Wittenberg

John William Summers and his family spent a little over ten years in Wittenberg, Missouri, where John was a Frisco telegrapher and a station agent. When the family moved there around 1920, the town had a population of only 270 people. But despite its meagre size, Wittenberg boasted a brewery, a furniture factory, a flour mill, two grocery stores, two hotels, and John Summer’s Frisco railroad station, the latter giving the village a reason for being.

Old Wittenberg (Warren Schmidt, Perry County Lutheran Historical Society).

A map of Wittenberg Mo in the 1920s has been handed down through the Summers family. It is likely that the map was drawn by one of John William’s children. Note the comment in the lower right "BRIDGE WHERE POSSE HID IN 1922 ..." This is the site where John F. "Quail Hunter" Kennedy was killed following his Frisco train robbery, but more on that in a future blog.

A black circle has been added to mark the location of the Frisco Depot

Today Wittenberg has a population less than ten. Some say it is only three. Wittenberg’s death was caused by periodic flooding, which increased when levees along the Mississippi were raised.

Standard Atlas of Perry County, Missouri, 1915, p. 40. The RR depot is circled.

A Frisco Career

John William Summers

Verne Cumi Crabtree

It is planned that the book A Summers Saga will conclude  with John William and Verne Cumi (Crabtree) Summers and their descendants. Of course this is still well off in the distance. Nevertheless, the draft has Thomas of Delaware as the port of departure and the John and Verne Summers family, the destination.

John William was employed by the Saint Louis and San Francisco Railroad, the “Frisco,” a line that never went near San Francisco. The “Frisco” operated primarily in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, although a portion of the 5000 miles of track also lay in Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, and Texas. Headquartered in Springfield Missouri, the “Frisco” was incorporated on 6 Sep 1876. With the “Frisco,” John worked his way up from laborer to telegrapher and station agent. Around 1910, while still single (though he would soon be married), John began his railroad career as a laborer in the Missouri town of Puxico.

Puico was the center of the timber industry, whose main clients were the railroads, which needed ties and bridge materials. Rails had first been laid through Puxico in 1883, by the Cape Girardeau Southwestern Railroad, and the town had been incorporated the following year. 

Puxico Frisco Station, c1903

Puxico Frisco Station, now a museum. 2007.

John then worked as a station agent in the now-defunct town of Boynton, Arkansas, the home of the newly wedded couple. Next he was a telegrapher in Delta, Missouri, while living in Ilmo. Then, a little before 1920, John became a telegrapher and station agent in the tiny Perry Co town of Wittenberg, Missouri, located on the Mississippi River, about one hundred miles south of St. Louis and 30 miles north of Cape Girardeau. In 1930 his family moved to Pocahontas, Arkansas, where his career and his life ended on 21 Dec 1932.

Now-abandoned Pocahontas Station, John’s last workplace, 2007.

John was only 43 years old when he died of influenza followed by pneumonia. On Wed 21 Dec 1932, his son Dale was on way home to Pocahontas from college by train for Christmas and had fallen asleep. A conductor came by and woke him up, saying “are you John Summers boy.” When Dale said “Yes,” the conductor responded, “Your Dad is dead.”

A Summers Saga

Well, I’m finally actually writing the Summers book, working title: A Summers Saga, The Wittenberg Summers. I must admit, however, that the subtitle might be misleading. Wittenberg is Wittenberg, Missouri, not Wittenberg, Germany. The former is were John William Summers, telegrapher and station master for the Frisco line, and his family lived before the family relocated following John's early death.

This book arises from a rash promise I made to my life’s companion and BFF, Mary Frances—a  promise that I would document the origins of her parents, Dale and Eloise (Wehner) Summers. With the completion of a volume (tome?) about Eloise’s origins (Bier und Brot), it’s Dale’s turn, starting with his 4^th great grandfather, Thomas Summers of Delaware.

The present book follows a single line (more or less) descending from Thomas. Were all Thomas's lines covered, the book would require decades to complete and a warehouse to shelve. I have available neither the decades nor a warehouse.

The book’s line starts with Thomas and ends with the family and descendants of John William and Verne Cumi (Crabtree) Summers (Dale’s parents). Covered is the journey of John’s antecedents from Delaware to North Carolina to Tennessee to Southern Illinois and, finally to Southeast Missouri. The proposed cover shows Tower Rock, emerging from the Mississippi near the town of Wittenberg, Missouri, the last place John, Verne, and their five children lived as a unit for any significant time. For convenience I call this family line, the "Wittenberg Summers Line." To avoid a bulky name, I am leaving out "Missouri," even though there is a danger of confusion with Wittenberg, Germany.