Ancestor Jobs: Exploring Frisco Railway Employee Cards

The History of the Frisco Railway

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway Company, commonly known as the Frisco, was one of the most important and storied rail services in U.S. history. It started in St. Louis in 1876, some years after the first Transcontinental Railroad was finished, and then ran through the historic towns of the Old West during the latter half of the 19th century. This was a time when the United States sought territory in the West for large-scale development including farming and industrialization. 

Despite its ambitious name, the Frisco network never reached farther west than central Texas. Instead, it ran from roughly the location of the modern St. Louis Arch to the line's terminus locations in western Florida, Arkansas, and Abilene. 

Origins of Employee Cards for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway

At its peak, Frisco employed thousands of workers. So much labor was needed that a man could walk into a recruiting station anywhere along the Frisco Railway's network, apply for a job, and walk out as the company's newest hire. However, the work was isolating and often dangerous, and some employees left their railroad jobs for farming or mining opportunities. Fortunately, workers could come and go with relative ease, since this was well before the modern habit of recording every detail for tax and legal purposes. 

Records during Frisco's early years, if they were kept at all, could be irregular handwritten notes jotted down by a supervisor to keep track of who was laying the tracks and who was working inside the trains. But that casual approach changed during the 20th century with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Along with the implementation of broad workplace protections, employers were now required to keep better records of their workers.

Starting around 1940, the Frisco record keepers adopted a standardized set of cards to record workers' vital stats. If anything, the company went a little overboard with data collection. Workers at every level of the company had to fill out personal information cards that included relevant fields such as:

• Name
• Sex
• Race
• Date of birth
• Age
• Birthplace
• Address
• Marital status
• Employment start date
• Employment end date
• Name of employer
• Occupation
• Date of death
• Names of parents
• Names of previous employers

Family History Research Using St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Employee Cards

If your family member worked for the Frisco Railway, then all of the details recorded on the employee cards can be a boon to your family history research. There’s a good chance you’ll find information that can help you create a family tree or fill in potential missing facts in your current tree. 

The Springfield, Missouri, U.S., St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Employee Cards on Ancestry^® encompass the years between 1940-80. The earliest records even include entries for workers who were born around the turn of the century. 

The collection isn't limited to just the people who worked directly on the rails. It also includes information about other employees of the Frisco Railway, such as:

• Executives
• Accounting staff
• Nurses
• Porters
• Loaders

You can search through the records with just your ancestor’s name, but entering more information into the search fields may give you more targeted results. While you may start your search for one specific person, you might find that by broadening your search you could uncover the names of other family members with close ties to the Frisco Railway.

Finding Valuable Information About Your Ancestors

Ancestry has multiple collections of railroad job records beyond the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway records. Maybe you’ve heard stories about a great-grandfather who laid railroad tracks during WWII. Knowing his name is all you need to start searching. 

Like taking a ride on the early Frisco Railway, family history research is an exciting journey you can start on your own or with your whole family with a free trial of Ancestry.