Erie Railroad, E.M. Hoffman, Thomas Kelley
From the November, 1916 issue of Erie Railroad Magazine
TWO RESPECTED ERIE VETERANS
An outline of this veteran's activities follows, and a perusal of same by those acquainted with the history and incidents of the Civil War, may fill in these outlines of that interesting period with the imaginative pictures of camp life, martial music and battle scenes of more than three years' service, which would be too expansive for the columns of our Magazine.
Edwin M. Hoffman was born at Lebanon, Pa., Nov. 13, 1841. He was apprenticed to the machinist's trade June, 1858. During the apprenticeship he entered the service of his country in the famous "Pennsylvania Reserves" Army of the Potomac. He participated in the Peninsular campaign, battle of Fredericksburg, Va.; Wilderness campaign; Bethesda Church, Va., and was honorably discharged June 16, 1864, having served thirty-seven months in the army.
He then completed his apprenticeship and was employed by the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad in 1866. He entered the service of the Erie, (then the Atlantic & Great Western) May 6, 1867. at the Meadville. Pa.. Shop.
Faithful in the performance of every duty, he is still a 100 per cent piece worker. Mr. Hoffman has long been a director in the Erie Employes Mutual Benefit association and is pleased that he has been able to assist in the distribution of nearly $900,000 to the families of fellow-Erie employes.
THE oldest employe of the Erie Railroad in the Hornell section is Thomas Kelley, who has reached the seventy-ninth milestone in life's journey and still has a distant recollection of his old home in Ireland and the house in which he was born.
Mr. Kelley came to America in 1848 and settled in Allegheny county, N.Y. In August, 1862, he entered the service of the Erie as section hand. Later he worked in the old rail shop that used to stand where the Erie freight house now stands. He worked on rails in summer and as freight brakeman in winter.
In 1870 he went to work for N.D. Ogden, wreckmaster boss and foreman of car repairs. In 1873 he was given charge of a wrecking train, which position he held eighteen years when he was transferred to the car shops.
In recent years he has been given employment at the Hornell car shop - employment of the kind suitable for a man of his advanced years and is being cared for as the Erie cares for all its old faithfuls. Weather conditions play no part in his daily routine and he is always on the job.
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