‘Uncle Lige’ criss-crossed country serving VIPs on rail car ‘Lycoming’

This is a rare image of the VIP rail car, Lycoming, pictured circa 1890. Hannibal resident, Elijah Spencer, a long-time porter for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, and later the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, was the porter of choice for many railroad executives who used this as their private traveling car while on company business. Photo, part of the Corbin-Wagner Collection, shared by Archie Hayden.

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Note: Some of the language in this story is reflective of the era in which the events took place.

Oh, the miles they traveled together, ‘Uncle Lige’ (Elijah) Spencer and the Lycoming, a VIP rail car. Through the vast Great Plains, elevating through the Rocky Mountains, and diving deep along the California coast line, they traversed together, through Indian Territory prior to Oklahoma’s statehood, into the vastness of the Texas cattle country, and finally, south into Old Mexico.

That’s a lot of territory to cover for a Kentucky-born man of color, who came of age before emancipation, and a deluxe wood-framed rail car, hand constructed in 1876 by top mechanics working in Hannibal’s railroad shops.

Locomotive engineers, and the firemen who coal-stoked the steam engines, kept the train moving while ‘Uncle Lige’ took special care to ensure the comfort of the Lycoming’s VIP passengers.

All told, ’Uncle Lige” and the Lycoming traveled together for a quarter of a century, from the mid 1870s until the dawn of a new century, serving the needs and wants of the railroad elite during the era when the emerging railroads, and the men who ran them, were king of the road.

Elijah Spencer, born April 1837, told the story of how he started as a porter with the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, to a reporter for the Hannibal Morning Journal; the story published in the newspaper’s March 4, 1911 edition.

Described by the newspaper reporter as “the venerable colored man of this city, and the oldest porter north of the Mason & Dixon line,” ‘Uncle Lige’ told the rest of his story.

The year was 1863:

“Yes, suh, I certainly remember the day I went to work for the railroad. I was down by the boat chutes when (Mr. George H. Nettleton, assistant superintendent under Col. J.T.K. Haywood), “came up and he saw me and said: ‘Boy do you want a job?’ and I said: ‘Yes suh that’s just what I am a looking for’ and he says, 'what you been doing?' and I said: ‘sawing wood and working round’ and then he wanted to know if I could make up a bed.

“Course I could do that and he takes me over to a big hotel and lets me show him how well I could do it and when he looks at that bed he said ‘boy you’ll do.’

“I have been working ever since and when the Burlington got the Hannibal & St. Joseph (in 1883) I went along, too. Yes suh, I have worked for some mighty big men and a whole lot of fellows is gone but old Lige is still here and I ‘spect I am the oldest porter anywhere.”

Rail leaders

Among the railroad officials served by ‘Uncle Lige’ aboard the Lycoming was George B. Harris, who moved to Hannibal with his parents when he was but 16, circa 1864.

Harris was hired on as an office boy when Charles W. Mead was the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad’s general superintendent.

George B. Harris was the son of George Samuel Harris, (1815-1874) who served as land commissioner for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad during the mid 1860s.

Over the next decades, Harris worked his way up through the railroad ranks, eventually holding the position of president of the Chicago, Burlington and Northern. When the road was absorbed by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Harris was named vice president of the blended company.

It was that era, between circa 1889-1901, that the two men, Elijah Spencer and George B. Harris, (each who started their railroad careers in Hannibal), met once again.

This time, Harris was a passenger aboard the Lycoming, and Spencer was the chosen porter.

Spencer told the Hannibal Courier-Post, for its March 7, 1904 edition:

“Massa Harris is the best man God ever made - Abraham Lincoln not excepted.”

Special gift

George B. Harris was named president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad company in December 1901. He held that post until his retirement in 1910. He remained on as chairman of the board until his death in 1918.

Early in January, 1910, George B. Harris sent a gift to Elijah Spencer, who was now working as a janitor in the machine shops at Hannibal.

Spencer was the recipient of a fine suit of clothes, a hat and a pair of shoes, in addition to a $20 gold piece.

The gift was in recognition of Spencer’s more than 40 years with the Burlington Railroad, some 30 of which were served in the capacity as porter.

The rail car

The Lycoming, described by the Daily Vindicator, Cameron, Mo., on Oct. 13, 1881, was “One of the most magnificent railroad cars in America.”

