These folks are clearly doing what they can with limited resources. It was a treat getting to see…read morea preserved rail car. This museum also contains photographs, uniforms, and other memorabilia.
The museum is staffed seasonally, weather permitting. We found it open on a Sunday morning in mid-September, but Colleen told us they'd probably be closing for the season a in a couple weeks.
This museum was especially great because we were in Carroll County for the weekend to indulge my genealogical hobby. My ancestors on my mom's side came to the Salem Township area of what is now Carroll County in the 1840s from Darmstadt in the Grand Duchy of Hessen (Germany after 1871). My goal was to find resources to help in my research of the lives and times of my ancestors, and of living relatives whom I've never met. (Unlike the TV commercials, genealogical research is a LOT harder than subscribing to Ancestry.com, then downloading movies of your well-dressed, attractive ancestors.)
Based on my late mother's comments from many years ago, I believed my grandfather, Charles. W. Schriner, had left the farm and taken work in town with the railroad. I had been able to verify her recollection to the extent that the 1910 and 1920 censuses listed a Charles Schriner with an occupation of Freight Clerk with the railroad. But that's all I had to work with. I still don't know what Grandpa Charles looked like, or how he lived in Carroll County after his wife and daughters left town around the time of WWI.
I was hoping against hope to find an old photo at the Train Car Museum identifying Grandpa Charles. And there were quite a few group photos dating from the early 1900s. But while Grandpa Charles may have been in one of these photos, none named him.
But I found the next best thing. Lying in a display case was an open Railroad Time Book which included an entry for "Chas Schriner" ("Chas" was a common abbreviation for "Charles," and "Schriner" is how my family spelled it (versus the far more common "Schreiner"). I'd found a first-hand record of Grandpa Charles!
Sadly, however, 54-year-old Grandpa Charles wasn't working in September 1922 as a Freight Clerk, much less as something sexy like a Superintendent, Engineer or Fireman. No, Grandpa Charles was working at the age of 54 as a mere Laborer ... and not much at that either. Grandpa Charles apparently only worked one day in the first half of the month ... 8 hours on the 11th of September in 1922 ... and he seems to have been paid only $2.94 for the work.
Yikes. What a life.
Regardless, this is the way it usually goes in genealogical research ... even at its best. Ancestors found working at anonymous, lackluster jobs is the norm. Few of us actually have relatives who commanded armies, made great fortunes, or moved society. Fewer yet are related very closely to Cleopatra, Napoleon, or George Washington.
But then, even my more successful farmer relatives didn't make it into any history books ... even though they came to northwest Illinois when there weren't even towns there yet, and even though the farms they scratched out of the wild prairie were the very foundation of all the wealth eventually generated in Carroll County.
Nope. It was the self-promoting bankers, merchants, and politicians who got all the notoriety in the local histories, and whose names are now recorded on historical plaques in front of the grand old houses in places like Mt. Carroll. The ancient names "Schreiner" and "Schriner" are now mainly found inscribed on headstones in the Mt. Carroll, Chadwick, and Lanark cemeteries.
Anyhoo ... thanks, Ron, Colleen, and all the other volunteers who devote their time and energy to preserving these little bits of our past. It's a rare devotion, and getting rarer all the time when the almighty buck seems to be all anyone cares much about. You folks are doing important work, and it's very much appreciated!
