I found my Grandpas name from 1938

[who_dat73]

Hey everybody did I get a surprise this past weekend I was back in my home town and happened by the old Rock Island Depot that had been boarded up many years and stopped to look in the windows to see what the old place looked like inside after much wondering as a kid.
As I was pearing in the windows I notice pencil writings on some of the bricks I assume since they were all guy names that these were names and dates of the men that had shipped out from the depot for WWII I walked around the building reading names and way up about 7 foot on the wall was a name that I recognized it was my grandfather and marked 1938 he lived 30 miles away in a much bigger town that had a depot of its own so I figured it couldn't have been from the war so I came home and did so family checking and found that gramps had worked the CNW as a teenager before shipping off to the war. so this was gramps saying hi after all these years.
I had never known him as he died when I was very young but to see that blew my mind.:thumb: Then through the checking I found after the war Gramps came home to work for the CCC camps and has his name on the plaque as a builder of the Alaskin Railroad .
Then to make a Great night evin better I have a hobo intrest and found a carving from TEX KT in one of the doors
Dont know if yall would be intrested in all this but I figured you might be intrested
Thanks
Mike

 

[TomPM]

Wow what a find!

Finding little tidbits of stuff like this is a whole lot of fun.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I agree, what a find! If I'd a been you, that brick would probably be sitting on my mantle right now.
Doc

 

[jim currie]

neato :thumb:

 

[ausien]

Always good to find out some of your familys history, no matter how triveral it may be, a name on a brick, hey that a shout: hey I was here you know... have a good one.. steve

 

[shaygetz]

Cool stuff...I remember how I felt when I saw my great-great-grandfather's signature in an 1870 tax roll. I'm hoping to get back up North for a visit as i recently found out where the gravesites of my great-great-great-great-grandfather Jago and his wife are located.

 

[who_dat73]

Got back to the depot and got pics

Hey everybody Got a few pics from the depot before the juice ran out
Pic 1 is Tex KT's signiture, a hobo from the midwest here these are the links I found about him
www.murrayinfo.com/news/20040409/tramp-20040409.htm
www.murrayco.com/edgarm/poem_421W.html
Pics 2 and 3 are my grandpas sig.
Pic 4 is a general of the wall

 

[N Gauger]

and if you put the pics through an editor........

Really Cool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ezdays]

Tose pictures have to be priceless to you and your family. Fantastic find.

 

[who_dat73]

got somt things to update this

Hey everybody been talking to the aunt that got most of the stuff after grandma passed and she has been sending me some info and pics.
Found out grandpa worked the C.C.C. camps on a bridge and builder crew on the Alaska Railroad and for a time during the war.Then he worked the CStPMO RR into the CNW years I am still piecing things together right now but I have a face for the name on the wall so you guys can see the man behind the name I have a few pics from when he worked the alaskan but they have to be scanned yet as well as a newspaper article about him riding the blinds to visit my grandma when they were dating but that will have to wait a lil bit till I can get them digitized but here is the face behind the name

 

[ausien]

There is always someone the knows the whole family history, the who did what, when they did it, who they did it to/with, the why`s and wherefors. The fun is finding out who that is, and talking and listening to the old stories, its great for the kids, and informative for you.....

good work, and keep us posted on your railroading grandpa....can you please inform this poor colonial ausie, where those RR`s ran and when.... thanks who dat73

 

[who_dat73]

Where they ran and a portion of the News paper

The Chicago Saint Paul Minneapolis and Omaha ran pretty much that rout from what I can find so far they were mergered by the Chicago Northwestern some time around the 1920 to 40's I want to say but dont quote me on that if you are intrested go to the Chicago Northwestern historical socity http://www.cnwhs.org/info.htm alot of neat photos and info that I am still brushing up on.

This is a part of the interview with my grandma from the paper.
"I thought I would nerver see him again" (Ekke/ gramps) Josephine rembers I didnt think anything of it but Ekke was resolved to persue a courtship.
When his CCC service was ended he returned to Worthington Mn.

The Space between cars on a passanger train was enclosed with a heavy fabric. It was was possable to stand there and ride this was known as "riding the blinds"

There was a train wich left Worthington for Alton (Iowa) and points South at midnight. Another left Alton at 2 a.m. for Worthington Ekke Heidebrink "rode the blinds" from Worthington to Alton and back again and again to see his girlfriend.

 

[who_dat73]

another grandpa pic

This is a pic of grandpa standing beside the truck he bought from the Chicago Saint Paul Minneapolis and Omaha when he worked for them

 

[who_dat73]

Grandpa and the Guys that helped build the Alaskan RR

Grandpa is sitting with the guy on his shoulders

 

[suzie_rhcbc]

newspaper article

first, let me say i hope this gets through...it's been a while since there was a post here. while digging into my family tree i discovered a scrapbook my Grandma Heidebrink kept from the 40's and 50's full of wedding announcements and newspaper articles. i came across a couple of funeral cards where Ekke Heidebrink and Leonard Heidebrink (my dad) were pallbearers. i also discovered a newspaper article that mentioned Ekke Heidebrink and all 4 of his brothers being in the military.