Name: Harryett Aurora Lawrence 1 2
Sex: F
Birth: 9 JUN 1874 in Paris Crossing, Jennings, IN 1 2 3
Death: 28 AUG 1966 in Shelbyville, Shelby Co, IN 4 1 2 of Gastorintestinal Hem
Burial: Forest Hill Cemetery, Shelbyville, Shelby Co, IN
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: 203 W. Mechanic St., Shelbyville, IN
Social Security Number: 315-34-3888// 2
Event: Ethnicity White
Event: SSN issued Indiana 2
Father: George Franklin Lawrence b: 10 SEP 1851 in Indiana, USA
Mother: Catherine Ayers b: 16 SEP 1857 in Paris, Jennings, IN
Marriage 1 Chester Graham Shepherd b: 1 OCT 1870 in Jennings, IN
Married: 20 OCT 1894 5
Children
Has Children Chester George Shepherd b: 28 APR 1894 in Lathrop, Delta, MI
SHE ORDERS THE TRAINS AROUND
By Richard S. Simons
WHO KEEPS the nation’s train rolling safely? Trainmen, telegraph operators, dispatchers, shop men and executives, of course, but behind them all stands a slight, white haired woman who operates a one-man factory at Shelbyville.
She is Mrs. H. A. Shepherd, widow of an inventor genius who devised a simple, convenient and inexpensive method of transmitting orders to moving trains. She is the woman who orders the trains around.
Shepherd’s invention is the high speed delivery fork, and the little Shelbyville plant is the only place in the world where it is produced. It is standard equipment on systems which operate nearly 95 per cent of the nation’s railroad mileage, and a fixture in every railroad station and signal tower where messages are relayed.
DESPITE ITS somewhat complicated title, the high speed delivery fork is simply what the name Implies. It is a fork shaped device holding a written traffic order which can be picked up by a crewman in a train passing at high speed. Its broad adoption is proof that the fork is a tremendous improvement over the systems formerly used.
Nearly every railroad in the world operates its trains by written orders. Dispatchers relay them to telegraph operators along the line ahead of the train, and their task is to place them aboard the train as it speeds by.
Raliroadmen almost since the days of strap iron rails and four-wheel locomotives, have sought a better way to pass written messages to men on moving trains. Gradually, this task evolved into a system in which the message was hung on a hoop or similar instrument and held alongside the track. As the trainman moved by, he held out his arm, elbow flexed at a right angle and the hoop looped about his arm.
But this method carried several disadvantages. A trainman who struck a heavy wood hoop at high speed often nursed a bruised arm after receiving a few messages on the Fly. Hoops were expensive and trainmen were instructed to throw them off immediately after removing the message.
This often caused the operator to waste time chasing a stray hoop down the track. And if the train crew missed its message, as sometimes happened, the engineer was required to stop the train and return for it.
This was the state of affairs in the railroad world when Chester G. Shepherd, an Illinois Central dispatcher at Freeport, Ill. began to build his better mousetrap.
The invention was amazingly simple; handle, two prongs, a metal casting which held them together, a loop of twine and a metal clip to hold the twine. That’s all there is to it.
The fork appears so simple that some inventor should have hit on the idea decades earlier. Yet, only extensive experimentation and testing produced the fork used today.
THE FORK prongs which hold the message are the most vital component. They must he light and flexible, yet stout enough to withstand shock and abuse.
Many woods were tried and discarded before Shepherd drew on the distant jungles of Borneo for a vine called rattan which crept along the ground to its lengths. This was imported in 25-foot sections and cut at the plant to the 21-inch sticks which were found to be most suitable. Only the Nickle Plate Road deviates from this standard. It orders a 27-inch prong on the top so that the two points will be equidistant from the handle, when the fork is set at an angle.
When World War II shutoff the rattan supply, Shepherd substituted pyralin, a duPont-produced plastic, but after the war returned to use of rattan.
HANDLES ARE of a soft wood, usually bass or poplar, which are tough and light. All handles are painted a standard yellow, but the length varies through eight sizes from 32 to 72 Inches. Enginemen high in Diesel and steam locomotive cabs grab messages from the long-handled forks; rear end crews from shorter ones
A triangular-shaped casting links the handle and prongs, which are inserted into tubular holes. The metal housing is then squeezed shut and a bolt Inserted in the handle to hold it tight. Parts are manufactured elsewhere and assembled at Mrs. Shepherd’s Shelbyville plant.
