The Tupelo journal., 1917-06-08
OLDEST ACTIVE
~TELECRAPHER In SOUTH
Charles St. John Dies at Cam
ton May 21st.


21st the oldest t~elegrapher in the
south passes away. Mr.. w. H.
st John his son was notified of the
serious illness of his father and has
tened to his bedside and was present
when he died. The elder st John
was IN his seventy second year.
The following notice of Mr.. st
John appeared in the Hattiesburg
News of December 30th, 1913.
An order retiring on full pay for
the remainder of his life has just
been issued by the Illinois Central
Railroad Company and made appli-
cable to Charles st John who having
begun telegraphing in 1858 at the
age of twelve years is now retired
from active duty in his s~iXty-eighth
year, giving him d record of Sc years
of uninterrupted service in the send
ing and receiving of Morse telegraph
signals, SO years of which were spent
in the service of the railroad IL the
town of Canton, Mississippi, where
he is by courtesy of the road, per-
mitted to retain the title of office
manager, while being relieved of all
requirements of service.
Having entered the service of the
Riley System Telegraph Company in
1856 at the age of nine years, at
Port Gibson, Mississippi, where he
was born in 1846 Mr.. st Johns SO
years of continuous service makes
him perhaps the oldest active tele-
grapher in America, surely the old
est in the South, and furnishes a
most interesting link between this
day when the telegraph system begun
by S. B. T. Morse in 1887, has grown
to be one of the most essential fac
tors in human progress, having dur
ing the active life of the subject of
this sketch, developed to its present
gigantic proportions from a number
of short lines, (either privately own
Gu VI C|olICI Ollcu ny ooiIC SoiIpohy VI
nominal or very small capitalization
with single wire lines strung be-
tween the terminals of some short
line of railroad.
Early in the year 1864 Mr.. Charles
st John left Brandon, Miss, where
he had been employed as a CONNER
cial telegraph operator, to accept the
position of telegraph operator in the
joint service of the Mississippi Cen
trail Railroad and the New Orleans &
Jackson Railroad, the two lines then
connecting at Canton, Mississippi,
since when he has uninterruptedly
held the position of railroad tele-
graph operator at the Canton Office
and in addition thereto for more
than thirty years handled the COM
mercial telegraph service at that
place.
The two railroads named above
have long since ceased to exist, in
sofar as the names are coRcerned,
both lines now forming links in the
Illinoois Central Railroad, the form
er being the line of road reaching
from Jackson, Tennessee, to Canton,
where a rail connection was made
with latter road which reached from
Canton to New Orleans.
For many years Mr.. st John main
tanned the unbroken habit of reach
ing his Office at seven o'clock in the
morning and leaving his telegraph
key promptly at the hour of sever in
the evening, provided his night relief
was ready to go to work, but
in any instance would he leave his
post until relieved. So regular were
the habits of this man that it was
through the years no uncommon
thing for people along the route
from his office to his home, to set
their time pieces by his movements.
His business was always so cared for
that when the hour Of noon arrived
one watching the door of the Can
ton telegraph office could almost
with absolute certainty count on
seeing Mr.. st John step therefrom
and turn has face homeward, and
with practically the same degree of
certainty his return could be noted
at the hour of one o'clock.
Though known to every man, wo-
man and child in the town of Canton
where he has spent so many years
of service, he was rarely seen in the
business section of the town, the
exception being when he went once
each month to his grocers to settle
his monthly bill and at the hour of
eight each Saturday night, through
out the years, to visit his barber,
his patronage of the tonsoriay artist
1;Lo oil otborc IF bic habits poxyor