This is one of my paternal great-grandfathers, Glen Pullen, 1891-1950. I never knew him, since he passed away six years before I was born. He was married to [Emma Mae Rathfon], who sadly was admitted to Central State Hospital, Indianapolis, shortly after the birth of their first child, my grandmother, Alice, for the duration of her life.
I love the photo, below, of Glen working as part of a railroad section gang, complete with spike drivers and shovels, in Flora, Indiana in 1923. Section crews, or section gangs, as they were commonly known, were responsible for the maintenance of a large section of track. They typically rode handcars to replace bad ties, tamp loose spikes and tighten bolts.
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| CLICK TO ENLARGE Glen Pullen, (center) Railroad Section Gang 19, April 26, 1923, Flora, Indiana |
I wonder if Glen and his gang ever sang the American folk song, "I've Been Working on the Railroad"? The first published version appeared as "Levee Song" in Carmina Princetonia, a book of Princeton University songs published in 1894. The earliest known recording is by the Sandhills Sixteen, released by Victor Records in 1927.
The "Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah" part is actually an older song that has been absorbed by "I've Been Working on the Railroad". It was published as "Old Joe, or Somebody in the House with Dinah" in London in the 1830s, with music credited to J.H. Cave. "Dinah" was a generic name for an enslaved African woman. The melody for this section of the song may have been adapted from "Good Night Ladies", written (as "Farewell Ladies") in 1847 by E. P. Christy.
We all know the original words, but you may not know this verse, printed in The Family Car Songbook, by Tam Mossman. This particular version sounds like that of a real section crew, not "just to pass the time away". I bet if Glen and the guys were singing, it would have been this no-nonsense version:
I've been workin' on the trestle,
Drivin' spikes that grip.
I've been workin' on the trestle,
To be sure the ties won't slip.
Can't you hear the engine comin'?
Run to the stanchion of the bridge!
Can't you see the big black smokestack
Comin' down the ridge?
Can't you hear the engine comin'?
Run to the stanchion of the bridge!
Can't you see the big black smokestack
Comin' down the ridge?
This is a Sepia Saturday post.
A nice story and I loved the clip with the story about the Polish 'music maverick', Danilowski.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard that "Dinah" is a reference to a slave....fascinating. And your Great-grandmother Emma's story is such a haunting one...
ReplyDeleteWould this photo be after she was admitted to the hospital?
Great details here...thank you!
Looking at that picture of your great grandfather working on the railroad, I got a real taste of the past, it was like being transported back to the time all those moons ago. Wonderful post :)
ReplyDeleteFireLight, yes, this photo was taken about seven years after Emma was admitted.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post.I often wonder where you got all those black and white pictures. Thanks
ReplyDeletewww.lifeincalifornia.com
Nice blog
ReplyDeleteI still like the unbearable beauty.
ReplyDeleteWe sang the song many times while I was growing up, always with the part of "someones in the kitchen with Dinah". Interesting to hear how songs got their beginnings. I hadn't heard this verse at all. I will send it to my mother.
ReplyDeleteHow strange things were back then. So very different with medical care.
ReplyDeleteI love these pictures and the stories behind them.
I love the bit about the song being included in a book about car songs; that's where we always sang it when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you were able to get a photo of him at work. That has to be a prized possession!
So "Dinah blow your horn" would be what kind of a horn? Maybe a conch? Aren't triangles normally rung at lunch? I thought of Dinah Shore when hearing this song. In Canada the newly arrived immigrant Chinese were instrumental in building the railroad and making a country. It was the railroad that created Canada. The first Prime Minister John A. MacDonald made this push happen and CP rail William Van Horne. Wonders how the railroad system worked in the states, was there a big push to get the railroad built coast to coast? Your Great Grandpa looks like a fine person; maybe even a little bit like the President!
ReplyDeleteWillow I know the words, I'm so old, but those were great one's i never heard.
ReplyDeleteDinah, Like Dinah Shore, do you remember the Gossip about Dinah.??
Well Sat. is the Derby. I picked Looking Lucky and Super Saver, who knows I have handicapped it for three days and My horse Connamara got scratched. Pick a horse Willow.
Great post although I wanted to hear more about your great-grandmother's going away into an institution. Sounds intense --
ReplyDeleteI sang the Dinah song every night to my children before they went to sleep when they were babies and never knew that it was added to the song later. You are just a wealth of info!
Elizabeth, I posted on Emma earlier this year. You can click on her name to read my previous post and poem.
ReplyDeleteSad that so many women were committed for life for what was probably post-partum depression.
ReplyDeleteBut how wonderful that you have all these old photos and the history that goes with them. We go way back 15 or 16 generations but rare photos and almost nothing known about the people.
Wonderful post -- the railroads were such an important part of the country's life -- how nice if they'd make a comeback.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful post and a reminder that some of the great songs we all learned growing up are rarely sung.
ReplyDeleteIn my elementary school I seem to recall that we had a sing-a-long session a couple of times a month. We learned some great songs by gathering around the piano.
Your poor great grandmother! I wonder if she suffered a post partal depression that never resolved. So sad, really.
ReplyDeleteThese posts are so interesting and informative. Great historically.
YOUR GREAT GRANDFATHER LOOKED LIKE A GREAT BLOKE, SO FULL OG LIFE.
ReplyDeletei HAVE HEARD THOSE SONGS YOU MENTION...GOOD OLDIES.
THANK YOU FOR SHARING SO WELL.
How wonderful that you have such good quality photographs of your great-grandfather. That is a privelage, and it is good to see that you appreciate it! Love the post xoxo
ReplyDeleteI always love to see your treasures of old family photos...
ReplyDeleteThe second part of I've been working on the railroad always did seem to be an add on to me...so nice to learn the whole story...
