Presented for the Southwest/Texas
Popular Culture American Culture Association: Kansas Region
Ghost of
the Iron Horse:
The
Decline of the Katy Railroad and the Loss of Community Identity
Presented By:
Lindsay A. Braman
College of the
Ozarks
Though to most Americans the
word Katy has little or no meaning, to a handful of small towns
scattered across southeast Kansas and the Midwest, this word is a
reminder of history, heritage, and legacy. Weaving its way through
the American south, for nearly 100 years the Katy railroad was a star
of railroading. Although it was not particularly renowned for it’s
size, the Katy was respected because of the care it took over its
employees and the care with which they did their work, in return.
When the Katy railroad moved its office to Texas in the late 1950’s,
and then sold out to Union Pacific in the late 1980’s, a
significant void was left in the communities that were formerly
company towns. The identity void left by the Katy’s abrupt
departure was not easily filled, but today, nearly twenty years after
the final Katy engines were repainted in Union Pacific yellow, we can
be assured that these communities will step boldly into the twenty
first century with a strong sense of history and a bright vision for
the future.
To
appreciate the impact the Katy Railroad had on rural American, one
first must gain a brief knowledge of the history of the railroad. The
Katy began as the Union Pacific Railway Southern Branch in 1865.
Federal land was given to the company in 1869 and construction
(diagonally, northwest to southeast) from Junction City, Kansas to
Chetopa, Kansas began soon after. (Chinn)
At this time, the newly formed State of Kansas was in turmoil. Few of
the settlers lived in communities and those who did not only faced
the threat of a hostile natural environment, but they also struggled
to protect themselves from raids by Indians and bandits. According to
V.W. Masterson in his book The
Katy Railroad and the Last Frontier,
“Never was human life more precariously or more cheaply held
than along this fatal frontier. Yet there were men in Kansas who, at
this very moment, were envisioning a great frontier railroad”.
(Masterson
5) As these men
saw their dreams materialize into a successful railway, the young
state matured as well. In 1870 the Union Pacific Southern Branch
changed its name to the Missouri Kansas & Texas Railway. The
acronym MK&T was quickly adopted, and before long, engineers and
those affiliated with the railroad had dubbed it “The Katy.”
The 1870’s was a decade of enormous growth for the Katy
Railroad. A line to connect Kansas with Texas was in high demand but,
according to Katy historian Jamie Willey, “the Cherokee nation
would allow only one railroad to be built through its territory…
this set off a battle between three competing railroads… the
first to get to the border would have exclusive rights to build
through Indian territory.”
(Harding-Willey
3) On June 6,
1870, the M. K. and T. Railway won the construction race to the
border and earned the sole right to build south through the Indian
lands to Texas. (Harding-Willey
39) “On
December 25, 1872 the North and South were united all along the wild
frontier when the Missouri Kansas and Texas Line linked with the
Houston and Texas Central to give America a new route to the Gulf of
Mexico.” (Chinn)
Growth continued through the 1880’s as the Missouri Kansas &
Texas acquired other railroad companies and extended their tracks
across much of the American west.
In
the early 1900's the MK&T expanded to Shreveport, Louisiana; San
Antonio, Texas; and Tulsa and Oklahoma City. By 1915 the Katy
Railroad had developed a system of tracks spanning 3,865 miles
throughout Kansas, Missouri, Texas, most of Oklahoma and parts of
Louisiana.
Despite the company’s
rapid growth, by 1919, the company was in crisis from having
overbuilt tracks in Oklahoma. According to Stephen Chin of the Kansas
State Historical Society, The first of many restructurings of the
MK&T came in 1922-23. The railroad was reorganized as the
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and several parts of the railroad were
sold. All told, the Katy sold 476 miles of tracks during this period.
Despite company’s woes, the Katy was respected for having
clean, impressive cars on their well-maintained tracks and the
railroad had gained a reputation for integrity and quality.
In the 30's and 40's the MKT
prospered once again and projected an image of a well-maintained
railroad despite internal problems. As for all railroads, the
beginning of World War II brought increased traffic for the Katy. The
outdated locomotive fleet was unable to keep up with the demand for
shipments and soon the tracks, as well as the locomotives were in
need of serious repairs. The end of World War II left the Katy with
deteriorated tracks and cars; the war traffic had worn out the road
but had not provided enough profit for the needed repairs.
The
downward trend in railroading continued in the 1950’s. While
most Americans enjoyed economic stability and an era of comfort,
officials of the Katy railroad struggled to find a way to salvage
their company. Coupled with mechanical problems, the major drought in
the Midwest at the time meant fewer agricultural shipments- something
the Katy dearly depended on for revenue. The Katy railroad was able
to recover by closing the offices in Parsons, Kansas, consolidating
them with the Texas offices, discontinuing passenger service, and
taking out numerous loans. By the end of the 1950s, the railroad was
out of financial trouble and was once again a modern, efficient line.
