Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-11-20

take the first trip in the new car l was
conductor, / remarked to him that this
car was a fine car, and he replied briefly.
for he was a silent man: 1T ought to be;
it cost enough money 1t was an eX-
perimental car, and, of course, they had
put in a good deal of unnecessary work
on it, making changes and rebuilding.
81 was % years old when l conduct
ed the first Pullman to Chicago. We
wore no uniforms; / was attired in citi-
Zens' clothes. l think / wore a badge
but that was all. l was a clerk in a dry
goods store in Chicago in 1856, and this
is the way in which l became a Pullman
conductor: Mr.. Pullman had an office
on Madison avenue, just west of La Sale
street, and boarded with a family very
close to his office, and | used to go back
wards and forwards past his office to my
meals, and l had read in the papers
that he was working on a sleeping car,
and one day l stopped in and made an
application to him personally for place
as conductor. | gave him some refer
ences and called again. and he said the
references We're all right and promised
me the place.
The first few months business was
very poor; you see, persons had been in
the habit of sitting up all night In the
straight-bacll seats and they didn't think
much of trying to sleep while travelling.
Besides that, money was scarce, and not
many people could afford to pay the
rates that were charged for berths. SO,
after | had made few trips, it was de-
cided it didn't pay to employ a Pullman
conductor. and the cars We're placed in
charge of the passenger conductors on
the trains which carried them, ard [
was out of a job l soon was made u
passenger conductor, however, and when
the sleeping cars began to pay / was
given my old job again.
Last summer the Pullman Company
realized the historical value of Mr.
Barnes story as the first Pullman con-
ductor, and the president of the Pullman
Company in Chicago wrote him a letter.
inclosing some photographs and asking
him whether the photographs inclosed
We're pictures of the first. second or third
cars put out by the Pullman Company.
The photographs sent We're of the third
car built by Pullman; there is no picsure
of the crude first and second cars in ex-
istenee. Mr.. Barnes dictated a statement
of his experience as the first pullman
conductor and sent it to the Pullman
Company in Chicago
After leaving the Pullman Company
Mr.. Barnes went to work as train con-
ductor on the Alton, where he met Oc-
tave Chanute, who was the chief enGi-
neer of the Alton and who built the Ham
nibal bridge and founded the town of
Chanute, Kan. They became good
friends Later Mr. Chanute became
chief engineer for the Missouri, Kansas
and Gulf Railroad, which later became
the Frisco. The road at that time ran
only to Olathe, and Mr.. Chanute OBJ
tanned for Mr.. Barnes the position of
conductor, and he ran the first train be-
tween Kansas City and CIathe on De-
cember 10. 1865. The engine was fer
ried across the Missouri. Chanute was
then building the Hannibal bridge. The
trip of about 20 miles was made in one
hour and 40 minutes, and there was but
one train each way each day.
There had been much rain, the track
was rough, and 1t was necessary to make
slow time The Frisco of today makes
the trip between Kansas City and Olathe
in less than 80 minutes. The only other
railroads out of Kansas City at that
time were the Missouri Pacific and the
old Kansas Pacific Later Mr. Barnes
WAY made trainmaster of the Missouri
River, FIT. Scott and Gulf. and when it
was extended to FIT. Scott, Chanute pre-
dicted to him that it was going TO be a
big road and that it would be n fine
place for young man. Afterward, in
1874. Mr.. Barnes became trainmaster of
the L., L. and G., later sold to the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. and
Mr.. Barnes became assistant superinten-
dent June /. 1882. He became supern-
tendent of the division, with headquar-
ters at Chanute in 1889, and held the
position until November Is, 1910,-Kansas
City Star.