The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-07
Interesting Story of the Life of
Dewitt G. Moon.
The Newly Appointed General
Manager of the Lake Shore.
MAN WHO is SELFMADE
When Not at Work He Was
Improving Himself.
Other Items Of Interest in
Railway Circles.

Dewitt c. Moon as a boy didn't
want to become a farmer Neither
did the ministry or the law appeal to
him. He refused a clerkship in the
general store at the crossroads sim
ply because he could see no future in
What under the sun does the boy
want to do, mother?" asked his faith
err impatient with him.
II guess that he wants to go on the
been talking of 1t for these two years
now. Since they began to talk of
building that new road he's been
worse"
Boys nowadays are funny boys"
was the comment of Moon, ST. when
1 was his age I had four acres in corn
and enough stock to pay my way
through school.
mo good can come of his going
railroading. He'll get his head cut off
some day.
1t wasn't long until the surveyors,
laying out the Dunkirk, Allegheny
Valley & Pittsburg, line which was
to run from Warren, Pa, to Dunkirk,
n. Y, came to talk with Farmer
Moon about getting a right of way
through his meadow land.
He wouldn't listen to them at first.
''I'm not going to have my cows and
chickens scared to DEATH" he de-
clared. The engineers left without
the right of way.
They were back within the week.
They simply had to run their lines
through the Moon farm. Otherwise
they would have to make a long and
expensive detour, besides bridging
small creek that bisected the adjoin-
ing farm.
They doubled their offer, ''I'n talk
1T over with mother" the old man
told them.
Mother thinking of the ell she want
ed to build off the kitchen, and of
the things her parlor needed, told her
husband to sign the grant Dewitt,
the boy, was wildly enthusiastic. With
a railroad running right behind the
barn he saw an opportunity for ac-
complishing that ambition that dwell
ed in his dreams by night and his
thoughts by day.
II hate to see the railroad come"
Moon, ST., conf1ded in his wife.
''There'l be no keeping of Dewitt
at home after they begin to run trains
through here
Let the boy have his way" she
advised. Then a happy thought
her They're going to build station
here, they say-why not get them to
give Dewitt a job here on the old
farm? They'll have to get somebody"
Farmer Moon finally surrendered.
Though the surveyors demurred
strenuously at first at the thought of
furnishing raw country boy with
a position as one of the considera-
lions of a right of way through his
parents land. they finally consented.
few months afterward Dewitt C.
Moon was formally appointed station
agent of Moons station" There was
no telegraph office in the little depot,
only way freights stopped there. Way
freights ran without orders those
days.
In year or so the D., A. V. & P
decided to make Moons station a .tele-
graph station. Then they proceeded
to break the news to the boy station
agent that his services would no long
er be required. I'VE need a tele-
grapher." they explained.
well, 1 can telegraph" he told
them. They gasped as he proceeded
to explain that he had put in his time
practicing Morse between way
freights. In the end they decided to
keep him.
Moon developed into a first class
operator. He never "broke." his re-