Copied from the Elmira Star-Gazette:
They worked the railroad but had other ways to feed their families
Neil Chaffie
July 11, 2005
Dick Gallow raised bees and sold their honey, Harve Fredericks trapped raccoons and sold their hides, Jim Monroe was a farmer, Harold Mitchell harvested deer for his dinner table in both New York and Pennsylvania, Art Carpenter raised a few dollars as a musician and Abee Gates toiled in local vineyards.
All were Lehigh Valley Railroad section hands in northern Schuyler County communities during the Great Depression and in the years leading up to World War II.
And each had a sideline for those days when the railroad wouldn't need them because of winter weather or a tightening budget.
Fredericks would walk to work from his home in Valois checking traps he had set in areas frequented by raccoons. Hides carefully removed from the animals would be dried and sold for a few dollars.
He also was a practicing photographer and made a few bucks selling photos to people in the neighborhood.
Gallow, in several years with the railroad, had a couple head of cattle supplying milk for the dinner table. But what kept him busy was a hive of bees regularly producing honey he would peddle throughout his Valois neighborhood.
Monroe, also of Valois, harvested timber on his farm, raised cattle and vegetables and often was able, because of a growing deer herd, to add venison to the dinner table each fall.
Another avid hunter was Mitchell, a Hector resident. The fish, deer, rabbits and pheasants were staples in the Mitchell household.
Carpenter, often appearing with a couple other musicians, could make a little loose change on a Saturday night. Sometimes his pay was nothing more than a container of canned venison or a few fish.
Gates looked for odd jobs and often could be found during some of the coldest days of the year trimming vines in local vineyards. Both Gates and Carpenter headed up Valois families.
Fox hides brought good money. Valois residents Alvie Gallow and his son, Frank, also Lehigh employees when work was available, would team up with Dick Gallow, another son, for a fox hunt when snow made it possible to track an animal.
Shooters would be posted out in front of where it was felt the fox would be bedded down. Someone would then be designated to track the animal, drive it from its bed and hope it would show in front of one of the shooters.
The men would split the proceeds of often 40 or 50 fox hides accumulated over the winter months and sold to the highest bidder.
With the country's economy in dire straits because of the Depression, the Lehigh families didn't have a lot of money and winter months were those when the Lehigh would trim its work force.
For those families planning ahead, a lot of canned meats and vegetables were stashed during the warmer months. Men hunted, fished, farmed and took odd jobs while awaiting the Lehigh's call to return to work.
A change finally came with the advent of World War II. The need for more and more coal from the mines in Pennsylvania made the Lehigh busier than ever.
The need for workers was such that gandy dancers, recruited from as far away as Mexico, were hired to supplement railroad laborers in the local communities. Hoppers carrying anthracite coal rolled north out of Pennsylvania one right after the other.
Communities such as Burdett, Hector and Valois in Schuyler County, as well as others along the rail line, had their own railroad station complete with what was called a "section gang," often supplemented by gandy dancers.
What brought it all to a halt was the coming of the internal combustion engine and a sprawling highway system.
Most of the railroaders were too far along in years to consider new occupations and concentrated instead on those sideline jobs that fed their families in the lean days. Like the railroad, they're all history today.
The Lehigh, founded as the Delaware-Lehigh-Schuylkill and Susquehanna in 1846 became the Lehigh in 1853. The end came in 1976. With freight and passenger business in decline, the Lehigh became a part of the newly created Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail).
A sign, now possibly part of a collection of railroad memorabilia somewhere, once hung in a tree alongside the old Lehigh roadbed in Hector. It carried the wording: "RIP Lehigh Valley Railroad, 1846-1976."
Neil Chaffie covers northern and eastern Schuyler County in his Seneca North column. Contact him by mail at P. O. Box 543, Ovid, NY 14521; by phone at 607/869-5049; or by e-mail at [email protected]
Star-Gazette.COM
They worked the railroad but had other ways to feed their families
Neil Chaffie
July 11, 2005
Dick Gallow raised bees and sold their honey, Harve Fredericks trapped raccoons and sold their hides, Jim Monroe was a farmer, Harold Mitchell harvested deer for his dinner table in both New York and Pennsylvania, Art Carpenter raised a few dollars as a musician and Abee Gates toiled in local vineyards.
All were Lehigh Valley Railroad section hands in northern Schuyler County communities during the Great Depression and in the years leading up to World War II.
And each had a sideline for those days when the railroad wouldn't need them because of winter weather or a tightening budget.
Fredericks would walk to work from his home in Valois checking traps he had set in areas frequented by raccoons. Hides carefully removed from the animals would be dried and sold for a few dollars.
He also was a practicing photographer and made a few bucks selling photos to people in the neighborhood.
Gallow, in several years with the railroad, had a couple head of cattle supplying milk for the dinner table. But what kept him busy was a hive of bees regularly producing honey he would peddle throughout his Valois neighborhood.
Monroe, also of Valois, harvested timber on his farm, raised cattle and vegetables and often was able, because of a growing deer herd, to add venison to the dinner table each fall.
Another avid hunter was Mitchell, a Hector resident. The fish, deer, rabbits and pheasants were staples in the Mitchell household.
Carpenter, often appearing with a couple other musicians, could make a little loose change on a Saturday night. Sometimes his pay was nothing more than a container of canned venison or a few fish.
Gates looked for odd jobs and often could be found during some of the coldest days of the year trimming vines in local vineyards. Both Gates and Carpenter headed up Valois families.
Fox hides brought good money. Valois residents Alvie Gallow and his son, Frank, also Lehigh employees when work was available, would team up with Dick Gallow, another son, for a fox hunt when snow made it possible to track an animal.
Shooters would be posted out in front of where it was felt the fox would be bedded down. Someone would then be designated to track the animal, drive it from its bed and hope it would show in front of one of the shooters.
The men would split the proceeds of often 40 or 50 fox hides accumulated over the winter months and sold to the highest bidder.
With the country's economy in dire straits because of the Depression, the Lehigh families didn't have a lot of money and winter months were those when the Lehigh would trim its work force.
For those families planning ahead, a lot of canned meats and vegetables were stashed during the warmer months. Men hunted, fished, farmed and took odd jobs while awaiting the Lehigh's call to return to work.
A change finally came with the advent of World War II. The need for more and more coal from the mines in Pennsylvania made the Lehigh busier than ever.
The need for workers was such that gandy dancers, recruited from as far away as Mexico, were hired to supplement railroad laborers in the local communities. Hoppers carrying anthracite coal rolled north out of Pennsylvania one right after the other.
Communities such as Burdett, Hector and Valois in Schuyler County, as well as others along the rail line, had their own railroad station complete with what was called a "section gang," often supplemented by gandy dancers.
What brought it all to a halt was the coming of the internal combustion engine and a sprawling highway system.
Most of the railroaders were too far along in years to consider new occupations and concentrated instead on those sideline jobs that fed their families in the lean days. Like the railroad, they're all history today.
The Lehigh, founded as the Delaware-Lehigh-Schuylkill and Susquehanna in 1846 became the Lehigh in 1853. The end came in 1976. With freight and passenger business in decline, the Lehigh became a part of the newly created Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail).
A sign, now possibly part of a collection of railroad memorabilia somewhere, once hung in a tree alongside the old Lehigh roadbed in Hector. It carried the wording: "RIP Lehigh Valley Railroad, 1846-1976."
Neil Chaffie covers northern and eastern Schuyler County in his Seneca North column. Contact him by mail at P. O. Box 543, Ovid, NY 14521; by phone at 607/869-5049; or by e-mail at [email protected]
Star-Gazette.COM
