Title: Isaac "Ike" Henry Brokaw papers

Dates: 1900-1956

Collection Number: MS 625

Creator/Collector: Brokaw (Isaac "Ike" Henry) Papers

Extent: 3 boxes + 1 half-box

Repository: California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives

Abstract: 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.

Language of Material: English

This collection is open for research at our off-site storage facility with one week's notice. Contact Library & Archives staff to arrange for access.

Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Capital District Collections Manager. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Isaac "Ike" Henry Brokaw papers. California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives

Gift of Grace Grant, 2000.

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.

This collection contains documents collected by Mr. Brokaw pertaining to his career in railroading and his personal interests after retirement. This material has been arranged into two series: Series 1. RAILROAD HISTORY RESEARCH Subseries 1. Correspondence Subseries 2. Research Notes Series 2. SUBJECT FILES Mr. Brokaw's collection of railway travel passes is filed with other examples of this format in the Museum's collection.