Golden Spike at Promontory Utah [great-great grandfather Thomas Edward Keyes]
From: "Patrick Doherty" pddqa@yahoo.com
Hello. I was wondering whether there was any kind of a roster of those RR men who attended the ceremony back in 1869? My great-great grandfather Thomas Edward Keyes was supposedly there, but I am not sure. Do you know if such a roster existed?
Thanks
Patrick Doherty in Seattle
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 3:35 PM
4 Comments:
We are not aware of any roster of those who were at the golden spike ceremony. The closest to this is the list in a pamphlet by Thomas Hill documenting his famous "Last Spike" painting. (But many other people were present on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Summit, and the painting depicts people of significance to the railroad who were not there – for example, included in the painting are Lewis Metzler Clement who was in Washington, D.C., and Theodore Judah who had died years earlier).
Please let us know if you have any biographical, career information, or family stories about Thomas Edward Keyes that you can share.
From: "Patrick Doherty" pddqa@yahoo.com
Thanks for the quick response!
Thomas Edward Keyes was born in July 1842 in Chatsworth, near Clogh, Kilkenny, Ireland. In April 1861 he left for America, arriving in New York, working on a farm on Long Island for a while and eventually signing up as a volunteer with the Illinois Infantry in the Civil War. After the War he began to work for the railroads being constructed into Dakota Territory and Minnesota, etc. I am not sure if that would be the Great Northern or what. He is supposed to have been present at the Golden Spike, according to his daughter, my great-grandmother. In 1874 he retired from the railroad after having worked to build the line and depot near Frazee, Minnesota, settling on a tract of land granted him adjacent to the RR in Hobart, Otter Tail, Minnesota, where he met the sister of a coworker, Mary Murphy, also of Ireland, and married. There he settled and farmed his land until his death in Feb 1920.
I will be visiting the site of his birth in Ireland in a couple weeks and seeing the descendants of his older brother Patrick Keyes who stayed in Ireland as he was the recipient of the family lands. It would be nice to be able to share more info with those relatives, such as his work on the railroads, but I have no more information than that!
Thanks again,
Patrick
The Promontory Summit golden spike ceremony was the completion of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads on May 10, 1869. This rail line went through Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California, but not Dakota or Minnesota.
On August 23, 1883 the east and west crews of the Northern Pacific met at Hell Gate Canyon 55 miles west of Helena. A golden spike ceremony was held on September 8 at Gold Creek, Montana.
The Great Northern Railway was completed January 6, 1893.
Not sure how to put together an 1874 retirement date with Dakota Territory and Minnesota.
From: KyleWyatt@aol.com
Based on the states and territories listed, it does not sound like he worked on either the Union Pacific or the Central Pacific, so likely would not have been at Promontory, Utah in May 1869. The Union Pacific didn't get into the Dakota Territory and Minnesota.
It sounds as though he might have worked on the Northern Pacific, or a predecessor of the Great Northern. Both are up in that part of the country.
I suppose it is possible he worked for the Union Pacific, and then moved north after completion in 1869.
In the end, I'd have to say we don't know.
Kyle K. Wyatt
Curator of History & Technology
California State Railroad Museum
111 "I" Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
My work address is: kwyatt@parks.ca.gov
My personal address is: kylewyatt@aol.com
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