Let’s take a break from the sadness of P.W.’s untimely death and look instead at his job for the Union Pacific Railroad.
I’m not sure when exactly my great-grandfather started working for the railroads. I have a copy of a letter of reference stating that he worked for the Burlington railroad in Denver in the summer of 1899. Sometime after that he began working for the Union Pacific. I’m not sure what the typical job sequence was, but he worked as a fireman and a brakeman before finally becoming an engineer. He worked for UP in Laramie until the family moved back to Nebraska in 1905.
Did you know that P.W.’s employment on the railroad coincided with the activities of Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and the Hole In The Wall Gang? There were at least two famous hold-ups: one near Wilcox in June 1899 (on the stretch of track between Laramie and Carbon), and another one near Tipton (west of Rawlins) in August 1900. I’m sure P.W. was well familiar with both of these routes.
Of course, the whole tale was told in one of my all-time favorite movies. Here’s the original movie trailer:
Here are a couple of screenshots from the movie clip – notice the railroad guys in each scene. Do you suppose any of them are portraying P.W. Pearson?
Unfortunately, I don’t think so. I have his time books for the period in question. There is nothing out of the ordinary noted on June 2, 1899, and he wasn’t working on the day of the 1900 robbery. Still, I would think he had to have known the UP employees that were involved. Maybe P.W. knew E.C. Woodcock, the guy who keeps getting blown up by the dynamite (“I work for Mr. E. H. Harriman…”)
They really DID use too much dynamite in the 1899 robbery, and the Union Pacific really did send out a posse to get them!
There’s a show coming up on PBS tomorrow night about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I might set the DVR to record the Olympics and tune into PBS instead!
Stay tuned to this blog, however…the Pearson family has yet another connection to this outlaw gang.
For further reading:
