DON GROVES/Albany Ledger
Ninety-eight-year-old Lynn Upchurch waits for Judy Steiman to set up a video Jan. 20 at Golden Living Center-Colonial Manor of Albany. The Gentry County Historical Society plans to create a video of Upchurch for display in the Great Northern Railroad caboose at the Albany depot.
By Don Groves
The Albany Ledger
Visitors to the Gentry County Historical Society’s caboose in Albany will one day be able to watch a short video documenting one man’s career as a railroad telegraph agent.
Ninety-eight-year-old Lynn Upchurch spoke Jan. 20 about his 33 years as a telegraph operator for the Burlington Railroad from his room at Golden Living Center-Colonial Manor of Albany. Gentry County Historical Society’s Judy Steinman and Sandy Gillespie videotaped Upchurch as he talked about his duties at depots in Albany, Bethany and New Hampton.
“At one time it was about the best job in the county,” he said. “It was my first regular job in Gentry County.”
Upchurch first started working as a telegraph operator in 1941 before going into the Army. After returning from Europe, he became an operator in Albany. He said his seniority could have allowed him to displace those with less seniority in searching for a job.
Upchurch said trains passing through Gentry County carried both freight and passengers but it was mostly grain that was hauled along the line, which ran from St. Joseph to Chariton, Iowa. A branch line ran from Bethany through Mt. Ayr to Grant City.
It was along that branch line, Upchurch said, the worst train accident remembers occurred. A train hauling ammunition and a train hauling food rations collided, killing an engineer and two armed guards.
Upchurch said most of his work as an operator was reporting passing trains but at times he was also responsible for delivering Western Union messages to families about a loved one’s death in battle.
“That was something you didn’t want to deliver,” he said.
Upchurch worked for the railroad until 1971 but he said railroads had already started losing ground to over-the-road transport when he started work in 1941. Still, he said the Burlington had a role in Albany’s business success. At one time, he said Albany included a roundhouse and turnabout for the railroad.
Upchurch’s recollections of working as a telegraph operator will be edited and organized into a video, which will also include old photos of the railroad in Gentry County. The video will be on display in the Great Northern Railroad caboose that was added this summer at the depot in Albany.
