I have been working on this list & it is not complete yet. It is from my research of rail road watch inspectors. I understand that someone published a book or pamphlet on this but I have never seen it & have not been able to locate a copy, so I do not know if this might add to the book from those of you that have a copy or not.

This is a work in progress & I still have a long way to go.

I would like to share this information but I also ask that you not use it in your own publication.

I plan on adding images of the city directories I have pulled this data from.

One other note, I am not that familiar with names of rail roads & I tried to use the abbreviations I found on the web but please offer any corrections.

Also you will notice a few names listed without the names of the rail roads they inspected for, in there listings they just stated all rail roads.

I also would welcome an additional names that you might have & I will add them to my up dates.

I look forward to any comments, both positive & critical.

Tom


RAIL ROAD COMPANY ABBREVIATIONS


ACL – Atlantic Coast Line Rail Road
AT&N – Alabama Tennessee & Northern Rail Road
ATSF – Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe’ Railway
C & O – Chesapeake & Ohio Rail Road
C & R – Central Vermont Rail Road
CM & ST. P – Chicago Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail Road
CN&W – Chicago & Northern Rail Road
CRI & P – Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Rail Road
DL&W – Delaware & Lackawanna & Western Rail Road
Erie – Erie Rail Road
Fisco – Fisco Rail Road
FWD – Fort Worth & Denver Railway
GF&SI - Gulf & Ship Island Rail Road
GM&N – Gulf Northern Rail Road
KO&G – Kansas Oklahoma & Gulf Rail Road
LE&W – Lake Erie & Western Rail Road
LV – Lehigh Valley Rail Road
M&O – Mobile & Ohio Rail Road
MCRR – Michigan Central Rail Road
MKT – Missouri –Kansas- Texas Rail Road
MO Pac Ry – Missouri & Pacific Railway
MV – Midland Valley Rail Road
NYC – New York Central Rail Road
NYNH & H - New York New Haven & Hartford Rail Road
OCAA - Oklahoma City-Ada-Atoka Railway
R RR – Rutland Rail Road
RI – Rock Island Rail Road
S – Southern Rail Road
SAL – Seaboard Air Line Rail Road
SN - Sacramento Northern Railway
SP – Southern Pacific Rail Road
UP – Union Pacific Rail Road
WP – Western Pacific Rail Road
WRR – Western Rail Road


SEE BELOW IMAGES FOR INSPECTORS AND ALPHABETICAL LISTINGS

Add my inspector's name to the list, Tom:

Jarvis Jewelers, New Boston, Ohio, N&W-C&O-B&O watch inspector

The shop is LONG gone, and Mr. Jarvis passed away in 1985.

Regards! Mark

Thanks Mark, he is now in the list.

Tom

Thank you Tom. He would be proud to have been remembered.

"James Shadrick Jarvis was born on 9 Feb 1908 in Wilkesboro, Wilkes Co., North Carolina. He died on 8 Aug 1985 in Portsmouth, Scioto Co., Ohio. He was buried in Memorial Gardens Cemetery, Wheelersburg, Ohio. James was the proprietor of Jarvis Jewelry Store in New Boston, Ohio. It is no longer there. Evaline, his wife, was a housewife and bookkeeper for her husband. "

Regard! Mark

Mark

I think is it nice to document people like Mr. Jarvis somewhere, keeps their memory alive & perhaps someday it will help someone doing some research.

Tom

I am still adding to the list of watch inspectors I have found, it will take me sometime to continue to add them to my post.

Here is an example i put together of some of the images I have gathered to get the names from. If you see an inspector you are interested in let me know & I can post that particular ad.

Tom

Tom,

You may already have this information, but I thought you might be interested in this list of inspectors from a 1894 "Jewelers' Circular" I tried to cut and paste the list but was unable to do so. Here's the link Jewelers' Circular

Regards,

Bob

Bob

Thanks I will get those added.

Tom

Mark

Here is a photo of your Mr. Jarvis

Tom

I am still working on my watch inspector list but I so far have 25 typed pages & 1000's of images. So when I figure out what I am going to do with all this I will add some more here. I still have several thousand to go. I also went back & added the date to each business of the year of the ad I got the info from.

It is enjoyable doing this but I can't do it for long at a time or I start to make mistakes.

Tom

C.H. Bern Chicago Union Station GM&O,Milwaukee Road, Burlington, Pennsylvania

C.H. Bern Chicago LaSalle Street Station CRI&P, NYC

Central Time Service 5 South Wabash, Sam Linzur, Joseph Young (The Maller's Building) AT&SF, and anyone else who walked in.)

Terminal Jewelers Chicago, North Western Station
Eddy Lurgio, C&NW Ry.

Thank you Mitch, I appreciate the names.

I am beginning to think I should just write down every name I can think of & add some initials to their name for a railroad & then I will have them all.

This is helping to educate me to the names of all the railroads that were in this country over the past 150 years.

Tom

But wait! There's more..

Chalikian Jewelers-Michigan City, IN, John Chalikian. CSS&SB RR (Chicago South Shore & South Bend R.R.)

The only time inspector for the last electric interurban railroad in the country.

Both are still operating. However the railroad no longer requires standard watches or inspection.

The South Shore Line was a land of older 992s. It seemed to be customary for older, retiring employees to sell their watches to new-hires. When wrist watches were approved many men sold their pocket watches to new men.

I know right where that photo of Mr. Jarvis was shot too, Tom! At the corner of the old Portsmouth High School!

Thanks for posting that!

HIGH regards! Mark

Your welcome Mark.

Tom

Well I continue to work on my list of watch inspectors & I am up to over 1000 names so far. I have decided to also try to find out a little info on each inspector such as date of birth & where they were born. Also any other information that seems of interest.

I have decided to try to put this all together in a book or booklet of some type along with the images of each inspectors ad.

Not to sure how this will all go but it has been interesting so far.

Just thought I would up date this if anyone has been watching.

Tom

Tom, here is one that you may want to add to your list....R.W. Wells, Topeka, Kansas....

Keep up the great work....

Regards,
Jerry

My list is becoming too large to edit each name to fit into the format this site likes, so I am converting each of my typed pages into a image & posting it that way.

I would be interested to hear from anyone that this list helps.

This has taken many hours to put together, each person was found in either a publication of the Railroad companies, jeweler's magazines, newspapers, city directories and census records.

Tom

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