Twine which holds the message in the fork until the trainman snaps it up is a strong jute, highly polished, imported from India. From 1,000 to 1,500 pounds is used annually to satisfy the railroads’ message-writing urge. It is cut at the plant into 25-Inch lengths.
THE TWINE is the only expendable pert of the fork, quite a contrast to the old days when hoops might be lost with the frequency of a whistle toot. Forks sell from 80 cents to $1.10 each and last indefinitely.
High speed forks are so commonly used that in every station where messages are transmitted, you'll see, hung somewhere along the wall for Instant use, a set ready for service. They have become standard equipment on 102 railroads, from the 26-mile Houston Belt and Terminal to the mighty 13,000-mlle system of the Santa Fe, since the days the Burlington ordered the first sets for use between Chicago and Denver.
They are so adaptable that everywhere in the country, from the rusted rails that carry tri-weekly freights to the heavy duty tracks of the high speed main lines, you’ll see enginemen lean down from the cab and conductors stretch from the rear caboose platforms to receive train orders at high speed.
Some of the forks made by Mrs. Shepherd are sold to European and Latin American countries and one American manufacturer includes a set of five with every engine exported.
The first fork plant was located at Freeport, but the Shepherds needed a more central location. So they set out in the family car and intermittently for two years searched eastern Indiana and western Ohio. Finally they discovered Shelbyville, found it friendly and pleasant, and left Freeport. That was about 13 years ago. The first Shelbyville plant was in the Shepherd home. Later it was moved to a building at 410 North Harrison Street.
Since Shepherd’s death in 1949, Ernest J. Bower, a former brick mason, has operated the plant under Mrs. Shepherd's direction.
BUT MRS. SHEPHERD comes every few days to buff and notch the prongs on woodworking machinery and she remains the woman who gives orders to the railroads. ** *
The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana) 25 Feb 1951, Sun • Page 108- 109
Sex: F
Birth: 9 JUN 1874 in Paris Crossing, Jennings, IN 1 2 3
Death: 28 AUG 1966 in Shelbyville, Shelby Co, IN 4 1 2 of Gastorintestinal Hem
Burial: Forest Hill Cemetery, Shelbyville, Shelby Co, IN
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: 203 W. Mechanic St., Shelbyville, IN
Social Security Number: 315-34-3888// 2
Event: Ethnicity White
Event: SSN issued Indiana 2
Father: George Franklin Lawrence b: 10 SEP 1851 in Indiana, USA
Mother: Catherine Ayers b: 16 SEP 1857 in Paris, Jennings, IN
Marriage 1 Chester Graham Shepherd b: 1 OCT 1870 in Jennings, IN
Married: 20 OCT 1894 5
Children
Has Children Chester George Shepherd b: 28 APR 1894 in Lathrop, Delta, MI
SHE ORDERS THE TRAINS AROUND
By Richard S. Simons
WHO KEEPS the nation’s train rolling safely? Trainmen, telegraph operators, dispatchers, shop men and executives, of course, but behind them all stands a slight, white haired woman who operates a one-man factory at Shelbyville.
She is Mrs. H. A. Shepherd, widow of an inventor genius who devised a simple, convenient and inexpensive method of transmitting orders to moving trains. She is the woman who orders the trains around.
Shepherd’s invention is the high speed delivery fork, and the little Shelbyville plant is the only place in the world where it is produced. It is standard equipment on systems which operate nearly 95 per cent of the nation’s railroad mileage, and a fixture in every railroad station and signal tower where messages are relayed.
DESPITE ITS somewhat complicated title, the high speed delivery fork is simply what the name Implies. It is a fork shaped device holding a written traffic order which can be picked up by a crewman in a train passing at high speed. Its broad adoption is proof that the fork is a tremendous improvement over the systems formerly used.
Nearly every railroad in the world operates its trains by written orders. Dispatchers relay them to telegraph operators along the line ahead of the train, and their task is to place them aboard the train as it speeds by.
