The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1889-04-02
SHE RAN THE ENGINE.
How Brave Ella Lawson Went to
Her Fathers Rescue.
Remarkable Exhibition of Nerve by a Six
teen-Year-OId Miss-She Makes Run
of Eighteen Miles i'm Half AN
Hours Time.

A barefooted girl of twelve years.
with coal-black eyes and loose-iying
hair, was playing about the round
house in Newark the other day just "a
the sun was sinking over Bergen Hills,
and six or eight men who We're sitting
around the dismantled cabOose, where
they are wont TO wait every evening
for orders for their regular trips to
begin. were watching her as she went
from engine to engine, climbing over
the tanks. running out on the foot
boards or sitting on the pilots and
dangling her sun-burned feet. Two
tin buckets full of coal resting near
a discarded tie told why she was
around the yard. and if was evident
from her actions that she regarded
herself as a privileged character.
Its s'prizin' how much that gal
has got to know bout an engine in the
past year." said the blue-eyed engin-
eer of 81. as he watched her wiping
the bulls eye of signal lamp with
the hem of her ragged frock, TO the
reporter of the Newark Cali. Il be-
lieve she could run an engine if she
had half chance, with what she has
picked up around here since Mike was
killed. It's just year next Saturday
that he got caught, and she has been
around the yard almost every day
since. She'll give over coming here
when she gets a year or two more on
shoulders, you can safely bet, and I'd
like TO know of some way of getting
her some decent employment when
che gets too big to be pickin' coal"
Maggie Ryan was the daughter of
AN old switchman who was run over
and killed in the yard while on duty.
and who left wife and three children
without a dollar in the world. Maggie
was the eldest child, and she was made
a pet of by the men in the yard and at
the round house. No other youngsters
are allowed around the cars and
engines. and Maggie would not be
were the rules strictly enforced. As
it is, many dainty is set aside for her
from the dinner-pails of the trainuHn.
and many a fine lump of coal is dropped
from the cars while. they are passing
Mrs. Ryan's cabin, where she spends
nearly the whole week washing and
ironing for the railroad men.
Maggie is getting to be quite a
woman" said Eddie Stewart, as he
watched her antics on the engine
Speaking about her running an
engine reminds me of the only gal
ever knew who could and did run an
engine, and run it for all il was worth.
mean Sid Lawson's daughter Ella, OF
Pine Oak. Sid taught his daughter
more about railroading than her
mother did about cooking and house
keeping. and when Ella was fourteen
years of age she knew almost as much
about an engine as her father did. He
used to let her ride down to Bradleys
with him three times a week, and
she'd sit up on the box by him and
keep sharp lookout ahead.
II was firing for Ham Stonelake
then, and often, when Ella didn't want
10 wait for her fathers train she'd hop
on our e&gine and come home with us.
Old Barker saw her on the engine one
day. and gave orders that she shOuldt
never be allowed to ride there again.
1t purity near broke her heart when
she heard of it, and it made her pap
feel purity bad, too, but the order had
to be obeyed, and Ella had to ride in a
passenger coach when she went to
Bradley's to the store after that
When she was between fourteen
and fifteen Doc Studley taught
her telegraph little. and after that
she just haunted the window of the
ticket Office for hours every day watch
ing Clark Willis, the agent of Pine Oak,
ascending and receiving messages. She
got so well posted that Clal used to
let her practice with DIR. Studley over
a private wire that Clark put up be-
tween the station and the doctors
house on the gully road.
ut was before the days of tele-
phones, you know, and it was a great
convenience TO the whole township to
have that half-mile of private wire
from the station to the doctors Office.
When Ella WAS sixteen the company
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