Sandra Waldrop Doolittle > Railroad Man Telephone Man 1

My dad Harry Pou Waldrop was born in 1906 in a small town called Vinegar Bend. He was the son of a train engineer who worked with the Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company. He traveled from Mobile, Alabama to Ohio. At age fourteen he was riding with his papa James Harry Waldrop back and forth on his long trips. His papa would let him take control of the throttle thru the swamp land in lower Mississippi.

The rails were laid out on stumps in the water. The water came so close to the top that it appeared the train was gliding across the water. The surroundings were the trees bending over with long strings of moss hanging down so thick the sun could hardly get thru. The light shinning in front of them from the train, the smoke pouring out of the top and the noise of the train shaking, these were the sights and sounds that daddy had seen and listened to when his papa was at the throttle. Now here Daddy was feeling grown and standing in his papa's boots. He was in control of the throttle and yes, his eyes were on the rail.

I can vision this image my daddy saw thru his eyes because my daughter Jan Doolittle Page (The Mystery Picture Lady) and I followed the stumps from Winchester, Mississippi thru several miles of the swamp land. We saw the stumps sticking out of the water with the rails missing. We could see what my daddy was watching thru the front opening of the train.

The sight of a tall slender fourteen year old boy with black hair and watery blue eyes, being so excited about holding on to the throttle and knowing his papa was watching him, standing by his side. The chilled blood running thru his young veins of being in control and he wanted to do this the rest of his life. Just waiting for the day when his hands would be like his papa's and he could open the throttle wide open and be in control. He was the master of the cars behind him all the way back to the red caboose. His papa trusted daddy and stood tall knowing his son was going to follow in his footsteps. (You gotta remember daddy was the first son after three older sisters.)

Now I know how proud Capt. Harry, (my grandpapa James Harry Waldrop) was but I'm not so sure how proud the M &O Railroad Company might have been knowing a fourteen year old was in control of the throttle racing over rails. The rails didn't sit that high out of the water. Jan and I could see the remaining stumps that just appeared just above the water.

Even daddy thought he was ready to take over his papa's job. Capt Harry knew daddy was facing a man's job and it would be a long time before daddy would stand alone on that dangerous stretch that went flying thru the swamp land. Just when daddy would get sure of himself, Capt. Harry's big hand would cover daddy's hand and daddy would know it was time to slide his hand out and hand the throttle over to his papa. Daddy knew without his papa telling him to pick up the shovel and start shoveling coal into the furnace. Then daddy's dream would start again of the day he would be standing with his hand on the throttle and he would be man enough that his papa's hand wouldn't have to cover his. Then daddy's dream would come true, he would be the engineer

Daddy loved , as a child, to listen to the stories his Papa would bring home after traveling from Mobile to Ohio on the M &O. Rail Road. Minnie and the children, Joe Ollie, Helen, louise , Harry (daddy) and LaMonte, would sit for hours listening to their Papa's stories.
Minnie never knew who Capt. Harry (Papa) was going to bring bring home next who was hungry , tired or needed a place to stay. Daddy said, Many times the children would sleep on the floor so a stranger or two could sleep in their beds. Capt. Harry was in a position where he would run into men who were down on their luck or just needed a friend or a hand that reached out to them. Daddy said, when the men left they never heard from them again, but Capt. Harry never turned anyone away , he would just bring them home to Minnie.

Daddy had being an engineer in his blood. Capt. Harry, his papa, had worked for the M &O Rail Road Company since 1887 It was his dream and desire to follow his papa. Not only his papa was connected with the M &O Rail Road but his mother Minnie Lee Masters Waldrop had worked with the M &O when she was fifteen as the telegraph operator.

(Just a little of info about Minnie Lee Masters and James Harry Waldrop Grandmaw Minnie and Papa (Capt. Harry) were second cousins. Their grandmothers were sisters. Daddy never did know why during that time the Grandparents frowned upon them dating, because most people living in small towns in the late 1800s were marring their second cousin. Daddy thought the paternal side were not pleased because Minnie's mother had been married twice and divorced twice and was raising four children on her own. Nothing the grandparents could have said would have kept them apart. They loved each other from the start. Minnie was fifteen and a pretty little thing (according to Capt. Harry, he adored her) Capt. Harry was twenty one years old. Minnie was five foot one , tiny, full of life , long black hair down to her waist and almost black eyes. Capt. Harry was twenty one, but he also was fun and full of life, tall handsome very few times he was serious, so they blanche out and when they found each other the hunt was over. It would take a couple that loved one another, that knew how to share life and enjoy it together. What they had for one another was what got them thru some hard times in the years to come. )

Grandmaw Minnie wasn't respected for working in the Vinegar Bend Depot where there were nothing but men most all the time. In 1890s women who worked around men were looked down on. My grandmaw came from a nice family who owned a two story farm house, they owned cattle and horses. However, Grandmaw Minnie's mother married a couple of men, Great Great grandpapa Benjamin Woulard didn't like so Grandmaw Minnie and her mother were on the outside taking care of themselves.

