*
f/8 and Be There
Fred Lynch

All aboard the Frisco!

Posted Monday, June 18, 2012, at 12:00 AM

Frony took many pictures of school children ready to take their first train ride. Frisco passenger train service at Cape Girardeau began June 1, 1904 and ended Sept. 17, 1965.

Groups would board the train at the depot in Cape Girardeau and ride to Chaffee where parents would pick up their children for the ride back home. For some groups, chartered buses would take them back to Cape Girardeau. Sometimes the procedure was reversed.

The picture above and the one below were published in the Southeast Missourian on May 27, 1956:

Franklin School second graders, in two groups, made train trips the other day. One group, headed by the teacher, Mrs. J.E. Palsgrove, and mothers, boarded a noon train here and went to Chaffee where a waiting bus brought them back to Cape. Another group and the teacher, Mrs. I.E. Beard and accompanied by Mrs. Ralph Maupin, went by bus to Chaffee, first visiting Municipal Airport, then returned to Cape by train. Mrs. Beard is shown with her group, (above) and in the other picture, (below) from the left, are Mrs. George Miller, Mrs. Wayne Boswell, Mrs. Raymond Harris, Mrs. Earl Hartline, and Mrs. Palsgrove.

May 19, 1956 Southeast Missourian

It was a great day Wednesday in the lives of these third and fourth graders of May Greene School as the small fry, accompanied by their teachers, Mrs. Loy Barks and Mrs. Ruth Deevers, took a Frisco train ride to Chaffee. The trip was the climax to a unit of study on transportation.

Here are more pictures of groups, with some identified:

Oct. 10, 1957 Southeast Missourian

Training School kindergarten pupils, accompanied by their teachers, rode a Frisco passenger train to Chaffee at noon Tuesday, the trip the first train ride for many of them. Pupils making the trip were Joe David Lowes, Marian Hirsch, Barbara Knote, Barbara Brown, Pam Sheets, Rhonda Sue Preston, Debbie Brandt, Pam Uhls, Rita Beth Vandivort, Georgiann Ringland, Mike Morrison, David Cochrane, Tommy Lovinggood, Kim Kurka, April Storz, Barbara Foulks, Mary Louise Otto, Chris Naeter, Mark Englehart, Dan Cotner, Guy Matthews, Frank Kinder and Freddie Saliba. Teachers accompanying them were Miss Louise Gross, director; and Misses Sue Muegge, Nancy Statler, Elaine Pickel and Joan Hermann. (G.D. Fronabarger/Southeast Missourian archive)

May 3, 1954 Southeast Missourian

A train ride from Cape Girardeau to Chaffee Saturday noon was a treat given by leaders for members of Brownie Troops 49 and 55 of St. Mary’s Church. The girls were accompanied by some of their leaders and the return to their homes was made by automobiles. From the left in the front row are Alice Sapienza, Joyce Schabbing, Joan Fornkohl, Deanna Moll, Jerette Davis, Mary and Janie Meyer, Linda Kay Sides, Mary Rose Campbell of Troop 55, and Mary Nean Meyer of Troop 49. Second row: Marilyn McCart, Patty Auer, Patty Fee, Wanda Boyd, Patty Scherer, Kathy Moll, Janet Campbell, Janice Berry, Mary E. Essner, Margaret Farrar, Martha Sue Jarosik and Carol Jean Littleton. Leaders in the background are Mrs. William Berry, a committee mother; Mrs. Manuel Campbell and Mrs. Gene Sides of Troop 55, and Mrs. Harold Haas of Troop 49. Mrs. Adolph Fee, not present, is another Troop 49 leader. (G.D. Fronabarger/Southeast Missourian archive)

