The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-03-25
IN SERVICE AS YEARS
"Bill" Woodman Retires from Service
of Chicago, Milwaukee Il st.
of Cllica
Paul After 45 Years.

vi L IL
The frequenters around the Mill
waukee depot have been wondering
for some little time what had become
of Bill Woodman, n of tie Mill
waukee passenger engineers, as En-
gineer Comfort has been coming in
on his passenger run for several
months. Bill has been laying off at
various times during the past few
years, and the layoffs We're getting
longer each time. until the last one
ended his connection with the Chi,
cago. Milwaukee e st. Paul Co. for
he decided to give up railroaGing
for all time to come.
Forty-tive years is the length CT
time that Bill Woodman has been
drawing pay checks from the COM
pany, and it covers a great spar of
years with some mighty interesting
incidents i'm railroad life connected
with it. MIR. Woodman is a Canad-
ian by birth, and was born April 20,
1S47. His father, Frank Woodman,
was an employe of the road as a
blacksmith in the shops of the COM
pany at Portage, Wis, so Bill got his
railroad instinct early in life. -Four
of the sons of the old gentleman
have found their way into the Mill
waukee service, and three of them
are still pulling a throttle on the
road, John being On an eastern c
vision, and Frank and Charles ha}-
ing a passenger and freight run re
spectively between Mitchell and
Chamberlain.
Bill Woodman started in on his
railroad experience in 1864 at Port
age City, Wis, where he began work
as a general helper, and as he ac-
quired knowledge of an engine he
became what is known as a dispatch
err on the Iowa and Minnesota divi-
sion at Austin, Mimi, his work be-
ing to take incoming engines from
the trains and placing them in the
~roundhouse. There vas a slight in
terruption of his service with the
company when he enlisted in the
closing days of the war of the re-
bellion. enlisting in the 22d Wiscon-
sin infantry March 1, 1865, and was
mustered out at Madison, Wis, on
June 2S Of the anne year. MI.
Woodman resumed his work with
the Milwaukee company as a machin-
list at Portage City for some time,
man, working under Horace K. Bates.
In 1870 Mr.. Woodman went to Iva
and Dakota division of the road and
fired an engine out of North Nc
Gregor. For a little over two years
he shoveled coal into the %yawning,
frey chasm of a freight engine, and
then he became a freight engineer.
He ran the first engine into Clear
Lake, Iowa, when the road was COM
pleted to that point in 1872. In 1875
Mr.. Woodman was placed in the pass
enger service, where he has served
continuously since. The larger part
of that time he has been running into
Mitchell from Sanborn, Iowa, but
the familiar face at the cab window
coming in on No. 1 will be no long
err seen. Mr.. Woodman was one of the
most popular men on the road as an
engineer and stood high in the favor
of his superiors. He was always con-
:. servative in his work and it was al
ways a steady hand at the throttle
when he was on his engine. In all
J the years that he has been pulling a
, passenger train Mr.. Woodman has
met with some interesting incidents,
things that could not be avoided in
the life of an engineer. He has de-
veloped a strong friendship among
a number Of citizens and they will
: regret that they will not see him on
his regular trips to Mitchell. He is
a member OF St. Bernard Comman-
\ derry, knights Templar, of this city.
While an engineer on the road,
Mr.. Woodman made his home at San
born, but now that he has severed
Q his connection with the road he has
I. moved to Des Moines, Iowa, to pass
the remainder of his days.