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Continued: (Much of this was submitted for publication in the "maiden issue" of the Washington State Genealogical Quarterly, Vol. 1, July 2006)
Washington has long been a land of opportunity. The Native Americans lived prosperously for millennia. Fur traders sought their fortunes from otter and beaver pelts. Timber men and miners found a wealth of resources to exploit, and farmers and ranchers recognized fertile land that would produce. Natural harbors allowed transportation by sea, and the coming of the railroads opened the "Inland Empire" to a rapidly expanding world economy. This is what attracted my great-great grandfather, a railroading man, to Washington Territory in 1889.
Hermann Robert Scheidt was born 6 June 1852 in Ober Buschkau, West Preussen (now Buszkowy Górne, Gmina Kolbudy, Gdańsk County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland), a small town about 12 miles southwest of the major city of Danzig, West Prussia (now Gdansk, Poland). His father, Carl Heinrich Scheidt, worked as a carpenter and cabinet maker. His grandfather, August Scheidt, served as the Royal Forrester of nearby Mallenczin Forest (now Malentyn).
By 1861, the family moved about 50 miles to the southeast to Nieder Zehren, Mariwnwerder, Westpreussen (now Czarne Dolne, Gmina Gardeja, Kwidzyn County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland).
The family operated a small hotel or inn there. When he was nearly nine, in April 1861, the hotel caught fire. A 15-year-old cousin named Bertha Diek ran into the burning building, Robert's mother ran after her, and they both lost their lives in the inferno.
Robert's father was heartbroken and resigned to immigrate to North America. Their last residence was at Bozepole -- a specific farm or estate near Kuchnie See (now known as Jerioro Kuchnia, a small lake a few miles southwest of Nieder Zehren). Robert and his father Carl departed Hamburg, Germany, on 3 May 1862 aboard the ship Gellert, sailing first to England and then onto Montreal, Quebec, Canada. During the voyage, an epidemic broke out and young Robert was encouraged to smoke tobacco in the belief that it might prevent him from becoming sick.
When Robert was eleven (probably during the winter of 1863-1864), his father went hunting, became lost in a blizzard and froze to death.
The orphaned boy was eventually taken into a preacher's home (a Protestant minister, possibly Lutheran). It was during the period when women wore hoop-skirts, and it was part of Robert's duties to accompany the parson's wife and keep her skirt out of the mud and from blowing around ona breezy day. The minister who took Robert in was very likely the Reverend Ludwig Herman Gerndt, a Lutheran Pastor,originally from Berlin, Germany, who was appointed to serve the spiritual needs of the Ottawa Valley (present-day eastern Ontario, Canada) in 1855. He and his family were enumerated there in 1861 and remained there until about 1870 when he relocated to up-state New York(just after our ancestor Robert Sheedy went to up-state New York). Ludwig Herman Gerndt later moved to New York City and became the German-speaking pastor for Ellis Island, where he served the needs of tens of thousands of immigrants until his death in 1905. Coincidentally, Ludwig Herman Gerndt had spent several years as a Lutheran Missionary at Guntur in in Andhra Pradesh, India;as such, he no-doubt knew the Rev. John Christian Frederick Heyer, a fifth-great-grandfather of Nick Sheedy (through his mother) who founded the Gunter Mission 1840.
It was during this time that he likely Anglicanized his name to Robert Herman Sheedy.
By the time he was fifteen (about 1867), Robert likely immigrated to "Up State" New York where he secured a job carrying the mail with horse and sled. It was a very cold lonesome route and he had some harrowing experiences, but he was very proud of his job.
The military record of Robert Herman Sheedy shows that he enlisted in the standing army 22 November 1869; the place of enlistment is noted as Baltimore, Maryland. His residence at enlistment was "Cheshire, New York" (this is near Canandaigua, in Ontario, County in the western "Finger Lake" region of Up-State New York) and his occupation was "laborer". His physical description states he had blue eyes and brown hair. He evidently misrepresented his age, as it is recorded as 21 years, 5 months (he was actually 17 years, 5 months old at the time). He was stationed at Port Huron, Michigan, at the foot of Lake Huron, by 1870 as is evidenced by the U.S. Federal census that year: Robert Sheedy, Private in Co. B, 1st U.S. Inf., age 21, male, white, born in Germany, father and mother both foreign born. He used to tell a story about a time "on parade" when he accidentally gave the wrong order, with the result that his troops joyously ran over the band! He worked his way up to sergeant, but records indicate that Robert deserted the Army at Port Huron, Michigan, 18 July 1871.
In 1873, he joined the Masonic Lodge at St. Louis, Michigan, and in 1875 he became a Master Mason. In the meantime, Robert took up railroading and became a brakeman in newly admitted Colorado State where he was promoted to freight conductor. About this time, gold was discovered in the Black Hills. Like so many others, Robert got gold fever and joined the stampede to Deadwood, Dakota Territory.
Within a year to two, he returned to Michigan and landed a job as a section foreman on the Flint & Pere Marquette Railway Company. Robert fell in love and married Eliza Ann Rowe 19 November 1879 at Baldwin, Lake County, Michigan. "Eida" (as he always called her) was the daughter of Henry Rowe (alias George Green) and Jane Wheaton, who immigrated to Michigan from England in 1855.