Raliroadmen almost since the days of strap iron rails and four-wheel locomotives, have sought a better way to pass written messages to men on moving trains. Gradually, this task evolved into a system in which the message was hung on a hoop or similar instrument and held alongside the track. As the trainman moved by, he held out his arm, elbow flexed at a right angle and the hoop looped about his arm.
But this method carried several disadvantages. A trainman who struck a heavy wood hoop at high speed often nursed a bruised arm after receiving a few messages on the Fly. Hoops were expensive and trainmen were instructed to throw them off immediately after removing the message.
This often caused the operator to waste time chasing a stray hoop down the track. And if the train crew missed its message, as sometimes happened, the engineer was required to stop the train and return for it.
This was the state of affairs in the railroad world when Chester G. Shepherd, an Illinois Central dispatcher at Freeport, Ill. began to build his better mousetrap.
The invention was amazingly simple; handle, two prongs, a metal casting which held them together, a loop of twine and a metal clip to hold the twine. That’s all there is to it.
The fork appears so simple that some inventor should have hit on the idea decades earlier. Yet, only extensive experimentation and testing produced the fork used today.
THE FORK prongs which hold the message are the most vital component. They must he light and flexible, yet stout enough to withstand shock and abuse.
Many woods were tried and discarded before Shepherd drew on the distant jungles of Borneo for a vine called rattan which crept along the ground to its lengths. This was imported in 25-foot sections and cut at the plant to the 21-inch sticks which were found to be most suitable. Only the Nickle Plate Road deviates from this standard. It orders a 27-inch prong on the top so that the two points will be equidistant from the handle, when the fork is set at an angle.
When World War II shutoff the rattan supply, Shepherd substituted pyralin, a duPont-produced plastic, but after the war returned to use of rattan.
HANDLES ARE of a soft wood, usually bass or poplar, which are tough and light. All handles are painted a standard yellow, but the length varies through eight sizes from 32 to 72 Inches. Enginemen high in Diesel and steam locomotive cabs grab messages from the long-handled forks; rear end crews from shorter ones
A triangular-shaped casting links the handle and prongs, which are inserted into tubular holes. The metal housing is then squeezed shut and a bolt Inserted in the handle to hold it tight. Parts are manufactured elsewhere and assembled at Mrs. Shepherd’s Shelbyville plant.
Twine which holds the message in the fork until the trainman snaps it up is a strong jute, highly polished, imported from India. From 1,000 to 1,500 pounds is used annually to satisfy the railroads’ message-writing urge. It is cut at the plant into 25-Inch lengths.
THE TWINE is the only expendable pert of the fork, quite a contrast to the old days when hoops might be lost with the frequency of a whistle toot. Forks sell from 80 cents to $1.10 each and last indefinitely.
High speed forks are so commonly used that in every station where messages are transmitted, you'll see, hung somewhere along the wall for Instant use, a set ready for service. They have become standard equipment on 102 railroads, from the 26-mile Houston Belt and Terminal to the mighty 13,000-mlle system of the Santa Fe, since the days the Burlington ordered the first sets for use between Chicago and Denver.
They are so adaptable that everywhere in the country, from the rusted rails that carry tri-weekly freights to the heavy duty tracks of the high speed main lines, you’ll see enginemen lean down from the cab and conductors stretch from the rear caboose platforms to receive train orders at high speed.
Some of the forks made by Mrs. Shepherd are sold to European and Latin American countries and one American manufacturer includes a set of five with every engine exported.
The first fork plant was located at Freeport, but the Shepherds needed a more central location. So they set out in the family car and intermittently for two years searched eastern Indiana and western Ohio. Finally they discovered Shelbyville, found it friendly and pleasant, and left Freeport. That was about 13 years ago. The first Shelbyville plant was in the Shepherd home. Later it was moved to a building at 410 North Harrison Street.
Since Shepherd’s death in 1949, Ernest J. Bower, a former brick mason, has operated the plant under Mrs. Shepherd's direction.
