Transcontinental Railroad Workers, Teens
From: "Dick, Judy" JDick@Scholastic.com
I am an editor at Scholastic Magazines. I researching the building of the transcontinental railroad and was wondering how young the workers were. Did any boys or [teenagers] work on the teams, especially among the Chinese workers? ...
—Judy Dick, Senior Editor, Scholastic Magazines
I am an editor at Scholastic Magazines. I researching the building of the transcontinental railroad and was wondering how young the workers were. Did any boys or [teenagers] work on the teams, especially among the Chinese workers? ...
—Judy Dick, Senior Editor, Scholastic Magazines
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 11:06 AM
2 Comments:
“Teenager” is a concept that didn’t arise umtil the 1960’s. So don’t expect to find references to teens in the 19th century primary souces.
This is an interesting question!
In our area of Fremont (at that time Centerville), the 1870 census lists about 35 Railroad workers.
After the "golden spike" ceremony, work continued from Sacramento to Oakland, via Stockton, the Livermore Valley, Alameda Canyon, to Vallejo's Mills (now the Niles District of Fremont), then to Alameda. The first through train to Alameda was September 6th.
So evidently there was still some work being done somewhere along this line in July of 1870.
The railroad workers are in three buildings, probably in the vicinity of Vallejo's Mills because of some of the other people listed in the census. (not absolutely sure where tho).
Of those workers. The youngest is 17. There are six who are less than 19. The oldest is 40.
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