Robert and Eida set up housekeeping in nearby Amber, between Ludington and Scottville, in Mason County, Michigan, where their first child, Herman Howard Sheedy, was born on 3 September 1880. In 1882, Robert Sheedy served as the Clerk of Amber Village and Township, Mason County, Michigan (History of Manistee, Mason & Coceana Counties, Michigan, 1882, pp. 73-74). About 1883, they moved a few miles east to Scottville where Robert built a nice home on an acre of land. He continued railroading, built a barn, bought farm animals, and kept a large garden. It was here that their second child, Robin Carl Sheedy, was born on 3 April 1884.
In those days, railroad engines were fueled exclusively by cordwood, which was mostly gotten out in the winter time as it was easier to haul and was piled close to the track so it could be retrieved without undue loss of time. While walking the grade, Robert came upon some cordwood that had fallen onto the tracks on account of the snow having melted out from under the pile. He bent every effort to get the track cleared and just managed to get the last stick off the rails when a train was upon him. One leg was broken in two places and he walked with a slight limp for the rest of his life.
By 1889, Robert had the urge to go west. He took a trip to Puget Sound and liked it so well that he returned home, sold everything and moved his family to Washington Territory, which became the 42nd state in November that year. He was placed in charge of track and grading construction for the Peninsular Railway Company, an extension of the Satsop Railroad, built by the Simpson Logging Company to access virgin timber on the Olympic Peninsula and feed the sawmills at Shelton.
The Sheedy family bought a large home in Shelton, had another big garden, a cow and some pigs. Their third child, Alice Marie Sheedy, was born there on 18 September 1891.
In 1897, Robert moved to Northport, Stevens County, Washington, where he built a house (still standing); the family moved into their new home about July. At that time, Northport was the terminus for the steamboat line on the Columbia River and trains had to be ferried across the river to get to Rossland, British Columbia. This would soon change, as Robert H. Sheedy was placed in charge of finishing the construction of the grade and approaches and lay track over the new bridge at Northport. Completed in October 1897, the Columbia and Red Mountain Railroad bridge at Northport was the second bridge built to span the Columbia River. By late 1897, Robert Sheedy was appointed roadmaster for the Spokane Falls and Northern Railway.
So his children could enjoy a better education, in 1900, Robert bought a home (still standing) on Mission Avenue in Spokane, where Robin and later Alice graduated from Lewis and Clark high school. By this time Herman was the station agent at Deer Park. About 1901, Great Northern Railway succeeded Spokane Falls and Northern, and Robert continued his tenure as inspecting engineer for the construction of the Columbia River Bridge at Marcus, Washington (I believe the third bridge built across the Columbia River), and later was placed in charge of laying track from Marcus to Republic and on to Grand Forks, B. C. He supervised construction of the Great Northern Cut-Off at Colbert and the line to Molson, which was the highest elevation rail depot in Washington, and is also said to have been the largest shipping point in the state at the time.
In 1903, Robert H. Sheedy, representing Great Northern Railway, escorted Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce from the Colville Reservation to Spokane where the Chief made a brief visit before traveling to Washington D.C. to petition the government for the return of the Wallowa Valley to his people.
During this period Herman was married, then Robin and later Alice.
The 1920 U.S. Census enumerated Robert and Eliza at their home, 22 E. Mission Ave., in Spokane, which they owned free and clear. Robert was a track foreman. Their household included a brother-in-law, O.R. Elvington (age 33, a railroad laborer), and a lodger named Mary G. McDermott (age 43, dressmaker).
After thirty years building and supervising railroads in Washington, Robert retired. In late 1920, he and Eliza moved to Los Angeles, California, to be closer to their two younger children (Robin was in Pasadena, and Alice soon moved from Seattle to Hollywood). The couple purchases a small hotel. He and Eliza were both listed in an Index to Register of Voters (published in the Los Angeles Times) in Los Angeles, City Precinct No. 891 in 1924 (no. 179 and 180. Robert, a Railroad man and Eliza, housewife, were registered Democrats who lived at 446 1/2 N. Lincoln Park Ave. The 1926 Register of Voters (published in the Los Angeles Times), for City Precinct 1235 (no. 212 and 213), gives the same information except notes they had become Republicans.
Robert died 25 February 1928, at the age of nearly 76 years. A Death notice was printed in the Los Angeles Times, 29 Feb. 1828, p. 22.
Eliza survived him by two years. A brief obituary was printed in the Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 1930, p. 20: "SHEEDY. The funeral services of Mrs. Eliza A. Sheedy will be held Thursday at 10 a.m. from grace Chapel. Inglewood Cemetery. W.A. Brown, funeral director."
Their son, Robin, in a brief sketch of his father, wrote: "Many men have blessed him for helping them over the rough places. He had an exceptionally hard childhood, with very little schooling and was not very demonstrative; but he was of sterling character and integrity, and was a loving husband and father."
I wish to thank the late Clarissa "Chris" (Sheedy) Litteer of Tigard, Oregon, and the late Aura Lee (Sheedy) Deaver of Sacramento, California, for all the family history research that conducted and graciously shared with me. I also wish to acknowledge a short sketch that my great-grandfather, R. C. Sheedy, wrote on his father, dated 1939, San Francisco. In concluding this chronicle, I would like to express my gratitude to the natural resources, people and industries of Michigan and Washington for giving the family of a poor orphaned immigrant the opportunity to grow and prosper.
--Nick Sheedy
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