Count of Transcontinental Railroad Workers and Deaths
posted from CPRR Discussion Group at 9:39 PM
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
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4 Comments:
Great questions. The short answer is that nobody really knows.
The Central Pacific Railroad had a maximum of about 12,000 workers at one time, and the Union Pacific probably had a similar number, but people came and went, so the actual number who ever worked is significantly larger, but unknown.
Claims of "thousands" of Chinese killed in construction accidents are nonsensical fabrications. About 130 workers are believed to have died building the Central Pacific (based on the secondary literature), with many of those due to weather related events such as avalanches, not preventable accidents. There is a single newspaper article that reports "possibly 1200" Chinese railroad workers dead but, even if that larger number is correct, it is likely that most of those deaths were due to a documented smallpox epidemic in Nevada, not due to construction accidents, as all of the accident reports are very specific accounts of small numbers killed. As best as we can determine, the number of documented fatalities during the CPRR construction reported in the primary literature by those actually participating is quite small, totaling 28-36 (this range representing the uncertain counts as originally reported).
There is almost no information about construction casualties on the Union Pacific.
Can anyone supply a photo showing the smallpox scars on Anna Strobridge's face to illustrate the following passage?:
"A letter dated January 20, 1868 from Charles Crocker to Collis Huntington regarding track laying gangs states that : ' ... small pox has demoralized the workers ... We are breaking in Chinamen & learning them as fast as possible.' Anna Strobridge, wife of James Harvey Strobridge, Construction Foreman, nursed the workers in the pest cars – she contracted small pox while nursing the workers in Nevada. Photos of her, from 1868 on, show the effects of the disease on her face."
I am researching the death of a railroad boomer in 1906. This death was in Smithville, TX and his body was found beheaded next to the railroad tracks. Realizing that your concern is the Central Pacific I am taking a chance with several questions: Where might I find info on the number of railroad workers who died by beheading...apparently common enought to be included in rr safety legislation in l908. What would have been the attitude of regular rr workers toward boomers?
L.Coffin
A newly discovered newspaper report shows that the notion of large numbers of Chinese casualties in building the Central Pacific Railroad is almost certainly a myth based on a single erroneous newspaper article. (On June 30, 1870, the bodies of 50, not 1,200 Chinese dead were reported to have arrived in Sacramento by train for reburial, and not all of this much smaller number had died of construction accidents.)
Consequently, any claims of more than 150 Chinese killed building the first transcontinental railroad now seem extremely dubious.
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