How the Frisco Railroad Built Springfield Missouri
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- With the Frisco Railroad coming to Springfield in 1870, Springfield Missouri and the Frisco Railroad saw incredible growth. At one time the Frisco Railroad was the largest employer with over 4,000 people. Learn about building and dismantling of a once great railroad and the town it helped grow.
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More awesome railroad history about building a town! Love it!
I grew up here in Springfield Missouri so I found it incredibly interesting. I enjoyed it. Thank you. 😊
Absolutely great video, as a fourth generation railroader, it was great to see some of Millard Morrow’s video clips. He was my grandfather and what I would give just to here his railroad stories one more time!!
My father was able to rescue and then restore a Frisco Caboose #1215. He loves the Frisco railroad and was able to grow up riding with the local engineer on Alco RS3's and GP's!
Well done. Excellent. Our Dad took my brother and me on the last passenger train heading west to Marionville I believe. We were about 10 - 12 years old at the time. Someone played taps as we left the Springfield station. In the early '60's 4519 (sister to 4524 at the museum) was parked for a few years waiting to be cut up for scrap. He would take us there to climb all over under and inside it, in the firebox, water tanks anywhere we could explore. Can you imagine having unrestricted access to that in today's litigious / liability climate?
Thank you for the video. I didn't know that Springfield had such amazing railroad history.
It's such a shame that the passenger stations, freight depots, and other facilities were demolished. The former yard near Mill & Main is now a big, empty eyesore.
56:17 lower pic on right. The silver/aluminum colored pipe that goes up and back down is a fuel crane and it to has Springfield Origins. It was invented in the late 70s by a Springfield native, JW Hohensee, working for George Snyder who was the owner of Snyder equipment from Baltimore. It is one of the most commonly used fueling systems to this day and still produced locally.
To fully understand and appreciate a place requires the help of those who documented it's history.
Thank you sir for providing an enjoyable trip back in the history of Springfield, Missouri.
My life here feels more complete as the different aspects of how Springfield, Missouri's was settled and developed. As a transplant from Washington, DC who lived on Capitol Hill, the biggest historic neighborhood in the country, learning all about Springfield, Missouri is an important and fun pastime for me.
Again thank you for a wonderfully marvelous narrative.
This was an excellent documentary about the history of the Frisco in Springfield. The graphics were great!
My great great grandpa Bright Columbus Reddick lived in Springfield. He was an engineer for the Frisco and was killed in a head on collision in 1899 at Leeds Mo. He was killed in engine 215. I have a digital copy of that engine before the crash. I'm not sure if he is in the picture.
Would love to see it ~ email it to rich.sgf@gmail.com ~ Thanks
Very good video. Interesting and informative. Thanks.
Wow!!!
Love IT! 😀👍
This is wonderful and worth a second watch. I was wondering though about the Mansion at Elfindale. Wasn’t that built by a Frisco VP?
John O’Day was an attorney for the Frisco
Here is a long answer from a fellow historian
So think you know who built Elfindale??? Read Sally Lyons McAlear great write up and learn the true story!
John O’Day Did Not Build
the Mansion at Elfindale in Springfield, Missouri
By Sally Lyons McAlear
You can go to files and click on the link there ~ or read it here
John O’Day Did Not Build
the Mansion at Elfindale in Springfield, Missouri
By Sally Lyons McAlear October 7, 2018
John O’Day did NOT build the mansion at Elfindale-as repeated incorrectly time and time again in contemporary accounts in the newspaper and even on the Elfindale website! Did you ever try to correct the record on something-but the error continues to be published incorrectly-even though you’ve shared your findings? The latest inaccuracies about themansion’s builder appeared in the Springfield News-Leader within the last two weeks in articlesabout Elfindale’s history. Read on to learn how I know that John O’Day did not build the mansion.
With the availability of the online historical newspaper database Newspapers.com, more information comes to light-to correct previous historical inaccuracies. Greene County taxpayers can access this wonderful database free on the Springfield-Greene County Library website with thier library card number. Any articles not on that database can be found on microfilm in the Local History Department at the Library Center, where their dedicated associates will assist you.So...be sure to “fact check” me!
Mr. O’Day had divorced his first wife, Sarah Jane “Janie” (Campbell) O’Day, on July 25, 1887 [Springfield Leader, July 26, 1887] and quickly married his second wife, Clymena Alice (Underwood) Vail on September 25 of that year in Ann Arbor, Michigan [marriage record on Ancestry.com]. It appears that they resided in St. Louis for a while after their marriage according to a newspaper article regarding a fire at their country residence there [Chillicothe (Mo.) Constitution-Tribune, April 1, 1890]. The Elfindale website and one of the recent newspaper articles both state that Mr. O’Day began construction on the mansion in 1890. Not so! He didn’t even buy what would become the Elfindale property until February 28, 1891 (when he purchased 480 acres). He purchased an additional 50 acres of adjoining property on March 9, 1891 and an additional 53.64 acres on March 13, 1891. These dates were found in deed research at the Greene County Archives. He had also bought property in town-and it was announced in the December 6, 1891, Springfield Democrat that the O’Day family were in their beautiful new home on St. Louis Street. The July 14, 1891, Springfield Democrat ran an article stating that Mr. O’Day wasdeveloping one of the finest parks in the southwest portion of the city. An article in the October 7, 1892, Springfield Leader tells about a wedding of Mr. O’Day’s sister held in his mansion onSt. Louis Street. So-you can see that they were residing at their mansion in town whiledeveloping a park in the country. It wasn’t until an article appeared in the Springfield Leader- Democrat on November 12, 1897, that there was mention of plans for a mansion on the country property. That article mentioned that a new home-a splendid edifice-would be built southwest of the lake. They were still residing in town when an article appeared in the Springfield Leader- Democrat on January 21, 1898, describing a luncheon given by Clymena at her elegant home on St. Louis Street.
John O’Day would never build that mansion-but his money would! His marriage with Clymena (who often used her middle name, Alice) deteriorated, and by July of 1900, they were negotiating the terms of their divorce (which included a great deal of drama)! She officially sued
him for divorce on August 27, 1900 [Greene County Circuit Court Book 69 Page 87]. It was final on September 10, 1900 [Greene County Circuit Court Book 69, Pages 87-89]. She was granted $24,000 in alimony, $200,000 worth of stock, and 202 acres of property in Springfield known as Park Place. He soon married a third time to Sue Isabel Baldwin, his former clerk- stenographer, on June 7, 1901, in St. Louis [Marriage License No. 92014, City of St. Louis Recorder of Deeds]. John O’Day died from a longtime kidney ailment on July 29, 1901, at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Knowing he would not live long, he left orders for a fine mausoleum to be built to house his remains at Hazelwood Cemetery in Springfield, completion of which was expected to be accomplished in about three months, so it was probably finished around the first of November [Springfield News-Leader, July 31, 1901].
As Clymena had already been very much involved with the beautification of the country property, she was now financially able to see the dream of building her mansion fulfilled. A large article about the further beautification of the property and the plans for building a mansion appeared in the Springfield Leader-Democrat on September 12, 1901 (picked up from the St. Louis Post Dispatch). It seems from the detailed description that the reporter was probably touring the property with Clymena. In that article, the reporter stated:
South of the island, up the slope to the crest of a hill, is the site chosen for theelegant stone mansion being erected by Mrs. O’Day. The foundation already complete, is said to have cost $15,000. When completed, this country residence will be one of the finest in Missouri, urban or rural. On the lawn near the new house is a splendid ornamental carving showing lions in stone. The landscape work for the lawn surrounding the house is as yet a secret known only to the designer.
Note something important here. The house was just then being erected, and only the foundation was already complete! This was late in 1901, and construction was just then underway! A mansion takes a while to build. It was not completed until the spring of 1905. The Springfield Republican ran a very descriptive article about the newly-completed mansion on May 14, 1905. From the detailed descriptions given, it would appear the reporter was personally touring thehome. The title of the article is “Mrs. Alice O’Day’s Home at Elfindale-Magnificant Mansion Now Nearing Completion-Description of Location, Style of Architecture and SurroundingGrounds.” Did you catch the words “now nearing completion” in that title? That is more thansufficient evidence that John O’Day did not build the mansion. Clymena Alice O’Day built themansion-after their divorce and after his death! She would eventually marry again.
To learn more about Clymena Underwood Vail O’Day Young, read the biographical sketch Iwrote about her on her Find a Grave online memorial. You’ll learn a lot more interesting O’Dayand Elfindale tidbits there-as well as what eventually became of the builder of the mansion. Her life ended drastically different from what you would have expected of such a wealthy woman.
Hopefully, those who write about the builder of the mansion at Elfindale in the future will be convinced by all the documentation provided here-and get it right! - at The Mansion at Elfindale.
@@MrRich4449 Great information Richard. Thank you. I have spent many nights (usually as the only guest) in the mansion when in Springfield on business. During the week the rates a very low. Cheers.
Please refer to the coal facilities used to deliver fuel into the tender as a "coal chute," not a coal tower.
Due to high fuel prices and bad emissions and trying to create a green earth 🌎 we need to restart another train station Amtrak will be back ...I believe this in my heart and mind. God bless america!
A route along 1-44 would be great.
Is their anything on the 1902 house off of high st? I was told it was a railroad house
4524 have pic of it on its side ties broke on north view hill my grand dad was engineer news leader did not publish story or pic for fear it would cause people not to take trains on trips Walter Mack was 50+ yr employee ( guarantee won’t give no more pics or negs away to any museums
The old architecture looked so much better, everything now are just ugly effecient boxes, so soulless. The dirt also looked way better than concrete roads all over the place
Eisenhowers inspiration for the Interstate system came when he first saw the Autobahn, so don't blame Ike. Blame Hitler.
Fremont was not only a bad businessman, he was actually a pretty poor general as well. About the only thing Fremont was able to do was marry a woman with highly placed political connections.