CONDUCTOR

Once the railroad into Logan was completed, the first train to travel the tracks from Brigham City to Logan was driven by conductor Charles Paull on 31 January 1873.

“When the train arrived on the west side of the summit coming towards Cache Valley it couldn’t make the grade of the summit. Many men and boys who couldn’t wait for it to come into Logan had gone to the summit to await its arrival. All the men including the boys had to help push it over the summit. Practically all the people of the Valley and Logan were gathered to the end of Center Street, where the O.S.L. Depot now stands to witness the coming of this, the first train on the line. It was pulling two flat cars and the management had ties placed across them for seats upon which those desiring to, especially the children, were given a ride down to Logan river and back.”

Charlie Paull, as he was known, was born in Somerset, England in 1847. He was just three years old when his parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and twenty years later he made the journey to join the Saints in Utah. He and his new bride, Alice, boarded the Steam Ship Idaho bound for New York, arriving in port 22 September 1870.

His family’s first home was a log structure on Walnut Street which would later be renamed 500 West. Later, a frame home was built on the same property, and lastly, a beautiful brick home which still stands today at 67 South 500 West. Charles Paull died 8 September 1910 and is buried in the Logan cemetery.

LABOURER & WATCHMAN

Not all workers made a lifetime career of the railroad. Christian Dolder was an immigrant from Switzerland, who having heard missionaries preach in Switzerland, he and his family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and along with many other converts, set sail for America on the S.S. Alaska. They arrived at the Port of New York (Ellis Island) on 29 May 1893.

By 1 June 1900, the Dolder family had settled in Logan, Utah where Christian was employed as a labourer and watchman on the railroad. Christian worked as a tailor in Switzerland but as an immigrant, he worked several jobs until about 1910, he purchased land in Idaho where he farmed.

While working as a sextant in the winter of 1916-1917, his hand was injured which led to an infection which eventually killed him. He died 22 August 1917 at the age of fifty-two and was buried in the Logan cemetery.

CASHIER

Frank Paulsen was the son of Norwegian immigrants. His father was a railroad man who became a U.S. citizen on 2 October 1882. Both of his parents having joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, they left Norway, along with his two older sisters, to join the Saints in Utah. Frank was born in 1895 and served in the Army during WWI from 15 June 1918 until 5 February 1919.

At age twenty-four, he was working for the railroad as a cashier, and continued in that position for about forty years, until at least 1959, where he was still listed as a cashier at the freight office in the city directory of Logan. Frank died in 1978 and is buried in the Logan cemetery.

BRAKESMAN & FREIGHT CONDUCTOR

At age twenty-one, Joseph Baugh was already working for the railroad in Logan as a brakesman along with his older brother. His father, George, was a railroad man who emigrated from England in 1871 aboard the ship Wyoming. Joseph, his father, and all four brothers worked for the railroad.

By 1920, Joseph was married, had three daughters, and was a freight conductor. In 1923, the family suffered a tragedy in the birth and death of his little son named after him, Joseph Fern Baugh. The baby was born breech and suffered injuries at birth; he lived just two hours.

By 1930 the family had relocated to Salt Lake City where he continued to work as a conductor until at least 1950.5 Joseph “Fern” Baugh died 8 October 1962 and was buried in the Logan City Cemetery.

FREIGHT AGENT & TICKET MASTER

Charles W. Nibley was the son of Mormon immigrants from Scotland who made it to Utah territory in 1860. At the young age of twenty, Charles was the telegraph operator at Hampton’s, the ferry crossing on the Bear River in Box Elder County. When the railroad to Logan was completed and the station built, he was the first freight agent and ticket master there.

Charles was involved in many business ventures, including railroads, the sugar industry, banking, power, telegraph and telephone, and in building the Hotel Utah. He was called to serve as the presiding Bishop of the Church and moved to Salt Lake City.

SWITCHMAN & CONDUCTOR

James Vincent Ryan was a conductor on the railroad who lived in Ogden, Utah. Born in Puerto Rico in 1871, he immigrated to the United States in 1874 and by 1900, he was working in Kane, Iowa as a railroad switchman.

By 1903 he had moved to Ogden, Utah and continued work as a switchman. By 1910, he had been promoted to conductor and lived in Ogden until about 1914 when he was living in Salt Lake City and still working as a conductor. He died at the age of forty-eight from chronic nephritis, contracted at Cache Junction, Utah as reported on his death certificate.

WAREHOUSEMAN

Henry Saltzgiver, his wife Mary, and their four children were living in Clark’s River, McCracken County, Kentucky in 1900, where Henry owned and worked his farm.

In 1901, his wife Mary joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; her oldest children joined her a few years later, and finally Henry was baptized in June of 1910.

By 1911, the family had relocated to Logan, Utah, where Henry and his son Roma were engaged as butchers. In the 1920 City Directory of Logan, Utah, Henry’s meat market, HB Saltzgiver & Sons, is listed as well as his personal residence and occupation as wharehouseman on the OSL (Oregon Short Line).

Henry died in 1943 and his obituary states that he moved to Logan in 1910 and worked for the railroad for twenty-three years.

CLERK, AGENT, & TRAVELING AUDITOR

William, born in Pennsylvania in 1860, was the son of a coal miner. At the age of nineteen, William was working as a clerk at the depot in Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania. By 1900, William, his wife Jennie and five children were living in Logan, Utah where he worked as a railroad agent. By 1910, he was a traveling auditor for the O.S. L. (Oregon Short Line) Railroad, a position he held until he died of Nephritis in 1926.

