My Genealogy Home Page:Information about Lee Emory Downey
Lee Emory Downey (b. 18 December 1890, d. 08 July 1962)
Notes for Lee Emory Downey:The following is from a article in a Hastings, NE newspaper circa: about 1937.
'Burlington Agent Has Worked for Five Other Lines'
By the time L. E. Downey settled upon the Burlington as the railroad with which he would stick for lifetime career he had had the experience of working for five of the other western trunk lines.Downey has been Burlington agent in Hastings since 1937.He has been with the Burlington continuously since 1910, but prior to 1910 he did a lot of jumping around.His early railroading career started when he was 15, can be summarized as follows:
Started with Chicago and Northwestern at Atkinson on a part-time job while in school.Became call boy for the Milwaukee at Sioux City.Time keeper for the Great Northern at Sioux City.Back with Milwaukee as operator, this time at Aberdeen, SD.
Young Downey was a full-fledged operator by this time and jobs were plentiful.He soon left the Milwaukee and went to work for the Burlington at Ottumwa, IA in the dispatcher's office.He left the Burlington and went to the Missouri Pacific station at Warrensburg, MO.He left the Missouri Pacific and went to work for the Rock Island at Almena, KS.
His next job was with the Northwestern at O'Neill, but within a year he had transferred from the Northwestern to the Burlington in the same town.That was in 1910.Two years later he was named Burlington agent at Royal, where he worked a year before being transferred to the same job at Plainview.In 1922 he was transferred to O'Neill as agent and he remained at O'Neill until his transfer to Hastings in 1937.
He was born on a farm near Star, NE, in Holt county, within 25 miles of O'Neill, where he spent most of his railroading years, although his roamings as a young telegrapher took him into many states.
Mr. Downey married a woman who was born within eight miles of his own birthplace.Miss Blanch Cherry of Page.They have one son, Bick, a business college student here.The family lives at 1215 west Third.
Two brothers and a nephew of Mr. Downey chose photography as a profession and the name of Downey is about as well known as any in photography circles in Nebraska.One brother operates a studio at O'Neill and the nephew has a studio at Scottsbluff.The second brother was a news photographer at Omaha for several years and is now in Pittsburgh, PA.
Mr. Downey has no hobbies--unless his work will qualify.He likes railroading.
More stories about Lee: source Bick Downey 6/2002.
Lee raised carp in a cement tank at the railroad station in O'neill, NE. In the summer he kept them outside and in the winter he brought them into the station on a wheeled cart.He also tried raising cows next to the station for awhile and then another adventure was raising muskrats in the ditch across from the station.That went fine until it flooded and the muskrats were washed away.
More About Lee Emory Downey and Blanche Viola Cherry:
Marriage: 17 April 1913, Page, NE.
Children of Lee Emory Downey and Blanche Viola Cherry are: