Author Topic: A Request - when track removed from Mitchell to New Albany  (Read 619 times)

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Mark Johnson

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A Request - when track removed from Mitchell to New Albany
« on: April 16, 2022, 09:36:16 am »
To my friends in southern Indiana - a request: I would like to know when the crews are ready to pull the tracks out from the road crossing in Saltillo to the west...there's a story here:

When the NA&S was being surveyed/built, my great-great-great-grandfather, Jacob Johnson, was contracted to build the base grade of the line from the Saltillo road crossing for one mile to the west (railroad north), in the direction of Leipsic and Orleans. He was to have been paid $250 and a wagon load of tools; family lore says he never got the $250, only the tools. For many years, we had the original contract between him and the NA&S, but it was loaned to the Monon (my grandfather passed it to John Barriger, who was visiting line-side landowners in search of historical documents) for the 1947 Centennial and was apparently lost - I have checked with the Barriger Collection in St. Louis and they know of no such document. I don't think it is in any Monon archives in possession of the Society either (although I haven't yet gone to Salem to search).

In any event, since my family was involved in the construction of the line at that point, I would like to be there - or have someone in the area take pictures - when that portion of the rails are pulled up.

Many thanks in advance for any help !!

Mark Johnson
Columbia MO (also part owner of a farm straddling the Monon near Leipsic!)