BUT MRS. SHEPHERD comes every few days to buff and notch the prongs on woodworking machinery and she remains the woman who gives orders to the railroads. ** *
The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana) 25 Feb 1951, Sun • Page 108- 109
Name: Harryett Aurora Lawrence 1 2
Sex: F
Birth: 9 JUN 1874 in Paris Crossing, Jennings, IN 1 2 3
Death: 28 AUG 1966 in Shelbyville, Shelby Co, IN 4 1 2 of Gastorintestinal Hem
Burial: Forest Hill Cemetery, Shelbyville, Shelby Co, IN
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: 203 W. Mechanic St., Shelbyville, IN
Social Security Number: 315-34-3888// 2
Event: Ethnicity White
Event: SSN issued Indiana 2
Father: George Franklin Lawrence b: 10 SEP 1851 in Indiana, USA
Mother: Catherine Ayers b: 16 SEP 1857 in Paris, Jennings, IN
Marriage 1 Chester Graham Shepherd b: 1 OCT 1870 in Jennings, IN
Married: 20 OCT 1894 5
Children
Has Children Chester George Shepherd b: 28 APR 1894 in Lathrop, Delta, MI
SHE ORDERS THE TRAINS AROUND
By Richard S. Simons
WHO KEEPS the nation’s train rolling safely? Trainmen, telegraph operators, dispatchers, shop men and executives, of course, but behind them all stands a slight, white haired woman who operates a one-man factory at Shelbyville.
She is Mrs. H. A. Shepherd, widow of an inventor genius who devised a simple, convenient and inexpensive method of transmitting orders to moving trains. She is the woman who orders the trains around.
Shepherd’s invention is the high speed delivery fork, and the little Shelbyville plant is the only place in the world where it is produced. It is standard equipment on systems which operate nearly 95 per cent of the nation’s railroad mileage, and a fixture in every railroad station and signal tower where messages are relayed.
DESPITE ITS somewhat complicated title, the high speed delivery fork is simply what the name Implies. It is a fork shaped device holding a written traffic order which can be picked up by a crewman in a train passing at high speed. Its broad adoption is proof that the fork is a tremendous improvement over the systems formerly used.
Nearly every railroad in the world operates its trains by written orders. Dispatchers relay them to telegraph operators along the line ahead of the train, and their task is to place them aboard the train as it speeds by.
Raliroadmen almost since the days of strap iron rails and four-wheel locomotives, have sought a better way to pass written messages to men on moving trains. Gradually, this task evolved into a system in which the message was hung on a hoop or similar instrument and held alongside the track. As the trainman moved by, he held out his arm, elbow flexed at a right angle and the hoop looped about his arm.
But this method carried several disadvantages. A trainman who struck a heavy wood hoop at high speed often nursed a bruised arm after receiving a few messages on the Fly. Hoops were expensive and trainmen were instructed to throw them off immediately after removing the message.
This often caused the operator to waste time chasing a stray hoop down the track. And if the train crew missed its message, as sometimes happened, the engineer was required to stop the train and return for it.
This was the state of affairs in the railroad world when Chester G. Shepherd, an Illinois Central dispatcher at Freeport, Ill. began to build his better mousetrap.
The invention was amazingly simple; handle, two prongs, a metal casting which held them together, a loop of twine and a metal clip to hold the twine. That’s all there is to it.
The fork appears so simple that some inventor should have hit on the idea decades earlier. Yet, only extensive experimentation and testing produced the fork used today.
THE FORK prongs which hold the message are the most vital component. They must he light and flexible, yet stout enough to withstand shock and abuse.
Many woods were tried and discarded before Shepherd drew on the distant jungles of Borneo for a vine called rattan which crept along the ground to its lengths. This was imported in 25-foot sections and cut at the plant to the 21-inch sticks which were found to be most suitable. Only the Nickle Plate Road deviates from this standard. It orders a 27-inch prong on the top so that the two points will be equidistant from the handle, when the fork is set at an angle.
When World War II shutoff the rattan supply, Shepherd substituted pyralin, a duPont-produced plastic, but after the war returned to use of rattan.
HANDLES ARE of a soft wood, usually bass or poplar, which are tough and light. All handles are painted a standard yellow, but the length varies through eight sizes from 32 to 72 Inches. Enginemen high in Diesel and steam locomotive cabs grab messages from the long-handled forks; rear end crews from shorter ones
A triangular-shaped casting links the handle and prongs, which are inserted into tubular holes. The metal housing is then squeezed shut and a bolt Inserted in the handle to hold it tight. Parts are manufactured elsewhere and assembled at Mrs. Shepherd’s Shelbyville plant.
