William C. Walstrum, First N&W Supt of Telegraph, Obit 1915

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I have found the obit for William C. Walstrum, whom I believe was the N&W's
first Superintendent of Telegraph.  It is attached and is lifted from the
1915 volume of Telegraph and Telephone Age magazine.

Walstrum was born in 1855 in Charlottesville and hired as a telegraph
messenger boy at age 14 (1869) with Western Union, and became a telegraph
operator at age 15 (1870.)  He worked various W.U. assignments in northern
Virginia before coming to the N&W as Superintendent of Telegraph in 1889.

The obituary in T&T Age errs in stating that Mr. Walstrum had been Supt. of
Telegraph for  only 13 years... He had, in fact, been on that job for 26
years.  (See Biographical Directory of Railway Officials, ed. 1913, p. 571.)


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