Mitchell Lodge No. 296, F. & A. M.

Mitchell Lodge No. 296, F. & A. M., 1912 Roster - Mitchell Lodge, No. 296, F. & A. M., Philadelphia, 1912. Extracts from the Ahiman Rezon and By-Laws, The List of Past Masters, Members, Etc.

A Santa Fe Railway Brakeman

There's one source we often don't think to check when doing genealogical research: the special collections of libraries. I was surfing around for railroad employee information and stumbled upon a guide for the A. M. Spratt Railroad Collection.

What an interesting find. A. M. Spratt was born east of Sanger, Texas, on November 15, 1906 and lived there most of his life. He owned a café in Sanger until he became a brakeman for the Santa Fe Railway Company in July, 1943, working on the line from Purcell, Oklahoma to Cleburne, Texas.

The collection, in two letter-sized document boxes, is composed of material collected and saved by A. M. Spratt over the course of his 29 year career as a railroad brakeman. According to the guide, the collection contains employee Information, which consists of a variety of material related to employees, such as forms, seniority lists, rules, regulations, and health information.

This unique resource is open for research to anyone who visits the The University of Texas at Arlington Library, and was donated by Archie M. Spratt on July 30, 1987.

Genealogy Library Center Accepting Donations

Here's an interesting project launched by Arlene Eakle (blog). What would you do if you found a large plastic bag full of someone’s genealogy manuscripts? Of if someone brought you 6 1/2 tons of professional genealogy files? Well, Arlene and her associates purchased a large building, remodeled it, and are now accepting genealogical donations.

If you have a genealogy research collection that needs a permanent home, please consider donating your collection to the Genealogy Library Center, Inc.

Conductor Business Card Images

We picked up six old business cards that belonged to railroad conductors. These have been added to the business card collection at Genealogy Today. Here are the names:

Richardson, F. M.
Cummings, L. J.
Goodspeed, R. S.
Kenyon, C. B.
Lang, J. A.
Darling, W. H.

The business card database, a free online service, currently includes hundreds of railroad employee cards from across the country.