ROADMASTER & FOREMAN

John Henry Westover was a railroad roadmaster and foreman of Scotch descent who lived in Logan and Mendon, Utah. He and his wife, Mary, were the parents of five children. John was also a member of the first band organized in Mendon, Frank Williams’ Martial Band. Three years later he was a member of Sweeten’s Band of Mendon.

WAREHOUSEMAN, FREIGHT MANAGER, & FOREMAN

William was the oldest son of Welsh pioneers who emigrated from Wales in 1864 on the ship General McClellan, and came across the plains leaving Nebraska on 22 July 1864. William’s mother, Charlotte, gave birth to his older sister, Sarah, the very day the wagon train departed for Utah Territory. William, born in Logan in 1869, worked for the railroad most of his adult life, serving as warehouseman as early as 1907, as freight manager, and as foreman as late as 1930.

PRESIDENT, UTAH NORTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY

John Willard Young was born 1 October 1844 in Nauvoo, Illinois, the son of Brigham Young and Mary Ann Angell. At the young age of twenty-seven, he was elected as president of the Utah Northern Railroad Company. He died in Manhattan, New York City, on 11 February 1924 of stomach cancer. His body was transported back home to Utah where he was buried on 17 February 1924 in American Fork.

MAYOR OF LOGAN & VICE PRESIDENT, UTAH NORTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY

William Bowker Preston was born 24 November 1830 in Franklin County, Virginia and was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February of 1857 at the age of twenty-six.

At the age of thirty-three he was called as a Captain of a wagon train and on 9 July 1863 the company of 300 people and 55 wagons left Florence, Nebraska. They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on 10 September 1863. The following year he led another wagon train west, starting from Wyoming, Nebraska on July 4 1864, consisting of 400 immigrants and 50 wagons. They arrived in Salt Lake on 15 September 1864.

In 1859, he was among the first settlers of Logan, Cache County, Utah and was called to be Bishop of Logan in November of that year. From 1879 to 1884 he served as president of the Cache Stake and was elected to serve as the second mayor of Logan, from 1870 to 1882. Preston was called to serve as the Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church on 6 April 1884.

He died of pneumonia in Salt Lake City and was buried in the Logan City Cemetery. Preston, Idaho in northern Cache County is named after him.

SECRETARY, UTAH NORTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY

Moses was born 2 February 1842 in Sangamon, Illinois and at the age of five, traveled with his family to the Salt Lake Valley in a wagon train of 185 people and 75 wagons.

He joined the LDS church in California and traveled with a second group of wagon-train immigrants in 1857 from San Bernadino, California. Moses was a part of the Cache District of the Territorial Militia in 1861, having one horse, one saddle, one gun, one revolver, and 100 rounds of ammunition.

He was ordained an apostle in 1879 and was later released. In 1896 he was a candidate for United States senator from Utah but was defeated. In 1898 he was offered the position by the majority of the legislature but declined to accept.

He died 21 August 1909 and was buried in the Logan City Cemetery.

DIRECTOR, UTAH NORTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY

Joseph Richardson was a railroad contractor in New York City with whom John W. Young met to negotiate the rails and rolling stock for the Utah Northern Railroad. He was a mason who immigrated from England at the age of eighteen and later became a millionaire through his wise dealings and frugal living and was heavily invested in many railroads.

He is famous for building the “spite house” on Lexington Ave. in New York whereon he owned a strip of land just five feet wide. The owner of the adjoining property wanted to build a large apartment building and offered Richardson a low figure for his strip of land. He refused and the building was built, with the intention of making Richardson’s land useless. However, just to spite his neighbor, Richardson built a very narrow four-story home on the strip of land thus blocking all the light from the windows of the adjacent apartment building.

Although a millionaire, he dressed shabbily and referred to himself as a humble mason and, when out in the city, many took him to be a tramp. He died 8 June 1897 at the age of eighty-three years and possessed of a fortune estimated at $20,000,000.

DIRECTOR, UTAH NORTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY

Another New York railroad man, Lockwood was a director of the New York Central Railroad and treasurer of the New York Stock Exchange. He began his career as a clerk for a brokerage firm but by 1857 he had formed his own banking firm. His involvement in railroads and steamships helped him to become one of the country’s first millionaires. He purchased thirty acres in Norwalk, Connecticut, his boyhood home, to build his vast estate which was finished in 1869.

Unfortunately, 24 September of that year, known as “Black Friday” the price of gold dropped tremendously and hit his interests hard. He managed to save his businesses but mortgaged the estate which was later lost. He lived in his opulent home only four years; he caught pneumonia and died 24 February 1872 at the young age of fifty-one.

DIRECTOR, UTAH NORTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY

Ola was born Ola Nilsson in Sweden in 1825. Names in Scandinavia were becoming a problem due to patronymic naming practice, so he created his new last name of Liljenquist, which means “Lily branch” in Swedish. He was the first Mayor of Hyrum.

DIRECTOR, UTAH NORTHERN RAILROAD COMPANY

Wellsville was raided by Marshalls in 1885; he eventually gave himself up and he served 9 months 12 days in the penitentiary for polygamy.

William H. Maughan was the first mayor of Wellsville when it was incorporated in 1866.