The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-06
STILL IN THE HARNESS
JUDGE CHANDLER AND HIS SERy-
ICE WITH THE MILWAUKEE

He Has Been Connected with the
Railroad Forty Years-A Sketch
OF the General Agent at ST. Paul
Almost a History of the Big Rail-
way System.
Two score years of continuous ser
vice with a railroad company, a period
which spans the time between the
rather primitive methods of railroading
which first obtained in the Northwest,
and the present time when the great
| West is so completely girt with iron,
| is the record held by Judge John A.
! Chandler, who not many months ago,
rounded out his forty fourth year of
| service with the Chicago, Milwaukee &
| st. Paul road.
Judge Chandler has been the general
| agent of the Milwaukee in this city for
| nearly thirty years.
In 1870 he came here a comparatively
| young man. Advanced, from time to
| time, into the new country as the iron
was laid further and further, he found
| st. Paul a thriving town of 10000 in
| habitants, dependent. mostly for it's in
| tercOurse with other places upon the
! steamboats, plying upon the great river
which flows from the north to the
| waters Oh the south.
There was, the Minnesota Central
built from Minneapolis due south to
Austin, and there was the old st. Paul
& Pacific which started at ST. Paul and
! going through Minneapolis, reached
! LitchfieId in one direction, and in an
! other went almost as far as St Cloud.
But the Milwaukee, as it is known here,
or the st. Paul." as the Wall street
men call il, was only then beginning
a Of
a system which has grown to connect
! the great cities of Wisconsin, Mime
sofa and Illinois.
Judge Chandler is essentially a mod
est man, and possibly for the reason
! tfat his own personal affairs are so
closely linked with the progress of the
| construction of the Milwaukee road
into this country, he is not easily led
to say much about either.
For a man who is no longer young
rOr actively in the harness, the judge
maintains to a wonderful degree, a
| knowledge of the affairs of his COM
pany, and his recollection of incidents
in it's early history, and the dates they
occurred, shows that he has an excel
| lent memory. He is a Yankee. born in
Vermont, according to his own state
ment. the coolest day, in the coolest
month for many a year in the Green
Mountain State, Jan. 81, 1881, 50 that
he is siXty-seven years of age, and has
been for the past fifteen years the old
est man in point of service with the
Milwaukee road. Notwithstanding his
advancing years he is to be found at
his desk daily, attending to such mat
terS as come up for his attention.
Late in October, 1853, after he had
been in st. Louis for fourteen months,
John Chandler, at the suggestion of
his brother, D. F. Chandler, went to
Milwaukee, The brother was the first
engineer employed on the Milwaukee
road, and was killed in an accident.
The Milwaukee & Mississippi was
Their constructing its road from Mil
Waukee to Palmyra, a distance of
forty-seven miles, and later built
through TO Prairie du Chen. SO much
of it is the Prairie du Chen division
of the big system of today.
Young Chandler started as clerk to
George S. Hartwell. who was general
passenger, freight and ticket agent and
paymaster at Milwaukee. The road
then extended only as far as Palmyra,
and it's equipment consisted of four en-
gines, twenty-five ton affairs, and Il
passenger train was run each way,
daily, and occasionally freight.
A little later Byron Kilbourne, the
president and superintendent, through
difficulties, financial ard otherwise. left
the company, and without delay start
ed the construction of the old La Crosse
& Milwaukee, now the La Crosse divi-
sion of the present road. Grading was
begun in 1854, and four years later the
road was built into La Crosse, a dis
lance of 1875 miles.
At almost the same time E. H Bread
head completed the building of the MIL
Waukee & Prairie du Chen road to the
last named town.
When the Milwaukee & Mississippi
reached Madison in 1854. Chandler left
the general office in Milwaukee and
opened the new station at Janesville.
G. S. Strasberger, who has been dead
twenty years, was the first agent
When the La Crosse & Milwaukee got
twenty miles out of Milwaukee, Chand-
Ter left his road and was made cashier
Of the last named line with duties
which required him to be at the end
Of the line as it was extended from
place to place. He held down this po-
sition until the road was built to POr-
tage, nearly 100 miles from Milwaukee,
when, on st. Patrick's day forty-one
years ago, he formally opened the sta
ton at Portage for the company He
stayed there nearly a year and q half
but, before he reached there, he joined
the ranks OF benedicts, having welded
Miss Belle Davis, whom he had first
met in New England.
Even married and prepared to settle
down, this energetic young man was
not content long in one place, and. dur
ing the summer Of 1858, when Portage
was no longer terminus, the road hav-
ing pushed on to Sparta some seventy
three miles east Of La Crosse. he took
his wife to Sparta, where they remain
ed twelve years
The line upon which his station was
located used twenty-four-ton engines,
twenty-siX-foot freight cars. which
were hauled over fifty-one- pound iron
rails. The fare averaged cents a
mile.
Just twenty-eight years ago. or in
1870, Judge Chandler came to St Paul
at time when, as stated. there was
no river road to La Crosse. but when