The 1970’s and 1980’s
brought stability to the company, though not significant profit. The
Katy offered itself for sale or merger in 1985. The Union Pacific
Railroad, which has no relation to the railway that birthed the Katy,
the Union Pacific Railway, made a bid and on May 13, 1988 the
Interstate Commerce Commission approved the sale of the Missouri
Kansas and Texas to the Union Pacific subsidiary Missouri Pacific.
(Cruz)
The
railroad’s domination over small towns is a story as old as
railroading itself. Before the MK&T ever laid their first tracks
in Kansas, members of the surrounding communities recognized the
railroad officials’ power to make or break their towns. Perhaps
what struck this in the citizens’ minds was an event that
reportedly took place in 1870. According to Masterson, with the new
MK&T line showing interest in buying land for tracks and plots in
town for a depot, settlers in the communities of Oswego and Chetopa,
Kansas knew there was money to be made. When railroad officials
approached the communities and individuals about the sale of their
land, the sellers demanded high prices. The Katy, still in its
infancy, lacked funds to buy the land at inflated prices; but the
officials of the railroad realized the important role the railroad
would play in the development (or lack thereof) Albuquerque of this
Kansas region and they used this knowledge to their advantage. Wise
to the citizen’s plan, the officials let the communities hear
that they were considering moving their railroad several miles
outside the towns, to completely bypass them or place depots in
smaller, nearby towns. If the railroad had moved their tracks and
depots outside the planned course, the towns’ inhabitants would
inevitably abandon the town as people moved towards the new center of
business. The railroad officials left the region for the holidays and
allowed the threat to settle on the minds of the community leaders.
When the officials returned to southeast Kansas in the spring, the
towns yielded to the power of the railroad and lowered the prices of
their land.
Wile
my research found conflicting reports, one reliable source, Daniel
Fitzgerald’s Ghost
Town of Kansas tells
a story of a community that was not lucky enough to get a second
chance. Ladore, Kansas made the fatal mistake that Chetopa and Oswego
had narrowly avoided. Ladore had always maintained a positive
relationship with the Katy Railroad and the railroad had incorporated
the town in 1869. “Ladore became the location for men and
supplies in the construction of the Katy. According to historical
records, by the fall of 1870, more than 1,000 people were living in
the city.” (Willey,
Parsons, 39) “In
1872 the Katy announced a decision to make Ladore a junction on the
main line and made plans to build shops there, but the residents of
Ladore refused to sell their land at reasonable prices,”
(Fitzgerald
130) forcing the
railroad to end negotiations. The railroad officials then bought
2,500 acres of land about four miles south of Ladore and plotted out
the city of Parsons. (Willey,
Parsons, 39)
Within two years of ending negotiations with the railroad, Ladore’s
population had plummeted to zero (Fitzgerald
130) and most
settlers had moved to the new community of Parsons. Many other
settlements in the area were similarly torn down, loaded on wagons,
and moved to the new town.”
(Masterson 96)
This
new town was the pride of the Katy railroad and a trophy of their
success. Locating the intersection of the railroad branches in a
rural location would work to the railroad’s advantage; as on
March 8, 1871 (Masterson
94) the railroad
was able to sell plots surrounding their depot at a huge profit,
thereby creating their own city overnight. The new town was
christened Parsons, after the president of the railroad and (Chinn)
one high-ranking Katy official even went to extent of donating his
own land for the first bank to be built upon and allowing Katy money
to finance the building. (Masterson
96) Later that
same year, in May, the first newspaper, the Parsons
Sun began with the
help of the Katy. According to Masterson in his book on the Katy,
company records detailed that the town’s financial stimulus
provided by the Katy railroad and its investors were purely for the
purpose of glorifying the railroad (88).
This instant growth did not come without a price to struggling
settlements in the area. “All of the buildings from Dayton, a
small town six miles south of parsons were moved to the new town. The
residents of Jacksonville, a small town on the Neosho River, did the
same thing and many buildings from the nearby town of Osage Mission
were also moved.” (Willey, Parsons, 39) These examples clearly
illustrate that at a time when the population of Kansas was booming
and settlers coming west was at an all time high, the Katy Railroad
had a huge influence over the survival of towns in Southeast Kansas.
