The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1927-11-18

house and giving directions for the next
days tuning up, he wiped his hands OK a
bit Of waste and went to the office to
register. This done, he was a free man,
free to enjoy retirement after 81 years
Of faultless performance on a job where
our age has not succeeded
in Supplanting individual human effici-
ency with mechanical means.
John T. Sheedy began r~ailroading by
carrying water on the Big Four. He was
IA then, n the locomotive Of those
days-he was born in 1857-bore about
the same proportions to that with which
we are familiar as David did to Goliath.
At 10 he started out "on his own" and
earned his living as most boys do under
such circumstances - by taking n
work which will afford a living wage. He
learned the blackSmithing trade.
He learned his trade, but he did not
lose sight of his real ambition, to become
a locomotive engineer. He persisted in
the pursuit Of steam. In his twenties
he was in charge Of a steam dredge on
the Miami-Erie canal.
He was in Toronto when the call Of the
west came. He hired out for steamshovel
work on the Canadian Pacific, which had
not yet TIED itself together in the mid
die" He got a free ride to Donald, with
promise Of pay accruing en- put When
he reached Donald the steamshovel was
out of commission and the r~ight-of-way
not ready for steamshovel work. They
told him, wait around a bit-you're
drawing pay from the time you left To-
ronto!"
That is what the bystanders said, but
not the paymaster. One night he told
the boss he was off for the Promised
Land, the states. The only return he
ever got on his back pay was the grub
stake he secured by q nocturnal visit to
the cook tent. h he threw in with
/ that of five others, bound in the same
| ncnaro1 dfrooffNn Tho civ hOrr~rk n A0o4
n started dow the Columbia. Finances
were low, but it was a long way back
to Winnipeg, whence was the only rail
connection with h states.
The party was composed Of two Scan
~dinavians, two Germans, n Englishman
(lately kicked out of the English army
and Sheedy, a United States citizen, but
proud Of 100 per cent Irish ancestry
They had bacon, beans and flour-ano
ambition. One Of the Germans was an
eX-sailor n a good man with the oars
Between him and Sheedy, who had beer
raised on the water" they got the boat
down without serious trouble.
About six miles above the LittleS
Dalles, Of which they had all a proper
fear, the two Scandinavians again went
ashore. The rest took the boat down tC
a point lust above the falls. There was {
trading post. They traded h boat tt
the owner for the privilege Of fetching
to the right side Of the river two foot
sore n lamenting Swedes who were OF
the wrong side.
The party went or. tu9t to Colvillt
early the next day. Ihe 1OrL I'D beer
enough settlers and Indians T. celebrate
the Fourth Of July. L&e Granddaughter
and Germans were toe 0mnttioU e de
lay. They started out on foSS - Eslseacv
never heard Of them again SCt tn
,Englishman, fresh from the SS's A'tiol
| Canadian rnofOn HncidaH RI oaga ah1 ~
Fourth Of July in truly Americas fA@1ia'
and slept over the fifth. She51y n i q
wait for him.
Sheedy caught a ride to Spokane witt
a freighter. The latter drove a six-hors
team, with a wagon aHd a trailer. When
ever the horses and the men got hungry
they camped. This was a very simpl
matter-yOu hobbled the horses an
turned them loose to Craze, while yo-
fried bacon, boiled coffee and "perpe
trated" some baking-pOwder biscuits G
l1lapJacks. At Spokane, then not muc.
more than a wide place in the road, the
camped below the falls.
Passing over the incidents Of such
life, the Indians, the queer character
met along the trail, one must admit this
Sheedy was something more Than a vet
eran engineer when he made his las
run on the Northern Pacific. He was q
old-ttmer, in the western a Of tn
word.
He made his way to Evaro, for thel
was little doing in Spokane-near EvaI
the Northern Pacific was building til
"big iron" 1.-THE O'Keefe) bridge. But ths
job was about don when he got Their
Some well-intentioned laborers said Mi,
sOula was 'just over the hill"-sO I
found, after he footed it long enoug
and saw his future homeland, a lor
way OFF, from the divide on Grant cree.
He had a dollar and six-bits when I
struck the master mechanic, MIR. Garloc
for a Job. He was told to hang arour
a bit till something turned up" Tn
was obviously impossible, and he said
and got a job.