the front of day book and manuscript memorandum notes at the rear), with over one half,of the daily journal filled with neat handwriting in both pen and pencil, most in bold cursive, some printing in pencil with added notes at the rear. This detailed railroad route surveyor's diary provides an excellent day-to-day log of the efforts by the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway to complete the section from Pasco along the Snake River across the Palouse leading to Spokane, WA. The Jan. 1, 1908 entry opens with note a that Brown chose to stay in camp rather than head to Sprague, WA, and that the team surveyed 10,000 yards for the month of December. Entries often make specific mentions of specific SP & S Railway Stations being surveyed for track laying crews, beginning with Stations 1760-71 & 50 on Jan. 6, details setting the grades and centers, having to move the grade, setting up back sights, and even reflects the wear and tear on the horse teams by having to take the horses into Cheney, WA Jan. 13, 1908 to have them re-shod. In the middle of winter, the survey teams coped with rain, snow, high winds, wind storms and flash snow storms as late as the end of April, and freezing cold working conditions. Much of the work in January appears to have been geared towards checking the grade, and curves for railroad bridges near Stations 1950-1970. There were apparently wives of some railroad crew members as evidenced by entry Feb. 1 noting that "Mrs. Garner sick, Woody drove into Cheney for Dr. at 2 A.M., home at 3 A.M." Industrial accidents were also not uncommon, as he writes on Feb. 3 that an "Italian hit on head by rock from shot in side hill cut," and that illness was not an excuse to put off the work as on June 1, 1908, he was "feeling pretty blue. . . had the green apple quick-step. Staked out bridge at 1756 & 79 in P.M." By the middle of February the crews were surveying along the present-day route of I-90 as he records in the diary that they "chained from bridge (St. 1966 & 70) to Tyler 8.39 miles, 3 1/2 hours, 25 minutes to the mile." He often makes frequent mentions of dances in Sprague for the workers on Saturday nights, dinners, and even details the menu on March 1 as "Hard Cider, Root Beer, Canned Peaches with Cream Pie, sardines & crackers, home made beer, coffee, custard, and smoke!" Was very pleased with a big goose supper on March 10. Apparently the survey crews and SP&S Railway construction crews also maintained baseball teams as he jots down by the beginning of May that on Sunday May 3, his team won 22-16, while George broke his glasses. Mentions of the steel laying gangs begin in the diary towards the end of April, 1908, and by May 20, 1908, notes that after he finished measuring work "went up to Camp 5 & saw the track laying gang laying steel." Fortunately for historians he does make frequent mentions of other names on the crew such as George Partridge, Fred. S. Wilson, Fred Eichstedt, Thomas Gauthier, Otto Johnson, and frequent mentions of SP&S higher-ups, often with addresses. By the end of June, 1908, he had returned to St. Paul, MN before later moving back to Seattle in 1909. Brown (1889-1960) enters in the opening pages of the diary that his closest contact was Frank P. Brown in St. Paul, MN (his father), worked himself as stenographer for a steam boiler company in St. Paul, MN, then surveyor for the SP&S, and later became a cigar store owner in Seattle, WA by 1910, whose store was located at 411 Pike St., and finally by the 1920s owned a billiard parlour at 606 1/2 Union St., with his brother Hill Brown. By the end of 1908, the new line was open, and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway linked the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Lines along the north side of the Columbia River in defiance of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company Lines denied to Hill by Edward Harriman, owner of the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads. See: Grande, The Northwest's Own Railway (1992); Ed Austin, S.P.& S., The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway (1996); Charles & Dorothy Wood, The Spokane, Portland And Seattle (1974). Some Entry Examples: Tuesday January 28, 1908 "George and I ran checks level over bridge site. Geo got off .9900. Miller went back to Sprague. Started to dig trestle pits." Monday, February 3, 1908 "Cloudy. Snow & Frosty. Started trestle site 7,6,5,4, 3, on west end of bridge & set center for trestle pits 63,64, 65, 66, &68. Italian hit on head by rock from shot in side hill cut." Tuesday, March 3, 1908, Clear. "Bridge crew started work today. Gave them grades for mud blocks 57-64 7 31-38." Monday, March 30. "Cold wind Snow flurries. Completed finishing grades 1971 & 20-1982. Measured timber in bridge. Set center 1869-1871 - side hill cut." Monday, April 27, 1908. "Windstorm. X section Sta 9 +50 on High Line made track centers. Set track centers 1880-1915." Tuesday, May 5, 1908. "Finished measuring up bridge at 10 A.M. P.M. Reference in point at 1764 + 78 & ran centers & grades on right of Sta's 1753-60. Ran curve." Very good.

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