Working on the Railroad
The Railroad was built by thousands of hard-working laborers.
Mormons
Mormon leader Brigham Young contracted with both companies to provide laborers. They were diligent workers who didn't drink or gamble.
"It was acknowledged by all railroad men that nowhere on the line could the grading compare in completeness and finish with the work done by [the Mormon workers]."
Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Utah.
Brigham Young.
(Photo, National Park Service)
(Photo, National Park Service)
Mormons working.
(Photo, A.J. Russell and Utah State History)
(Photo, A.J. Russell and Utah State History)
Chinese
The Chinese were industrious and healthy, and were CP's primary workers. They did hard and dangerous work (like blasting and tunneling), but were paid less than white workers.
Chinese drank tea (boiling water killed bacteria).
(Photo, Alfred A. Hart and Utah State History)
(Photo, Alfred A. Hart and Utah State History)
(Photo, Alfred A. Hart and Utah State History.)
Civil War Veterans
Veterans worked under dangerous conditions for UP.
"Union Veterans, Members of Phil Sheridan Post No. 17."
(Photo and Caption, City of Las Cruces)
(Photo and Caption, City of Las Cruces)
Irish
The Irish were UP's primary workers. Many spent money on drinking and gambling in Hell on Wheels Towns (temporary towns that sprung up wherever construction stopped), but they were important to construction of the Railroad.
(Photo, A.J. Russell and Utah State History)
Hell On Wheels Towns
Railroad workers lived near "Hell on Wheels" towns.
"Every gambler in the Union seems to have steered his course for North Platte, and every known game under the sun is played here. The days of Pike's Peak and California are revived. Every house is a saloon, and every saloon is a gambling den. Revolvers are in great requisition. Beardless youths imitate to the life the peculiar swagger of the devilmay [sic.] care bull-whacker and blackleg, and here, for the first time, they try their hands at the " Mexican monte," "high-low-jack," "strap," "rouge-et-noir" " three-card monte," and that satanic game, " chucka-luck," and lose their all."
Henry Morton Stanley, "My Early Travels and Adventures in America and Asia."
Stanley also wrote:
"I verily believe that there are men here who would murder a fellow-creature for five dollars. Nay, there are men who have already done it, and who stalk abroad in daylight unwhipped of justice. Not a day passes but a dead body is found somewhere in the vicinity with pockets rifled of their contents."
Death in a "Hell on Wheels" town.
(Photo, Arundel C. Hull and Wyoming Tales and Trails)
(Photo, Arundel C. Hull and Wyoming Tales and Trails)
"When we were on the line, this congregation of scum and wickedness was within the Desert section, and was called Benton. One to two thousand men, and a dozen or two women were encamped on the alkali plain in tents and board shanties; not a tree, not a shrub, not a blade of grass was visible ; the dust ankle deep as we walked through it, and so fine and volatile that the slightest breeze loaded the air with it, irritating every sense and poisoning half of them ; a village of a few variety stores and shops, and many restaurants and grog-shops; by day disgusting, by night dangerous; almost everybody dirty, many filthy, and with the marks of lowest vice; averaging a murder a day;..."
Samuel Bowles, Our New West.
Benton, Wyoming--Hell on Wheels Town.
(Photo, Arundel C. Hull and Wyoming Tales and Trails)
(Photo, Arundel C. Hull and Wyoming Tales and Trails)
I've Been Working on the Railroad.
Copyright © SongsForTeaching.com.
All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Copyright © SongsForTeaching.com.
All rights reserved. Used with permission.