The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1922-09-22
SMITH AND WEAR
BOTH ADVANCED
GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT OF
CENTRAL DISTRICT OF
G. N. PROMOTED
Will Go to Spokane to Take Charge
of that District of the Hill System,
While Butte Division Head As
sumes Place Left Vacant; Other
Promotions Are Given.

Sharing honors of advancement il
a promotion placing them anothe
notch higher in the scale of Grea
Northern railway executive, w. R
Smith and Fred Wear, two of Mon
tana's most popular railroad officials
and close personal friends, will thi:
week assume new roles in the Grea1
Northern directorate organization, il
was announced last week in an Off
cial statement issued by J. FL. O'Nei
of Seattle, general manager of the
Western district of the Great North
ern system, and signed by G. O.
jerks, vice president in charge OF
operation.
Smith, for five years general super
intendent of the Central division OF
the Great Northern with headquart-
ers in Great Falls, will be transferred
to Spokane as general superintend-
ent of the Western district. He will
succeed F. S. Elliott, who has been
granted an indefinite leave of absence
because of i'll health.
Promotions Along Line
Wear, for five years superintend-
ent of the Butte division with head
quarters in Great Falls, will succeed
Mr.. Smith as general superintendent
of the Central district. Following
in the wake of his promotion, there
will be ladder climbing for officials
who have worked under Wear for
several steps down the scale. He
will be succeeded by T. E. Dixon,
trainmaster of the Butte division,
who in turn will be succeeded by
N. F. Sell, general yardmaster at
Great Falls. E.. J. Jerry" Daily,
chief clerk in the division superin-
tendent's office, will be promoted to
yardmaster.
Smiths advancement places him
within tire rounds of the top of the
Great Northern ladder and makes him
a prominent figure in directing the
affairs of the Great Northern system.
Mr.. Smith has been "railroading"
since 1889 and in December will have
been with the Great Northern rs
years, becoming a veteran in the
organization He has served in al
most every capacity of railway sery-
ice since his debut into the employ
of the Canadian Pacific as a freight
conductor in Toronto in 1889.
He worked as brakeman and con-
ductOr and in various other roles of
train service with the Canadian Pa
cific until 1898, when he entered the
service of the Grand Trunk railway
Of Canada. After four years with this
he came to Montana as a
on the old Montana Cen
sral railway. In the spring of 1898 |
ne was transferred to the Cascade |
division of the Great Northern, in |
charge of the old switchback and in |
charge of the snow service during |
he construction of the Cascade tun-
lel.
String of Promotions
When the tunnel was completed he
vas promoted to passenger conductor
m the Kalispell division and later be-
'ame trainmaster of that division
lis next promotion was to assistant
uperintendent of the Spokane Falls
Northern railway, now known as
he Marcus division of the Great
Northern. In 1907 he was appointed
uperintendent of the Kalispell divi-
ion, serving in that capacity until
913, when he was transferred toll
iverett, Wash, as superintendent of
he Cascade division. Early in 1917
Q was promoted to assistant general !
uperintendent of the Central district
nd few months later succeeded Mr.. s
'lliott as general superintendent of
ne district. He has been in Great
alls since that time.
Mr.. Smith is married and owns a | S
'uit ranch at Kent, Wash, where his I
life and daughter live. His new t
eadquarters at Spokane will make t
possible for him to see his family t
luch more often than he was able e
, while living in Great Falls.
Both Smith and Wear are of the
Id type railroad men. Both big, t
lgged men, schooled in the game n
I'D thoroughly familiar with it from r
7ery angle, they are as much pio- b
GERS in blazing the trail of progress v
the west as the old frontiersmen b
no wagon-freighted across the O
aims in the early days. They have O
atched the west develop through Il
any railroad wars and Industrial G.
Uses and have seen the buffalo trails a
de and graded highways take their n
aces. W
Like Smith, Wear began his rail- N
aiding in Canada, as an office boy
| the Great Western railway at
indsor, Ont, in 1880. After sew F
al years with that railroad he trans G
rred to the Grand Trunk line of
lnada as a brakeman and later a tt
n I q O L L L. |
threading in the United States, with tr
e Toledo, st. Louis & Kansas City F
ilway. He worked in various capa- tt
les with that company until 1906, Il.
len he transferred to the st. Louis m
San Francisco railway. After three in
ars as conductor and brakeman I'll
: that company he came to Montana &c
d got job as conductor on the til
lite division of the Great Northern. of
February, 1910, he came to Great m