The Pay Car

The N. Y. P. and N. railroad paycar this week distributed the largest sum of money in Delmar that has been placed in circulation here since last summer.  The brakemen who worked a full month, drew over $100 each, the firemen a somewhat larger sum, and the engineers about $165 to $185 each,  The conductors also drew an average of about $160 each.  The present month payroll will also be large.

Above from the Morning News 20 Jul 1912

Payday, Oh what a day! it came once a month and everyone was paid in cash.  Usually dressed in their Sunday best the men collected their money and joined their family to walk around town paying the grocery bill, telephone bill, gas and electric bills and other obligations.  Others headed for the local bootlegger.  Whichever way it went Payday was a big day in Delmar as it was in the other towns where the paycar showed up.

Note none of the photos are of Delmar or the PRR. 

When railroads were built their rail yards were often in isolated places, such as Delmar, that did not have banking facilities so a check would have been useless to their employees.  They paid in cash.  As you may recall Delmar did not have a bank until 1899. 

The paycar sometime was run as a separate special extra train all by itself or it was worked into a regular train that had an extended stop.  The paycar employees were very efficient and could handle 300 employees an hour.  Running the paycar and paying in cash called for a great deal of detail.  In advance of payday each man’s pay had to broken into the proper denomination of currency and coin then totaled up for all employees and withdrawal from the bank the payroll in the correct denominations.  The railroad made sure the highest denomination of currency was twenty dollars anything higher than that and the employee might not be able to cash it.  

The paycar was usually based on a Pullman car and had an anteroom or office with a counter where three men could line up to collect their pay. 

Image of layout

Depending on the railroad and the individual paycar the car could have a kitchen gallery and sleeping bunks in it for the pay employees.  The car would have three men, plus a cook, and a special officer (railroad police). Both the paymaster and the Special Officer were armed.  

Some 1912 News Items

Receptacles for waste paper and garbage are to be placed on the streets of Delmar by the New Century Club of the town.

Above from The Morning News 6 August 1912

Delmar March 15 – As a result of a horse trade between Carl J.  Hearn of Delmar and  Harry E. Marvel of Seaford a referee trial was heard before Justice Stengle at Seaford on Thursday.  The evidence brought out the fact that in trading horses Hearn gave Marvel a check “to boot.”  After taking up the larger part of one day in getting the horse to Delmar, Hearn decided that he had the worst of the deal and stopped payment on the check.  Marvel brought suit and the referees gave a verdict in his favor for the full amount and costs.

Above from The Morning News 16 March 1912

The Salisbury Brick Company has purchased right acres of clay land from John G. Smith, adjoin the railroad, and will enter into the manufacture of bricks on an extensive scale.

Above from  the Morning News  March 1912

Mrs Arthur Jones left today for the Maryland State Sanitarium, in Frederick county, about seventy miles from Baltimore, for treatment for tuberculosis.

Above The Morning News 16 March 1912

Miss Maude Hayman arrived home to-day from Albuquerque New Mexico where she went with hope of being cured of tuberculosis.  She stood the long trip to Delaware well and it is hoped that she will yet improve.  Her brother-in-law, Claude R. Phillips, went to New Mexico, after her, and accompanied her home.

Above from the Morning News 22 Feb 1912

Charles H. Truitt was hit by a pitched ball in a game here yesterday and has lost the use of his left arm.

Above the Morning News 20 July 1912

Sidney Beach

On Saturday last about 6 o’clock as a freight train on the Delaware railroad was passing under an overhead bridge near New Castle a brakeman named Sidney Beach, boarding on Third Street between Popular and Lombard, this city, and whose home is in Delmar, met with a serious accident which will very likely  prove fatal.  Beach was standing on top of a box car with his back to the bridge and it struck him on the base of brain, crushing in the back of his head and knocking him on top of the car.  He was immediately seen by some of his fellow trainsmen and was taken into the caboose in an unconscious condition.  He was brought to this city (Wilmington) and taken to his boarding house.  Dr. Draper was summoned and did all he could to relieve the man. Last night he was resting easily, but no hopes are entertained of his recovery.    

Above The Morning News September 6 1886

Sidney recovered from the head trauma but was never quite right after it.  It was no doubt a major cause of his alcohol problems that continued up until his death in 1926.

Articles such as this 1906 one appeared about Sidney;

Sidney Beach was in another drunken rampage Saturday of last week and was arrested in Maryland and fined one dollar and costs for disorderly conduct which he paid.  Then he went back to Delaware; threaten to burn the property of W B Marvil, for which he was again arrested; taken before Justice James H, Tyre and in default of a five thousand dollar bail was committed to Georgetown Jail.

Sidney was the son of Isaiah and Irene Culver Beach.  Isaiah was a farmer, builder and contractor.  They had a large family.  Known adult children; Joseph, Thomas, Harvey, Kendal, Mary, Sophronia, Amy, Annie and Lola Mae.

In 1884 his father Isaiah Beach whipped a mulatto, Robert Morris, nearly to death.  In 1887 Robert Morris returned the favor by stabbing Isaiah in the stomach.  In 1908 while sleepwalking at his daughters house (Mrs Ralph (Amy) Ellis) he walked off the second story porch and the fall killed him.   

His brother Harvey in 1910 tried to commit suicide with Laudanum while living at his sister’s, Mrs. C. P. Ellis (Sophronia), house.

1924 When Toast Became Breakfast

The 1886 Charleston SC Earthquake Reaches Delmar

Delmar, Del, Sept 1 – The most violent shock of earthquake ever felt hereabouts was experienced about 9:30 o’clock last night.  Many persons were considerably alarmed.  Coal oil in the lamps was shaken and doors slammed. 

Above from the Wilmington Morning News September 2, 1886

This was the effect of the1886 Charleston, SC earthquake.  The shocks from which were felt as far as Boston and out into the Midwest.  On August 31, 1886 at about 9:50 Pm an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 to 7.3 occurred in Charleston and the aftershocks continued for several weeks.  60 people died in the southeast USA from the earthquake and aftershocks.

Typhoid

Mrs. Ross Gordy is seriously ill of Typhoid and the number of cases in Delmar now number nineteen.  Mrs. L. J. Kennerly is the latest person to succumb to the disease.

Above from the Wilmington Morning News 20 July 1912

1897 Delmar Health Report

Dr. C. K. Truitt, Health Officer report made in 1897 State of Maryland Health Report

August 19th, I received complaint from Delmar. Complaint

had also been made to the State Board of Health. At Mr. W.

B. Elliott's, I found the water running into the streets, where it

stagnated. At Mrs. Jane Elliott's, the water was running in the

street, where it became offensive. The Town Commissioners

were notified to clean out the ditch that runs east and west

through the town. People, whose property is next to the ditch,

throw into it dead animals and fowl, spoiled eggs, and all sorts

of refuse.

Thomas E. Hearn empties refuse into the ditch.

W. C. Lecates, W. O. West, W. A. Culver, Geo. A. Waller,

W. C. Truitt, B. B. Gordy, Ulyses Baker, T. A. Veasey, T. A.

Landing, tenant, M. H. German (a block of houses), all run waste

water into the street. Veasey Hotel empties sewer into railroad

ditch, also a sewer from water-closet.

The above places are in Delmar, and owners were notified to

abate nuisances in fifteen days. From later reports I learn that

they have all obeyed the notice.