In 1899, a rather remarkable book was published. "American Locomotive Engineers, Erie Railway Edition," edited by H.R. Romans, was printed by the Crawford-Adsit Publishing Company as a tribute to the railroad engineers of the Erie, many of whom were pioneers in their industry. However, the 614-page book contains the names of more than just engineers: company officials, master mechanics, and train masters are included as well. The book contains individual biographical sketches of the men listed, including Civil War information (many served in the War and data such as rank, unit, length and location of service is included in the biographies). Other information listed includes, in many cases, place of birth, parents, children, and marriages. There is also harrowing detail of accidents experienced by many of these men, underlining the hazards of railroading in its early years. Overall, there is much here of interest to genealogical researchers.

In addition, the book contains a history of the Erie through 1899, as well as of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE)(biographies of BLE officials are also included). Membership lists are included for the following BLE subdivisions: Bradford Division, #280, Bradford, PA; George W. West Division, #468, Carbondale, PA; Chicago Lake Division, #302, Chicago, IL; Cleveland Devereux Division, #167, Cleveland, OH; Galion Division, #16, Galion, OH; Hornellsville Division, #47, Hornellsville, NY; Huntington Division, #221, Huntington, IN; Jersey City Hudson Division, #135, Jersey City, NJ; Charles Miller Lodge, #43, Meadville, PA; Port Jervis Division, #54, Port Jervis, NY; Susquehanna (Starrucca) Division, #137, Susquehanna, PA; Friendship Division, #329, Youngstown, OH. The list for Buffalo Division, #15, Buffalo, NY was not included in the book.

All of the material printed in the biographies was received from the subjects themselves who subscribed to the publication (my copy originally belonged to Lima Division engineer F.H. Lee). The publisher, W.H. Welch, lamented in the book's forward the difficult job he had getting the railroaders to cooperate in a timely fashion, thus delaying the book:

"The (publishing) delay has cost us many extra dollars, and the chief cause for it is attributable to the indifference manifested by many subscribers, who, after signing contracts, began to hinder us by neglecting to send photographs or return corrected sketches, necessitating, in many instances, a second canvass by our special repesentative. This extra work consumed considerable time (not to mention the extra money spent by us in commissions, railroad fare and hotel bills), but having undertaken the publication we felt duty bound to finish it."

The publisher also had trouble soliciting cooperation from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, as the national union officials did not feel they could sanction publication of the book unless the locals approved it. This required additional legwork by the publisher and his representatives.

Following publication, Crawford waited for each subscribing engineer to send in their $25 to pay for their copy of the volume. About 400 engineers never did satisfy their subscription with coin of the realm, so Crawford went to court and won a garnishment order against the engineers' paychecks until the subscription fees and costs, determined to reach $40 each, were recovered. When the garnishments kicked in on February 16, 1901, the BLE responded with a suit of their own to stop them, saying the books were not ready when promised. A total of $32,000 was withheld from the engineers' pay. In October, 1902, it was decided to release the withheld pay to the engineers.

While the publisher intended to produce additional volumes for other railroads, it appears that the problems encountered with the Erie project doomed any additional books.