History of Railroad Blacksmithing

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Does anyone have any history of railroad blacksmithing with the Central of Georgia?

My grandfather, Moses A. Michael started working for the C of G on Sept. 29, 1902 as a blacksmith apprentice. He was 16 years old. The C of G policy was not to keep employed any apprentices after their training according to my grandfather. The C of G continued to employ my grandfather. He worked as a blacksmith until 1918 when the C of G promoted him to Blacksmith Assistant Foreman under Charles W. Schaffer, foreman. On Jan. 29, 1926, my grandfather was appointed General Blacksmith Foreman after Mr. Schaffer died. My grandfather was in charge of the blacksmith shops in Cedartown, Columbus, Macon, and Savannah. My grandfather worked for the C of G for 53and a quarter years.

The Macon shop was in charge of making the frog in switches. To this day, I have my grandfather's notebook with the dimensions. He never made a drawing of any items. The shops always worked off of dimensions.

I would appreciate to know if anyone has more info about the blacksmithing activities at the C of G.

-- Leonard Jacobs (lpjacobs@mninter.net), December 28, 1999

Answers

Leonard, I don't have as much info as you do but noticed that my great-grandfather, Charles Cox also was foreman and blacksmith at Columbus. He died in 1925. I have a photo of him standing in front of his office there. If you'd like to receive it I'll be happy to send it along. Maybe it was the same office where your grandfather was. Can you tell me what a blacksmith foreman did? -Judy

-- judy gautier (jgautier@wimberley-tx.com), November 06, 2003.

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