May 23, 1956 Southeast Missourian

Train rides are an almost daily occurrence this week for school youngsters as they get in a lot of activities before the close of school for the summer vacation. Here 30 Franklin School second graders, their teacher, Mrs. T.M. Travelstead, and parents assembled Tuesday for a Frisco train trip to Chaffee. Patrons are Mrs. A.A. Thompson, Mr. and Mrs. A. Harky, Mrs. Leslie Lindy, Mrs. Bill Ewing, Mr. and Mrs. J.O. Sides, Mr. and Mrs. J.O. Brown, Mrs. Gene Kelley, Mrs. Dick Wadlington, Mrs. Kenneth Kaiser and Mrs. A.F. Huey. (G.D. Fronabarger/Southeast Missourian archive)

May 23, 1956 Southeast Missourian

Lorimier School kindergarten pupils took a train ride to Chaffee Tuesday as part of their activities for the closing week of school and were accompanied by parents and their teacher, Mrs. Lee Higgs, second from right. Patrons, from the left, are Mrs. Ralph Chitty, Mrs. Frank Batchelor and Mrs. Bernhardt Lang. (G.D. Fronabarger/Southeast Missourian archive)

May 22, 1956 Southeast Missourian

It was “all aboard” on the noon train to Chaffee Monday for this happy bunch of youngsters, first graders at Franklin School, whose teacher is Mrs. Autumn Church. Making the train ride were Pamela Beard, John Brandt, Larry Burnett, Brenda Cargle, Linda Cargle, Jimmy Carson, Bruce Connally, Mark Eldridge, Donald Evitts, Betty Evitts, Stan Friese, Bobby Garner, Tamara Hardman, Stephen Hileman, Bradley Kasten, Bennie King, Karen Sue Darnell, Kathy Darnell, Billy Darnell, Jerald Nelson, Vickie Sams, Joe Stahley, Sally Stone, Richard Hahn, Karen Mecham and Larry Warner. Mothers assisting included Mrs. Roy Darnell, Mrs. Wilson Connally, Mrs. Paul Cargle, Mrs. Byron Carson, Mrs. John Eldridge, Mrs. James Evitts, Mrs. Carl Friese, Mrs. Oscar Kasten and Mrs. B.A. King. (G.D. Fronabarger/Southeast Missourian archive)

Comments

View 2 comments or respond
Community discussion is important, and we encourage you to participate as a reader and commenter. Click here to see our Guidelines. We also encourage registered users to let us know if they see something inappropriate on our site. You can do that by clicking "Report Comment" below.
  • The detail in Frony's notes must have corresponded to the amount of his shots. Certainly no Franklin parent would have put up with a second grade class of 30+. I suggest that photo 2 is of two sections of the school's second grade that included Mrs. Travelstead's as my brother is found in it. In addition to Walter Lamkin, there are the Ebaugh twins, Cyndi Shoss, Jerry Kaiser, Mark Stuart, John Rigdon (probable), Scott Brune (probable) among others, all members of the CHS Class of '68 (which raises an issue about the date/grade).

    Many pictured would not finish at Franklin, their families eschewing their starter homes in the Sunset Additton for the migration West.

    -- Posted by JTL on Mon, Jun 18, 2012, at 10:15 PM
  • More on Photo 2

    If the Training School gardening shot in a previous blog entry was taken in May 1956, then the Frisco Photo Two must be from 1957 or 1958.

    Members of the Class of '68 photo recon team suggest the following:

    Row 1

    Rick Humphrey, Roger Call, Marsha Harris, Steve Rose, Barbara Rose, Barbara Stone, Mark Stuart, Walter Lamkin, Rick Ebaugh, Steve Caldwell ...

    Row 2

    ?, Debby Ebaugh, Lynn Miller, Clyde Abernathy, ?, Daphne Seabaugh, Linda Clark, David Golliher, John Rigdon, ... the blonde in the back with his arm draped over another boy is Jerry Kaiser.

    If it is a 1957 photo the teacher was Miss "Peach" Willer. If 1958 it's Mrs. Travelstead

    -- Posted by JTL on Wed, Jun 20, 2012, at 12:54 PM