Twine which holds the message in the fork until the trainman snaps it up is a strong jute, highly polished, imported from India. From 1,000 to 1,500 pounds is used annually to satisfy the railroads’ message-writing urge. It is cut at the plant into 25-Inch lengths.
THE TWINE is the only expendable pert of the fork, quite a contrast to the old days when hoops might be lost with the frequency of a whistle toot. Forks sell from 80 cents to $1.10 each and last indefinitely.
High speed forks are so commonly used that in every station where messages are transmitted, you'll see, hung somewhere along the wall for Instant use, a set ready for service. They have become standard equipment on 102 railroads, from the 26-mile Houston Belt and Terminal to the mighty 13,000-mlle system of the Santa Fe, since the days the Burlington ordered the first sets for use between Chicago and Denver.
They are so adaptable that everywhere in the country, from the rusted rails that carry tri-weekly freights to the heavy duty tracks of the high speed main lines, you’ll see enginemen lean down from the cab and conductors stretch from the rear caboose platforms to receive train orders at high speed.
Some of the forks made by Mrs. Shepherd are sold to European and Latin American countries and one American manufacturer includes a set of five with every engine exported.
The first fork plant was located at Freeport, but the Shepherds needed a more central location. So they set out in the family car and intermittently for two years searched eastern Indiana and western Ohio. Finally they discovered Shelbyville, found it friendly and pleasant, and left Freeport. That was about 13 years ago. The first Shelbyville plant was in the Shepherd home. Later it was moved to a building at 410 North Harrison Street.
Since Shepherd’s death in 1949, Ernest J. Bower, a former brick mason, has operated the plant under Mrs. Shepherd's direction.
BUT MRS. SHEPHERD comes every few days to buff and notch the prongs on woodworking machinery and she remains the woman who gives orders to the railroads. ** *
The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana) 25 Feb 1951, Sun • Page 108- 109
Sex: F
Birth: 9 JUN 1874 in Paris Crossing, Jennings, IN 1 2 3
Death: 28 AUG 1966 in Shelbyville, Shelby Co, IN 4 1 2 of Gastorintestinal Hem
Burial: Forest Hill Cemetery, Shelbyville, Shelby Co, IN
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: 203 W. Mechanic St., Shelbyville, IN
Social Security Number: 315-34-3888// 2
Event: Ethnicity White
Event: SSN issued Indiana 2
Father: George Franklin Lawrence b: 10 SEP 1851 in Indiana, USA
Mother: Catherine Ayers b: 16 SEP 1857 in Paris, Jennings, IN
Marriage 1 Chester Graham Shepherd b: 1 OCT 1870 in Jennings, IN
Married: 20 OCT 1894 5
Children
Has Children Chester George Shepherd b: 28 APR 1894 in Lathrop, Delta, MI
SHE ORDERS THE TRAINS AROUND
By Richard S. Simons
WHO KEEPS the nation’s train rolling safely? Trainmen, telegraph operators, dispatchers, shop men and executives, of course, but behind them all stands a slight, white haired woman who operates a one-man factory at Shelbyville.
She is Mrs. H. A. Shepherd, widow of an inventor genius who devised a simple, convenient and inexpensive method of transmitting orders to moving trains. She is the woman who orders the trains around.
Shepherd’s invention is the high speed delivery fork, and the little Shelbyville plant is the only place in the world where it is produced. It is standard equipment on systems which operate nearly 95 per cent of the nation’s railroad mileage, and a fixture in every railroad station and signal tower where messages are relayed.
DESPITE ITS somewhat complicated title, the high speed delivery fork is simply what the name Implies. It is a fork shaped device holding a written traffic order which can be picked up by a crewman in a train passing at high speed. Its broad adoption is proof that the fork is a tremendous improvement over the systems formerly used.
Nearly every railroad in the world operates its trains by written orders. Dispatchers relay them to telegraph operators along the line ahead of the train, and their task is to place them aboard the train as it speeds by.
