The collection of Eau Claire depot records for the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad Company have been organized in three series: COMMUNITY RECORDS, BLUEPRINTS, and PERSONNEL RECORDS. The bulk of the collection spans from the 1920s through the 1940s. The collection is particularly strong in the areas of community development, the role of the railroad in community and local industries, and personnel files.
The series of COMMUNITY RECORDS is arranged alphabetically by community name and thereunder alphabetically by subject. Whenever possible the subject term assigned by the records' creator was retained; however, in a few cases subject terms were modified slightly for clarification.
Types of records in this series include correspondence, blueprints, and reports. The correspondence is primarily between the Eau Claire depot agent and local agents in the various community railroad stations. Scattered correspondence from the railroad's head office in St. Paul, Minnesota to the Eau Claire agent is also included. The correspondence provides information on routine railroad matters such as machinery platforms, sidewalks, the cleaning of ash pans, and the handling of mail. Other railroad matters documented include employees, depots, trackage, and joint facilities with other major railroads.
A large portion of the correspondence in this series is concerned with community industries and local agriculture. Industries, such as lumber, produce, pickle, and fuel companies, applied to the railroad for trackage rights and water supply. Frequently, the correspondence pertaining to local businesses documents company beginnings, name changes, physical plant growth, production changes, and the closing of a company. Local agriculture is reflected in the correspondence pertaining to cream, milk, stock, and strawberry shipments. The materials in this series also provide information on towns that have become defunct. The correspondence in the subject files is enhanced by the accompanying blueprints. The blueprints were usually attached to correspondence items.
The series COMMUNITY RECORDS was microfilmed for preservation reasons. All of the materials within this series were microfilmed with the exception of some blueprints. If the correspondence accompanying the blueprint referred to colored markings on the print, the blueprint was not microfilmed. Nor was the blueprint filmed if it was oversized. In these two circumstances, a target reading “Blueprint Removed and Filed With Blueprint Series” was filmed in the place of the blueprint. A copy was made of the relevant letter which was attached to the blueprint. The blueprints removed during microfilming are a sub-series of the BLUEPRINTS series.
The BLUEPRINTS series primarily comprises blueprints not attached to correspondence. It is arranged alphabetically by community name. Generally, the blueprints depict railroad buildings, railroad trackage, and community businesses. The blueprints in this series are rolled and are identified by community name on the outside of the roll. A separate file consists of the blueprints removed from COMMUNITY RECORDS during the microfilming process. This sub-series also is arranged alphabetically by community name and thereunder alphabetically by subject.
The final series, PERSONNEL RECORDS, is arranged in three sub-series: strike materials, employee files, and employee performance records. The strike materials provide documentation on a strike in 1922 and called strikes in 1946 and 1948 by Omaha employees. The 1922 materials provide information on employee shortages caused by the strike, effect of the strike on railroad services, administrative policies, and violent interactions between the strikers and new employees hired as replacements. The 1946 and 1948 materials document administrative policies and procedures for strikes that were called but not acted upon.
The sub-series of employee performance record books, 1887-1931, includes information on employee starting date; reasons and date of termination; employee performance and involvement in accident incidents; and changes in job titles. A large portion of the employee performance records pertain to brakemen. Most of the volumes are arranged or indexed alphabetically. The volumes overlap considerably in date and what distinguishes one volume from another is unclear.
Employee case files, arranged numerically by file number, contain applications, employment histories, and termination sheets. The applications usually include employee name, address, age, race, and occupation. Employment histories are summaries of action taken by the company and include records of promotions, warnings, and discharges. Five percent of the case files also contain additional information in the form of letters and memos.
The sub-series of employee case files represents a five percent sample of an original 4000 case files. The first step in the sampling involved arranging the files numerically by file number. A database was created which included the names of the individuals, their file numbers, and the year in which they began employment with the railroad. The total number of individuals beginning work in a given decade, and the total number of individuals whose last name started with a particular letter of the alphabet were calculated. These totals provided two variables for the total population, year of employment and first letter of surname, with which to test the sample.
Next a table of random numbers was used to select a five percent sample. When a designated folder did not exist, as was relatively common in the low numbers, the nearest file was chosen. The variables to be used in testing the sample were obtained by tallying the number of occurrences in the sample for each first letter of the surname, and the number of individuals starting on the railroad in a given year. Finally, a faculty member of the University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire history department compared the variables for the sample with those for the total population. The sample was compared to the universe of employee case files (4000 files) using the SPS-X sub-routine called T-test. The test calculated “T” value estimates and the probability of their statistical significance, comparing year of hire and first letter of surname. The T-test results were statistically significant at the .01 level or in other words the sample was 99 percent reliable.
The sample is somewhat larger than 5 percent because in addition to complete files, the first and last document of every file was retained because of the high genealogical content. Two hundred complete files constitute the bulk of the sample.
The records are arranged numerically by file number. Indices by case file number, employee surname, and year of employment date provide access to the employee case files and are available at the Eau Claire Area Research Center.
