Evening journal., 1913-04-25
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
How a Section Hand Rose
to be General Manager
Of q Railroad
BY Holland


"In my long career as railroad
man there came frequently under my
notice demonstration OF the manner
in which the trihing little incidents
the boyhood or early manhood of
someone who afterward became a.
prominent railway manager really
determined his career. or at least in
dicatcd what it was to be-
SO said the late James ID. Laying,
who was for many years associated
with the Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany and afterward held important
positions with the Chicago and North
western Railroad Company
There was no railroad manager of
the West at the time was associated
with the Chicago and Northwestern,
for whom J had higher regard than
Sherburn s. Merrill. He was the right
hand of Alexander Mitchell when nc
latter was great railroad authority
in Wisconsin and other parts of the
West
"a was once told that when Mr.
Mitchell was offered the presidency
of one of the railroads running out
of Milwaukee. he said that he would
not accept the offer unless he was
permitted TO name Mr. Merrill as his
general manager don't think he
had to beg very hard TO have that
condition of his acceptance granted.
Merrill was the man who Overcame
what to the early builders of the
West. especially those whose lines
were constructed across vast tracts
Of prairie, was one Of the most diff
cult Of the propositions they were
compelled to encounter.
81 remember when the Chicago and
Northwestern was constructing It's
lines across Iowa and 'or a thousand
miles beyond that the engineer en-
countered a great number of quag-
mires. or. as these things were called
by the western people, sink holes
There were so many Of them in one
section that in all PROBABILITY a COM
pletc change OF survey would have
been necessary I'm order TO get the
tracks around them.
There sink holes were regarde7
by many persons as exactly what
their name suggests-holes in the
earth carried to a very great die
tance. Sometimes, ii was said, they
went to the centre of the earth
They gave infinite trouble to the
pioneers who crossed the prairies in
wagons which were commonly
known as prairie schooners.' Some
times one Of these wagons would sink
out Of sight in sink hole. Our
engineers, however, paid no special
attention 10 the sink holes. They
knew how to fill them up.
81 was once asking about the
method of conquering these sink
holes, and I was told that II had
been discovered by Mr. Merrill when
he was a youngster. He was employ
Cd I believe, by a man who was in
charge OF gravel train, which was
used in the construction of a railroad
across Wisconsin from Milwaukee
westward
The builders Of this road had been
baffled by these sink holes. The
more earth they dumped into them the
more greedy the holes seemed to be
for diet of that kind.
Merrill. it seems, remembered the
method adopted by his father on his
farm I'm New Hampshire when Mer-
rill was a boy by which any danger
Gus quagmire or quicksand was con-
Qucrcd so that a place of swamp land
was reclaimed Merrill never thought
Ol illN uiill ANH VI AWfAhN g'HAn AfAN'i .
when he was employed as a sort OF
section-hand upon this Wisconsin
railroad. He said to the section mas
ter that he knew how to fill up sink
holes. and he was told to go ahead.
He did and he conquered these pests
OF the prairies.
"This brought him to the attention
of some of the executive officers and
he was rapidly promoted until at last
Alexander Mitchell heard of him,
learned what Merrill's work was, and
decided to make Merrill the general
manager OF the line of which Mitchell
was to be president"
Copyright. 1913. by E. ]. Edwards
All rights reserved,
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell OF
"The One Bank Which Did Not Sus-
pend Specie Payment"