My Genealogy Hound

DANIEL GROW, General Yardmaster of the Missouri Pacific & Kansas City Railroad at Sedalia, has efficiently filled this responsible place for fifteen years, thus being one of the oldest officials of the road in this city. The yards have thirty miles of track, with six switch engines and six crews, there being about forty men employed in the, yards. Mr. Grow has worked his way up from the ranks, having been successively brakeman, conductor and switchman, until his superiors found that they could rely on his faithfulness and gave him a more important place. The birth of our subject occurred May 14, 1844, in Wabash County, Ind., his parents being John and Mahala (Collins) Grow, The former was a native of Culpeper County, Va., but when a young man moved to Indiana. He had learned the cabinet-maker’s trade and engaged in the manufacture of furniture, also managing an undertaking business in Wabash. Later he moved to Grant County, and in 1853 went to Sidney, Champaign County, Ill., afterward settling in Danville, in all of which places he was engaged in work at his trade. His wife was born in Tennessee, and was a daughter of Ephraim Collins, an early pioneer of Grant County. Mrs. Grow died when quite young, leaving only one child, our subject. The father enlisted in Company I. Tenth Illinois Cavalry, in 1861, as a Sergeant, and after serving two years was mustered out on account of disability. He was called to his final rest in 1892, at the age of seventy-seven years. His father, who was of German descent, was born in Maryland, and owned a large plantation there.

Until the outbreak of the war Daniel Grow attended school in Illinois, but in the spring of 1861 went to Indiana, and from there enlisted in Company C, Eighth Infantry, being mastered in at Indianapolis in the Army of the West. After participating in the battle of Pea Ridge he engaged in manoeuvers around Vicksburg under General McLaren, and after the surrender was sent to New Orleans, and thence to Texas. There he assisted in the capture of Ft. Esperanzie, and was in the engagements at Indianola and other points. January 1, 1864, he veteranized and went home on a furlough, but soon returned to his regiment in the Crescent City. With them he sailed for Baltimore and went up and down the Shenandoah Valley with Sheridan, being a part of the Nineteenth Army Corps. He was in the battles of Winchester and Cedar Creek, and later went with his regiment to Georgia, where he did provost-guard duty. In September, 1865, he was mustered out with the rank of Corporal at the close of over four years of constant service. At Vicksburg he was wounded by a minie-ball in the right hand, but did not leave the ranks, and at Cedar Creek he was captured, though he managed to get away the same night.

On his return to the North after his army life, Daniel Grow went to Richmond, Ind., and obtained a position as brakeman on the Chicago & Great Eastern (now the Panhandle) Railroad, and a year and a-half later was made conductor between Richmond and Logansport. He served in that capacity until 1869, when he went to Galesburg, Ill., and became a conductor on the “Q” Railroad between Aurora and that city. In the fall of 1869 he entered the employ of the Missouri Pacific Railroad at Kansas City as a switchman in the yards, and in 1872 was sent to Sedalia as night yardmaster. Soon afterward he was made day yardmaster, and in 1880, upon the consolidation of the Missouri Pacific and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Roads, was made General Yardmaster, and has served as such ever since. For one term, during Mayor Rickman’s administration, he was a member of the City Council from the Third Ward, having been elected by the local Democracy. Fraternally he is a past officer of the Knights of Pythias, is a charter member of the Royal Tribe of Joseph, and is Past Commander of George R. Smith Post No. 53, G. A. R.

In 1867 Mr. Grow and Sarah F. Mason were united in marriage in Richmond, Ind., of which city Mrs. Grow is a native. Their only child, Walter T., a graduate of the Sedalia High School and the Central Commercial College, is now in the St. Louis freight office of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, and is a young man of much promise.