The story of the birth of
Parsons, Kansas retells the story of dozens of towns from Missouri to
the Gulf that were birthed by the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas
Railways. Entirely due to the influence of this railroad, the city of
Parsons went from a population zero in 1870 to a population of 6,500
in 1882. (Cutler)
Parsons was the shining symbol of the Katy’s success for many
years, and the depot in Parsons ushered many famous passengers
through the Midwest during its operation, including anti vice
crusader Carry Nation in 1905 and William Howard Taft in 1917. (Dates
14) The city of
Parsons, Kansas continued to be the headquarters for the Katy
Railroad until 1957 when
William
N. Deramus became president. Deramus decided to move the
administrative offices to Texas. According to a Parsons 1970s
yearbook, “The [Parsons] accounting office was abolished
Sunday, March 17, 1957 and records were loaded into a waiting car
under cover of darkness.” (Crispino
80)
According to one account, employees simply went home one weekend and
came back to work on Monday to find a note on the door telling them
the accounting department has been moved to Texas. (Willey,
Repository, 28)
One theory on why the offices were moved in this manor is that they
moved their offices secretly to avoid an angry mob or being
forcefully overcome by the citizens. Ultimately, the Katy railroad
under the direction of Williams N. Deramus destroyed a relationship
of 86 years. The Katy railroad had birthed the town of Parsons, and
with the help of the railroad, the community had taken its first
steps. When the railroad found itself crippled by strike, the
citizens came to the rescue to get the trains running again. “The
Katy was more than a job- for most [employees] it was a way of life
that enveloped not only workers, but their families.” (Surridge
25)
The Katy-Parsons relationship was a rich legacy and a bond between
community and industry that few towns could boast.
According
to newspaper reports, the city of Parsons, Kansas lost 1,000 railroad
related jobs during the five years that Williams Deramus was
president of the railroad. (Crispino
80)
As one long time resident of the community put it, “Quiet and
polite people were shocked into awareness that unlike the sun and
moon, the Katy payroll would not be a permanent part of their world
forever.” (Crispino
3)
“In 1971 there were only 389 people in the city of parsons
still working for the Katy railroad” (Crispino
80)
Considering that the railroad had once employed over three-thousand
in this small town (Cruz),
the economy of the community was being obviously affected
significantly. The railroad was slowly abandoning Parsons, and as
other industries saw Parsons in left in limbo by the railroad, they
hesitated to build in the struggling town. “Air, rail, and bus
service skirted the once progressive city, adding to the deterrents
that new industry found in Parsons.” (Crispino 3) When the Katy
was finally bought out in 1988, hard times fell upon many of the
small towns supported by the company. The merger created a huge,
conglomerate company which quickly scaled down operations in smaller
depots. According to Ron Baker, whose father was employed by the Katy
at the time of the merger “it was a big deal because so many
jobs were cut off. My dad was unemployed for a long time. We were
lucky. My mother worked… so we weren’t bad off, but a
lot of families were.” (Surridge
25) Today in the
town of Parsons, Kansas there are only a handful of men who work on
the railroad. (Richardson)
Many towns in Kansas were built
around this easy to get, well paying source of employment. Though
work on the Katy was hard, men built their lives, their families, and
their community around the railroad because it was solid. The Katy
paid well and most men earned enough to comfortably support their
families and even allow for some luxuries. The Katy was always
regarded as being family friendly, and in many cases even a part of
the family. (Richardson)
This financial and community security was a cornerstone to a very
unique culture that emerged. Far separated from modern businesses,
the Katy felt an obligation to care for the employees and their
company’s towns. When men got off from work on the railroad
there were Katy sponsored activities for them. Many summer nights
were host to company baseball games played on their own professional
field. The non-railroad businesses that flourished in these towns
were the ones that took into consideration that for each of the
thousands of Katy employees there was a family. Successful businesses
grew up around these family’s needs and they were quick to
capitalize on the Katy pride within the community. Many of these
establishments linger today, not because they draw the business of
the loyal Katy workers, but because the railroad name speaks of a
comfort citizens still long for. Cafes, restaurants, and golf courses
were all named after the Katy, even though they had no direct
affiliation with the railroad. The remaining railroad veterans still
gather for coffee early in the morning in the same diners, and when
family members becomes ill they are taken to a hospital that still
retains its Katy namesake. The cemeteries, the parks, the baseball
teams, the downtown businesses- they all remain a part of the Katy
Legacy. When the railroad was taken over, these independent
establishments lingered. And while most of the citizens marched out
of the towns following the railroad to new assignments or to find
work in another career, there were men who sat in those cafes and
watched them leave. These men knew that while the town would never be
the same, the legacy should be preserved. These are the men who
founded the historical societies. As early as the 1880’s there
were railroad clubs and fraternities formed. Today these clubs and
establishments have, disappeared; but new organizations have began to
take their place. The Iron Horse Historical Society, formed on Oct 1,
1977 in Parsons, Kansas (Willey
Repository 28) and
the Katy Railroad Historical Society, also formed in Parsons, Kansas
in the 1970s, are two organizations devoted to keeping the Katy
legacy alive. In the words of one member of the Iron Horse Historical
Society “a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into trying to
keep the Katy, it would be very sad if people forgot about that.”