This was a marvelous piece of history through the eyes of your great-grandfather. I'm sad about Emma's fate.
ReplyDeleteI like the barn in the railway picture. Classic.
ReplyDeleteFascinating, Willow!
ReplyDeleteHave you read "John Henry Days" by Colson Whitehead?
Great photographs of your great grandfather. But what a sad story his wife, Emma, had. My great, great grandmother was committed to the county lunatic asylum following 'child bed fever'.
ReplyDeleteSee - another relative who had a good name (and I like his wife's name too).
ReplyDeleteYou must have so many photo albums, willow
Those are fantastic pictures Willow. Great family history and the bonus is the information about the song.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how the building of the railways 'riveted' economic development for a century. Wonderful photos.
ReplyDeleteHow fascinating! The old photos tell great stories of clothing too--especially the hat and the overalls. I have some similar photos that I treasure. Unfortunately, I am missing many because when my parents divorced, a therapist had my mother burn any with my dad in them as a "healing routine". She could have just sent them to me and pretended she burned them. More than you wanted to know. Those old resentments can bubble to the surface so easily.
ReplyDeletewillow i remember singing this song as a boy in the grade 5 choir. i never really thought about the someone's in the kitchen with diner as being a blended piece. there you go! steven
ReplyDeleteYour Emma story is such a tragic one. Such a beautiful woman. My heart smotes to think of all she endured so needlessly.
ReplyDeleteThe history of the songs was so interesting. I sang both as a child wracking up the miles on car journeys.
Glen was a handsome man, and he looks like he had a sense of humour, too.
That is so interesting about Dinah being a generic name...never knew that, though I know the song well. You always have such fascinating tidbits to share.
ReplyDeleteWillow--what was your grandmother Alice's middle name? Would it be Mae, after her mother? We have a whole line of "Mae's" on my husband's side. Alice Mae was his mother, Maude Mae his grandmother. My daughter is thinking of using Mae for a girl's name if she has a girl. I am posting a Sepia Saturday today too, for the first time. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteAn enchanting musical interlude, Willow. Really enjoyed listening to the song and reading your background information. I keep wondering how many old photographs you must have!
ReplyDeletei have always been fascinated with rail roads...having grown up with one just down the hill...and interesting bit of history as well...great pics!
ReplyDeleteMaybe the love of trains and the railroad is actually in the genes...and my triplets got it from the Pullen line. :)
ReplyDeleteOh, you don't want to be on the trestle with the train coming! Great job on researching "I've Been Working on the Railroad"; I always assumed it was roughly that vintage, but I never knew any of the details. & I really like the photos, esp. the one of the railroad crew.
ReplyDeleteHi Willow
ReplyDeleteyou have such a repository of wonderful archival material and a great skill at telling a story around them...thanks Willow
Happy days
So interesting and you had me singing along as I read. That was hard work on that railroad for sure.
ReplyDeleteI love that song. My mother and father would sing it with our family when I was a kid. As an adult, I sang it with my elementary students. Long Island has a really nice railroad that covers the Island and gets commuters to NYC and out to Montauk. All the children here know about the railroad, some take field trips to nowhere on the L.I.R.R., hence they love this song.
ReplyDeleteEmma Mae ... I love that. I love the old names. My great grandmother was Mary Edna.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice evening, Willow. I have missed visiting blogs; maybe life will slow down a bit.
Interesting. I had no idea that Dinah referred to a woman who was enslaved.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that about "Dinah" - and the railroad gang, thats such a familiar image from film etc. but how great to have a family image.
ReplyDeleteit hardly bears thinking about, all those woman like your grandmother and how they were treated
Love the photos of your grandfather. Doesn't it just seem healthier, more wholesome, than a photo of what most of us do now?
ReplyDeleteLook at how proud they are; you can just imagine them swearing and laughing as they go about their day. I have photos of my grandfather the farmer; he looks tired and sometimes discouraged, but he always has a dignity that I think we're losing in the workplace.
Imagine an office cubicle shot now. I have my doubts about "progress."
One of those hand cards used to go up by my house when I was growing up. They worked on the tracks a lot. Finally they got a motor on the handcar and we could hear them coming for a long time before they actually got there.
ReplyDeleteI'm on my way to read more about poor Emma Mae. Mae is my middle name and my grandmother's name on both sides of the family- Della Mae and Bessie Mae. I named my daughter (who died very young) Antoinette Mae.
ReplyDeleteLoved your story and the music.
P.S. It's also my mother's middle name-Arleen Mae.
ReplyDeleteBarbara
Teri, Nancy, and Barbara,
ReplyDeleteEmma's middle name "Mae" didn't turn out to be a lovely family tradition in our family, like yours did.
I just wanted to let you know that I am so intrigued and inspired by how you have, and know so much about your ancestors. I admit a tinge of guilt and envy.
ReplyDeleteIt has caused me to sit and pour through the pile of photos I have inherited, although in a sense it is a box of strangers, and tainted memories.
I do appreciate you nudging me forward in embracing this , however that plays out.
Just thought I'd tell you, and thank you .
Thanks, Deb. There's so much info now available online. Ancestry.com is a good place to start, if you want to research your family. Happy hunting, my friend. Watch out, it's addictive!
ReplyDeleteNice tribute to Grandpa Glen...he was a hard worker! :) The Bach
ReplyDeleteI love the photo of him with his tie blowing in the breeze! It feels so full of possibility and energy!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marion, I loved his tie blowing in the breeze, as well. It gives his image such a compelling presentness.
ReplyDeleteWe sang that song a lot growing up in my house. Good memories. Lots of great information in this post, too.
ReplyDeleteAh, Willow, the old photos you post are the best! I wonder if he ever met Woody Guthrie. All the history he saw and lived - There is a lot of information in those two photos. Fascinating.
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