Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-03-17
LOST BROTHERS UNITED.
One a Railroad President, the Other
a Laborer Working For the Road.

When the civil war broke out John
r. Markham. OF Clarksville. Tenn, was
among those who enlisted on the side
of the Confederacy. He was born in
Ireland, but in his boyhood his pa
rents came to this country and set
tied I'm the Sunny South"
He was 80 years old when he
marched off to the war" in 1861,
leaving behind him an invalid father
and a mother with baby boy in her
arms. The baby was christened
Charles H. Markham, but the family
always called him CHUCK"
John Markham was captured and
brought to Chicago in September,
1862. For seven months he was held
prisoner of war at Camp Doug
lass. Then he was Exchanged"
Friendless and penniless. 1t took
him many weary weeks to work his
way back to the little home town in
Tennessee. When he did reach there
it was only to find that his father had
died during his absence and that his
mother had married again and moved
away, taking little "Chuck" with her.
They've gone north somewhere,
but just where nobody knows" the
townspeople told John Markham.
And all his efforts to find his mother
and little brother were futile. Finally
he gave up the search for them and
went to Mississippi. He worked there
and in other southern states as we'll
digger, bricklayer, and plasterer.
For several years he has been an EN-,
ployee Of the Illinois Central railroad
~
Such has been the life Of John T.
Markham.
In 1881 a boy of 20 asked for and
got a job as section laborer on the
Santa Fe railroad in Kansas. He did
not stay long in that job, for chance
came to do the rough work at lit
tie station on the Southern Pacific
line. He had brains and ambition,
and they kept him moving right up
the railway ladder. In 1887 he be-
came a station agent himself at
Deming, ~ Mex. Ten years later he
was district freight agent and pas
senger agent Of the Southern Pacific
at Fresno, Cal. In just ten years
more he was made general freight and
passenger agent of that company's
lines in Oregon.
In 1901 he became vice president
of the Houston and Texas Central rail-
road. Three years later he succeeded
julius Kruttschnitt as vice president
and general manager Of the Southern
Pacific. Last December he was elect
ed president Of the Illinois Central
railroad.
His name? Well. he was christen-
ed Charles H. Markham, but when he
was baby the family called him
Chuck"
The other day an old well-digger
and plasterer working for the Illinois
Central railroad chanced TO see the
name of Charles H. Markham on an
order issued from the office of the
president of the company.
THAT may be my brother Chuck y
the old man said to his fellow work.
ers.
Your brother president of the
road! You're crazy they jeered.
But the old man clung to his idea,
and finally he mustered up courage to
go to the telephone office in Hopkins
vile, and over the long-distance wire
he talked with the brother from whom
he had been parted for half a century
The other day the private car OF
Charles T. Markham. president of the
Illinois Central railroad. arrived at
Hopkinsville. Ky. and awaiting the
coming of Little Chuck" was John
r. Markham. well-digger and plas-
terer-ChicagO Inter-Ocean.