Friday, April 20, 2007

UPRR employee in Utah, Thomas B. Morris

... Any info on a UPRR employee in Utah named Thomas B. Morris. He seems to have been quite a wheeler-dealer ... trying to cut deals with Patterson and Miller for contracts for beef and flour. ...

Robert Louis Stevenson in 1879

From: KyleKWyatt@gmail.com

A friend recently gave me a request. As many of you know, Robert Louis Stevenson crossed the country by train in 1879, and wrote of his experiences in The Amateur Emigrant.

From the East Coast Stevenson appears to have ridden a mixture of regular trains, riding in coach, and emigrant trains. In Omaha he boarded a UP emigrant car, transferring to a new CP emigrant sleeper at Ogden.

My friend (who is not on the internet) is interested in a dated chronology of the trip and its stops, copies of schedules that show the trains, and locating photos and other pictures of stops along the way. For starters, I think illustrations from Leslie's trip of two years earlier should provide some good info and pictures.

Anybody interested in taking it on? It would seem a fine addition to the CPRR web site as well.

—Kyle


Promontory Hotel order for Beer.
Order for Beer:
Office of T.G. Brown, Dealer in Groceries, Cigars and Tobacco, Boots and Shoes. Proprietor Promontory Railroad Hotel, 1876.
Courtesy G.J. Graves Collection.