Charles N. Lee, superintendent of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, commissioned the car, and it was constructed in the old H&St. Joe shops. Supervising the construction was John McKenzie, who was master mechanic of the shops at the time.

The Quincy Daily Journal of July 27, 1904, in an article reprinted from the Hannibal Courier-Post, explained, “The car was built for the use of the directors of the road, and Mr. Lee, being a member of the board, and having direct supervision over all departments of the road, used it mostly, as his work frequently carried him over the line.”

The newspaper went on to explain:

“The first name of the car was ‘H.F. Carver’. This was changed to ‘Official’, later it was known as the ‘Wyoming’, following which, the name was changed again, to 'Lycoming’, which it has since retained.”

Among the railroad dignitaries who used the car: R.S. Stevens, John B. Carson, J.C. Peasley, and the aforementioned G.B. Harris.

It was estimated at the time that the mileage on the Lycoming would run up into several million miles during 29 years of service.

The Kansas City Times on Sept. 9, 1881, called the Lycoming: “A fit palace on wheels.”

Spencer in Hannibal

After 1901, Spencer retired from the road and returned to Hannibal, working as a janitor on the balcony level of the railroad machine shops.

Spencer and his wife, Pauline, lived at 1215 Church Street, described in a 1904 newspaper article as “a comfortable cottage” which he owned from as early as 1885 until after her death in 1914. Mr. Spencer died in 1918 at the Marion County Infirmary in Palmyra, and his burial, according to a newspaper report, was to follow at the Old Baptist Cemetery.

The Hannibal Courier-Post interviewed Spencer for its March 7, 1904 edition, and thus summarized the loyal railroad employee:

“After working for a time he gained the favor of the officials of the road through his efficient work and courteous manners, and for years was always selected for the service of prominent men traveling over the west.

“Lige, as he is familiarly called, is known to old residents along the line of the Hannibal and St. Joe, where he acted as chair car porter for many years, and many are the extra dollars that have been dropped into his hand by fond parents for looking after their children while traveling alone.

“During the reign of the James Boys in Missouri, he was the porter on the pay car and as the paymasters paid in cash in those days, it was a part of Lige’s duties to guard the cash box, and with two big revolvers in his belt he was the envy of the colored people in the small towns touched by the road in western Missouri.

“Lige is extremely polite and is an old fashioned antebellum darkey (stet). He is proud of his record.”

Family

Elijah Spencer and his wife Pauline had no children. He did have a half-brother in Hannibal, Riley Elgin, born in Kentucky, 1825, who died in 1904. In 1871, a Mrs. D. Spencer lived on the north side of Church street, in the same block where Spencer later lived, but there is no indication whether or not she was related.

In 1875 Elijah Spencer was a RR porter, residence north side of Church, west of Spring.

Spencer’s house

From 1885 to 1915, Elijah Spencer’s house was a long and narrow frame single story house on Lot 4, OL 57, 1215 Church, on the south side of the street. The 1916 Hannibal city directory lists Dr. Harry B. McMechen living and having his medical practice at that address. The following year, Dr. McMechen’s address is 1217 Church. It is unclear if it is the same house that Spencer previously owned, or if a new house was built.

Elijah Spencer died on Friday, Jan. 11, 1918, at the Marion County Infirmary, Palmyra.

Mary Lou Montgomery retired as editor of the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post in 2014. She researches and writes narrative-style stories about the people who served as building blocks for this region’s foundation. Books available on Amazon.com by this author include but are not limited to: "The Notorious Madam Shaw," "Pioneers in Medicine from Northeast Missouri,” “Hannibal’s ‘West End,’” “Oakwood: West of Hannibal,” and “St. Mary’s Avenue District.” Montgomery can be reached at Montgomery.editor@yahoo.com Her collective works can be found at www.maryloumontgomery.com

George Bacon Harris was president of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad from 1891-1910. His first job was in Hannibal in 1864, where, at the age of 16, he was hired as an office boy for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Photo from the Chicago Tribune, June 11, 1918. newspapers.com

The Brookfield, Mo., Gazette, May 15, 1867, advertises George S. Harris as land commissioner for the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, Hannibal. He was father to George B. Harris, who worked his way up from office boy in the Hannibal offices, to president and chairman of the board of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. newspapers.com