Documents collection by Ike Brokaw pertaining to his 50 year career as a Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad station agent and telegrapher at various locations in Iowa.

For fifty years Isaac Henry Brokaw was a station agent and telegrapher for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad at various locations in Iowa. He began his lengthy career in 1895 as a station helper in Rolfe, Iowa and was promoted to relief man shortly after. At Tara, Iowa he was a telegrapher for both the Rock Island and the Illinois Central. In 1898, he was appointed agent at Mallard, and moved to Gowrie on the Rock Island's Sibley Branch in 1899. In May 1901, Brokaw went to Gilmore City. In 1905, he was appointed division relief agent for the Des Moines Valley Division. From 1906 to 1908 he was an agent-operator at Manson and also Bonaparte. Brokaw attended the Gem City Business College and Institute of Shorthand and Typewriting and Normal Penmanship in Quincy, Illinois, where he won a medal. In September 1910, Brokaw came to Pocahontas from Keosauqua, where he remained station agent and telegraph operator until his retirement. An active member of the Order of Railroad Telegraphers throughout his career, Mr. Brokaw was the first ORT member of Division 35. Even after his retirement in 1936, he remained active in the Order. Mr. and Mrs. Brokaw had three daughters. Mr. Brokaw served on the Finance Committee of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Lake Park, Iowa for over twenty years. During his active retirement he enjoyed many trips by train, operated a rail travel service, investigated his own family genealogy and researched the pioneer railroads of Iowa.

3 boxes + 1 half-box

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