(Willey
Repository 28) The
men who worked on the Katy seem very devoted to passing that legacy
on to their children, but it is not just former employees who are
interested in preserving this legacy. Regional pride in heritage runs
so deep that about 75% of members in the Katy Railroad Historical
society never even worked for the railroad. (Willey
Repository 28) The
dreams of the Iron Horse Historical Society to build a place where
people could come to remember or to see the Katy Railroad for the
first time was realized in the construction of a museum to
commemorate the Katy life and display Katy memorabilia. The museum,
located in Parsons, Kansas, was built as a replica of what a small
town Katy depot would look like in the 1940’s; and although the
museum is located in a town where the Katy built their biggest
depots, the mock station placed there, is familiar piece of Katy
history.
Identity is formed by one’s
sense of history and sense of purpose. In the years since the Katy
railroad abandoned Parsons, Kansas, the town has struggled to find
its identity in both of these areas. Although the town has
established a new identity, the struggle for a solid sense of place
in history remains difficult. Although the railroad veterans knew the
important part Parsons played in the railroad industry, and thus the
expansion of the American west, they lacked the ability to pass this
legacy to new residents and the younger generations. In 2001, In an
attempt to bring a sense of identity back to the culturally lost town
of Parsons, the first annual Katy Days celebration was held. On
Memorial Day weekend of 2001, a celebration was held in the downtown
area. Although it was a lighthearted celebration in the style of a
small town America block party, the communication of history was
important and unavoidable. Interspersed with barbeque cook offs,
regional music, chili feeds, and a petting zoo were seminars on Katy
history, model railroad exhibits, a passenger train ride along the
countryside, and a railroad story time for smaller children. Many
citizens of the town who were too young to remember the Katy vividly
were introduced to the railroad for the first time; veterans were
reintroduced and for the first time publicly recognized. Citizens
learned how important their role was in the development of the west,
and were reminded how important the Katy was in the development of
their community. The event was widely regarded as a success, but its
success went far beyond chamber of commerce relations or local
publicity work, for many citizens met their history for the first
time.
Today,
a road trip along the Katy line will escort the visitor through small
towns that dot the American Midwest. In each town, they will find
scattered remains of the heritage the community has managed to
retain. So although the Katy might be an obscure railroad to some, to
many within the Kansas region it was a force that determined their
residence, their livelihood, their social life, and ultimately their
identity. The way in which these towns responded to their identity
being sold out is encouraging. For at a time when many would give up
hope, these post railroad towns forged their identity in their rich
history and hoped for a new chance. Communities such as Parsons will
likely never again revel in glory such as the Katy gave, but the iron
horse remains in these communities as a ghost, speaking of the past
and endowing the community with a rich legacy.
Works Cited
Masterson, V. V. Katy Railroad and the Last Frontier.
University of Missouri Press. 1978
Stephen Chinn. The Katy Railroad. Kansas State Historical
Society.
http://history.cc.ukans.edu/heritage/research/rr/katy.html(Na 1998)
Fitzgerald, Daniel. Ghost Towns of Kansas: A Travelers Guide.
University Press of Kansas. Lawrence, KS 1988
Crispino, Tommie J. Ed. The Centennial Story of Parsons, Kansas.
Interstate Book Manufacturers, Inc. 1971
Cruz, Chris. "Katy Questions to the KRHS." Email to Author.
7 Jan. 2002.
Willey, Jamie. “Parsons History Tied to the Katy Railroad.”
Katy Days: Celebrating Parsons’ Railroad Heritage.
Parsons Sun. 29 May 2001. pp. 2, 3, 39.
Willey, Jamie. “A Repository for Katy Railroad History.”
Katy Days: Celebrating Parsons’ Railroad Heritage.
Parsons Sun. 29 May 2001. pp. 28, 29.
Unknown. “Dates from Katy History” Katy Days:
Celebrating Parsons’ Railroad Heritage. Parsons Sun.
29 May 2001. pp1-39
Cutler, William G. “Labette County, Part IV.” History
of the State of Kansas. Kansas Collection Books. 1883
A. T. Andreas, Chicago, IL. Retyped Carolyn Ward
<http://www.ukans.edu/
