Howdy folks.  It’s been a while since my last article on Spring Valley.  I’ve been waiting for someone to contact me and point out the error in my first article, The Railroad in Spring Valley, Part 1 – The Layout.  Unfortunately, no one did, and the deadline is past, so the prize goes uncollected.  My wife did point the error out to me, but she isn’t eligible for the prize.   She has her prize – me.

Oh yes, the error.  The railroad terminated its Spring Valley/Elmwood/Weston branch and had a roundhouse in Weston, not Westby.   Despite my wife’s diligence in proofreading and correcting my mistake, I did it again (maybe I’m not such a prize after all) in the second article, The Railroad in Spring Valley, Part 2 – The Hub of Commerce.  Now Dean Blegen, who lives in Westby, did catch that second error and brought it to my attention a short while ago.  Congratulations Dean.  Unfortunately there was no prize associated with that one.  Sorry, Dean.

The Railroad in Spring Valley, Part 3 – The Kids and the Railroad, was the last of the railroad articles based on my own experiences while growing up in Spring Valley.  Now I would like to share some of my grandfather’s story with you.  My father, Rex Pence, in conversation around the dinner table, related some of the Pence family's history and how the railroad made my family  part of Spring Valley’s history.

My great-grandfather, a Civil War Veteran, lived in Indiana, and that is where this story begins.  My grandfather, Cassius Pence, set out from there in his youth in the late 1800's to make his way in the world.  Rex tells of the trek from Indiana to Spring Valley, and here, in his own words, is the story:

"He was (depot) agent down here (Spring Valley), I think around 1900, or a little before, because they (Cassius and Orpha Pence, my grandparents) built the house here around 1900 or 1901.  He was agent down here at the time.  He had been an agent in Pennsylvania.  I think he worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad for awhile.  Then he was down in Ohio. 

"Then they went out west, out in the Dakotas.  They lived in a tent out there for awhile.  They (the railroad) didn't have living quarters for their employees. Later they lived in the depot.  They had living quarters in a depot out there somewhere - I don't know where. 

 

"Then they moved to Turtle Lake (Wisconsin).  There he came awfully close to getting killed.  Two different railroads had cross tracks there.  Ordinarily when the trains came through they didn't both come at the same time.  When the trains would come through he would be inside selling tickets.  This one day he just happened to be out on the platform checking some baggage or something, and the two trains came at the same time and they met right there at the corner of the depot, and they went over on the depot and demolished it.   If he'd have been in there he would have been killed.  He was lucky to be out there on the platform.  He got out of the way.  He saw them coming of course.

"After that, well, they came down here and he was agent here for a number of years.  Dad (Cassius) built the house up the hill from the depot.  It was the first house on the hill.  He could walk down the steps to work and up the steps for meals.  Every so often a train with two coaches brought the big wigs to inspect.  He called them Big Bugs, and the engines had big wheels and were spic and span.  He used to dread those visits.  The railroad was kind of hard to work for.

“In 1913 he had enough of railroading.  He was sick and tired of the railroad business, and Nels Madson, out here, he had a saw mill, out in Gilman.  He had the Ford agency in connection with the saw mill.  He wanted to get rid of the Ford dealership, and Dad wanted to get out of the depot business, the railroad business, so he (Nels) tried to sell him this dealership.  I guess Dad finally decided to try it out.  That was as I say in 1913.  So, that is how he got into the automobile business."

And that is how my family happened to come to Spring Valley.  Next time, in The Railroad in Spring Valley, Part 5 – Growing Up With the Railroad, I will share some of Rex’s recollections of the railroad here in Spring Valley during the years of his youth.  

The Spring Valley Kid

Russell Pence

pence@asu.edu