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.

Collection of Funeral Programs Saving Memories

Vincent T. Davis put together a great article for the San Antonio Express-News about a project involving more than 614 funeral programs, dating from the 1940s to the present, that were preserved in the Texana Room at the San Antonio Public Library. "If you don't have any history, then you don't have anything to build on."

If you stumble across an interesting collection, contact your local library to see if they're interested in preserving local history.