Great Grandfather, Benjamin Daniel Hayes
Will you help me? With your extensive research with the transcontinental railroad workers, I'm hoping you can direct me to web sites or railroad companies with phone numbers that could possibly have the records I need.
I am looking for the railroad line, the exact dates of employment and any other information on my Great Grandfather, Benjamin Daniel Hayes. He worked on the railroad in security. He would travel on the train to protect the railroad's payroll being delivered. I actually have the pistol he used, which has seven knotches in the wood of the handle representing the number of men he killed in this line of duty.
He was born 1859 in Shelbrock County, Iowa and died 1933 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Therefore, I assume it is a rail line in that area that was active during that time frame.
From what I can gather in the Net, railroad lines in that time changed companys and renamed several times. It's all confusing to me and I have no idea where to look. Is there one major list of railroad employees during that time I can check that will specifiy what company he worked for?
Is it also possible the my Great Grandfather worked for a security company that was hired by the railroad line and I'm not looking in the right direction at all? If there were such companies, what are their names or how can I find them?
Any information you can provide me would be tremendously and greatly appreciated.
—Loni Hayes
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 10:06 PM
2 Comments:
Unfortunately, there is no list of 19th century railroad employees. Often, the only information that survives is whatever is passed down in the family.
See railroad genealogical resources and our list of primary sources relating to the transcontinental railroad.
From: "Alejandro Muniz" looney_mg@hotmail.com
Subject: Transcontinental Railroad Workers
Hello my name is Alejandro Muniz. I would like to find my great grandfathers' record. He worked at the railroad and he died in Chicago working at the railroad tracks. The only thing we have is a picture that he sent to his family. His name was Apolonio Godinez. He worked approximately from 1915 to 1940. I'm not sure. That's all I know besides my grand father stories of him. I hope you guys can help me thanks!!
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