Raliroadmen almost since the days of strap iron rails and four-wheel locomotives, have sought a better way to pass written messages to men on moving trains. Gradually, this task evolved into a system in which the message was hung on a hoop or similar instrument and held alongside the track. As the trainman moved by, he held out his arm, elbow flexed at a right angle and the hoop looped about his arm.
But this method carried several disadvantages. A trainman who struck a heavy wood hoop at high speed often nursed a bruised arm after receiving a few messages on the Fly. Hoops were expensive and trainmen were instructed to throw them off immediately after removing the message.
This often caused the operator to waste time chasing a stray hoop down the track. And if the train crew missed its message, as sometimes happened, the engineer was required to stop the train and return for it.
This was the state of affairs in the railroad world when Chester G. Shepherd, an Illinois Central dispatcher at Freeport, Ill. began to build his better mousetrap.
The invention was amazingly simple; handle, two prongs, a metal casting which held them together, a loop of twine and a metal clip to hold the twine. That’s all there is to it.
The fork appears so simple that some inventor should have hit on the idea decades earlier. Yet, only extensive experimentation and testing produced the fork used today.
THE FORK prongs which hold the message are the most vital component. They must he light and flexible, yet stout enough to withstand shock and abuse.
Many woods were tried and discarded before Shepherd drew on the distant jungles of Borneo for a vine called rattan which crept along the ground to its lengths. This was imported in 25-foot sections and cut at the plant to the 21-inch sticks which were found to be most suitable. Only the Nickle Plate Road deviates from this standard. It orders a 27-inch prong on the top so that the two points will be equidistant from the handle, when the fork is set at an angle.
When World War II shutoff the rattan supply, Shepherd substituted pyralin, a duPont-produced plastic, but after the war returned to use of rattan.
HANDLES ARE of a soft wood, usually bass or poplar, which are tough and light. All handles are painted a standard yellow, but the length varies through eight sizes from 32 to 72 Inches. Enginemen high in Diesel and steam locomotive cabs grab messages from the long-handled forks; rear end crews from shorter ones
A triangular-shaped casting links the handle and prongs, which are inserted into tubular holes. The metal housing is then squeezed shut and a bolt Inserted in the handle to hold it tight. Parts are manufactured elsewhere and assembled at Mrs. Shepherd’s Shelbyville plant.
Twine which holds the message in the fork until the trainman snaps it up is a strong jute, highly polished, imported from India. From 1,000 to 1,500 pounds is used annually to satisfy the railroads’ message-writing urge. It is cut at the plant into 25-Inch lengths.
THE TWINE is the only expendable pert of the fork, quite a contrast to the old days when hoops might be lost with the frequency of a whistle toot. Forks sell from 80 cents to $1.10 each and last indefinitely.
High speed forks are so commonly used that in every station where messages are transmitted, you'll see, hung somewhere along the wall for Instant use, a set ready for service. They have become standard equipment on 102 railroads, from the 26-mile Houston Belt and Terminal to the mighty 13,000-mlle system of the Santa Fe, since the days the Burlington ordered the first sets for use between Chicago and Denver.
They are so adaptable that everywhere in the country, from the rusted rails that carry tri-weekly freights to the heavy duty tracks of the high speed main lines, you’ll see enginemen lean down from the cab and conductors stretch from the rear caboose platforms to receive train orders at high speed.
Some of the forks made by Mrs. Shepherd are sold to European and Latin American countries and one American manufacturer includes a set of five with every engine exported.
The first fork plant was located at Freeport, but the Shepherds needed a more central location. So they set out in the family car and intermittently for two years searched eastern Indiana and western Ohio. Finally they discovered Shelbyville, found it friendly and pleasant, and left Freeport. That was about 13 years ago. The first Shelbyville plant was in the Shepherd home. Later it was moved to a building at 410 North Harrison Street.
Since Shepherd’s death in 1949, Ernest J. Bower, a former brick mason, has operated the plant under Mrs. Shepherd's direction.
BUT MRS. SHEPHERD comes every few days to buff and notch the prongs on woodworking machinery and she remains the woman who gives orders to the railroads. ** *
The Indianapolis Star (Indianapolis, Indiana) 25 Feb 1951, Sun • Page 108- 109
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