My grandpapa, Capt. Harry fell in love with Grandmaw Minnie and married her and his family almost disowned him. His mother didn't but his Baxter grandparents did. The Baxter grandparents would not have anything to do with Capt. Harry, Minnie nor their children. ( which included my dad and four other children) (whoop...there went the money, schooling and land)

This didn't help when Grandmaw was home one night and there was a shooting at the Vinegar Bend Depot and then neighbors ran over across the street and told Grandmaw Minnie she was needed at the Depot right away. Grandmaw was fairly young and newly married, but she ran over to the Depot and opened the Telegraph and sent messages out there had been a shooting and the man's body was lying right at her feet and he was still breathing and she was advised to loosen his clothes. Now, standing close to her was her husband, Capt. Harry and all the workers in the Depot plus the men who hung around the Depot when they didn't want to go home and stayed to shoot the breeze. When Grandmaw Minnie loosened the man's shirt and took off his belt the gossip started to fly.

The next day after Grandmaw Minnie tried to help save a man's life ,she was told not to come back to work by the women in Vinegar Bend who threatened to strike against their husbands if they talked to her.

Grandmaw Minnie didn't go back to work .she stayed at home until after the last of her five children were born. six years latter again there was a shooting and they ran for Grandmaw Minnie to come and Telegraph for help in the areas around them, like Chatom and Citronelle, Alabama. No one knew how to operate the Telegraph machine like Grandmaw Minnie. Not thinking about herself ,she and Capt. Harry ran across the road to the Depot. Once there .they found the same people calling on her for help; that were against her when she was fired from the Depot ,the last time she was called to help .

I don't know if it was good or bad luck, but when Grandmaw Minnie arrived the man was dead. (This time she didn't have to worry about loosening a man's cloths) She sent a message to Mobile and one to the Depot before Vinegar Bend ;to have the M &O Train stop and pick up the dead man's body and carry it into Mobile, Alabama. Grandmaw Minnie was able to reach the ones that were needed from the close by towns; a Doctor to pronounce the man dead, a Minister to pray over him and relatives to meet the M &O train in Mobile. After Grandmaw Minnie was thru ,doing all that needed to be done, she left with no one speaking to her or thanking her. Grandmaw Minnie, was still known as the "Floozie" that work with men at a Depot , where the men who hung around and visited. It never dawned on her that people could act that way after receiving her help, in their time of need . They needed Grandmaw Minnie she could work a Telegraph machine like a typist types today.

When Grandmaw Minnie was a very young girl ,her older brother ,Oliver who was a conductor on the M &O Rail Road. He knew a little about the Telegraph machine and he had shown her a couple of keys and how it worked ; the rest just came natural to her. This knowledge would have made her good money from the M &O Rail Road , but the town people held her back. You see, " It was Sin In The Sight Of God" for a woman to work around and with men , in their eyes.

So needless to say without her job Grandmaw Minnie had to go back to sewing. She had to make the children's clothes, table cloths, curtains, sheets and bedspreads. Very little was store bought by Grandmaw Minnie. Those "Song Singing Ole Biddies" had had their way. They not only cost her the job, but they also almost ran her out of town. It lasted for a while until my grandpapa Capt Harry had enough. He told the men of the town ,every time his wife cried and had to do without ,because of their old Biddies, that they were married to ; and also did not leave her alone, he was going to start whipping one A$$ a week until he had worked himself thru every husband in Vinegar Bend, Alabama and Washington County if it took it. The men who knew him, worked with him, respected him and feared him for they knew he was a man of his word. Capt. Harry told them he had given them enough time to be man enough to stop the old Biddies' rumors, now he was going to do it his way.

Grandmaw Minnie was now invited back into the Church, the sewing meetings, and her charge account was reopened at the stores in Vinegar Bend. Now Grandmaw Minnie could wear a store bought hat and dresses , if she wished to. Grandmaw went thru all this because she worked with men in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. All I have to say to Grandmaw Minnie is, "If you could see us now." We have come a long way, Baby."

When Great Grandmama Sara Baxter Waldrop asked her son Capt. Harry what he had said to the men. He said "Mama, I just spoke to them so they would understand what I was saying and they took me serious." She replied.."Oh Dear Lord, will I be able to go to Church this Sunday Morning? ...." Capt. Harry replied, "Yes ma'am, you can sit with Minnie on the front row."

Now Read Part 2

Thanks for letting me share my memories with you.

Sandra