(American/Florida, 1896-1993)

Pelham Railroad Station in 1903, signed lower right "Frog Smith", oil on board, 24 x 15 in.;  original wood frame, 25 x 16 in.

Provenance: Thomas W. Bradley and Clionike Bradley, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Note: Includes typed description written by artist that reads:

The smooth faced 16 year old fireman Will Loyless, remained on the job to become a good engineer who pulled the last train over the line around 1940. On the first run Dad dubbed the little road “The Ticknor, Tooten & Hell-western” a name that the old road bed is known by to this day. Old-timers have forgotten all but the “Old Ticknor’n Tooten.” 

At the beginning of the year 1905, the Flint River & North Eastern Railroad was born by the joining of two logging railroads. One ran northeast from Pelham, Ga., and the other ran southwest from Tichnor, fourteen miles north of Moultrie, Ga. on the Georgia Northern R. R. 

My Father, “Stuttering Dick” Smith, had the doubtful honor of pulling the inaugural train, an excursion of the F.R. & N.E. Combination and three day coaches borrowed from the Georgia Northern. Stuttering Dick ran the mixed train until his death in December of 1905. His body was hauled in the combination car which together with the engine was trimmed in crepe in honor of the dead engineer. His body was unloaded at the station on December 9, 1905 and buried in the cemetery where the organizer of the line, and founder of the town of Pelham, Mr. J.L. Hand is buried. Stuttering Dick was my father and I was his companion in the cab for many happy hours.

Signed: E.A. (Frog) Smith

some surface dirt; frame separating at corner