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.”