Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1914 — Oldest Railroader Sti11 Works. [ARTICLE]

Oldest Railroader Sti11 Works.

George Washington Smoot, who is a full cousin of United States Benator Smoot of Utah, is the oldest man in the employ of the Baltimore ft Ohio Railroad company, if not the oldest train man in the United States. He was born at Elllcott’s Mills, Maryland, in 1838, and is now ticket agent at Mariner's Harbor, Staten Island- In 1857 he was brakeman on the Martinsburg division of the B. ft O. In 1868 Smoot was known to the fraternity and to patrons of the B. fti O. as “The Boy Conductor.” 'He was at Harper’s Perry, east-bound, when John Brown made his famous raid, and Smoot’s brakeman, E. L. Dorsey, was seriously wounded by one of Brown’s ’’minie" balls. When the Civil war broke out and the B. ft O. railroad was blockaded, Smoot went to Alexandria as conductor on the United States military railroad, and at the close of the war was honorably discharged. Then he returned to the B. ft O. as conductor on a construction train on the Philadelphia division. In, 1889 he went to Staten Island.