The Yorktown Historical Society is hosting an evening of "Memories and Memorabilia - the History of
The Yorktown Historical Society is hosting an evening of "Memories and Memorabilia - the History of the Railroad" as we welcome home Joe McMillan at the Yorktown Historical Museum on Tuesday, June 26th. The Museum will be open during the afternoon for display setup and socializing. There will be a reception at 5 pm and a presentation by Joe at 6 pm.
Joe has many fond memories of his childhood in Yorktown. He will be sharing historic photographs of Yorktown and the surrounding area as well as presenting the Museum a San Antonio & Aransas Pass (SA&AP) car record book dating from August 1889, which is just a year or two after the railroad was built through Yorktown.
Joe wrote, "This is a book of tissue paper copies of cars set out and picked up at Yorktown. This was in the days before carbon paper, so they used a wet process to make an exact impression of the 'Report of Freight Cars Received, Loaded at and Forwarded From.' It looks like a C.L. Burnis was the SA&AP agent at that time. Depot attics were usually a treasure trove of old files and information, but this book was the only item I found. I think I retrieved it back in the 1970s."
After graduating from Texas Tech University with a degree in civil engineering. Joe worked as a draftsman in Santa Fe Railway’s office of the Eastern Lines chief engineer in Topeka, Kansas. He worked there a year before taking a leave of absence to fulfill a military obligation in the Corps of Engineers. Following assignments in France and Germany, he returned to his former position with the Santa Fe at Topeka. Later he joined the operating department and became the safety supervisor of the Illinois Division at Fort Madison, Iowa, followed by assistant trainmaster positions at Los Angeles and Needles, California. He was later promoted to assistant superintendent of safety-system at Chicago. Joe retired in 1995 as the assistant director of safety and rules.
In 1977, he founded McMillan Publications, which over the years has published a number of books, mostly related to the Santa Fe Railway. Joe presented the Yorktown Public Library a copy of his book, ROUTE OF THE WARBONNETS in September 1978. His books and a line of railroad calendars are available at www.mcmillanpublications.com
Following retirement from the Santa Fe Railroad, he moved his family from Chicago to Arvada, Colorado, and built a house along the old Rio Grande Moffat Route. Although retired from the railway, Joe stays busy with the publishing business and traveling to interesting places.
Joe will also be joined by other visiting railroad enthusiasts sharing photos and artifacts from the San Antonio & Aransas Pass (SA&AP) and Southern Pacific (SP) Railroad.
Visitors that will be attending include Tommie Nuinez Bullock, artist and former owner of the Yorktown Depot; Jim Vollmar, Secretary of the Rosenberg Railroad Museum (www.rosenbergrrmuseum.org ) and author of RAILROADS OF FORT BEND COUNTY (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing); Ken Stavinoha, Collector of SA&AP Memorabilia and owner of the Eagle Lake Railroad Depot (www.eaglelakedepot.com ); Tommy Shults, Train Enthusiast ( www.sidetracktommy.com ) owner of a railroad photo display created by Carl Codney; Cathy Passmore, author of KARNES COUNTY (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing), Shirley Mueller and Cathy Voelkel, authors of NORDHEIM & YORKTOWN (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing) and Susan Wieland, daughter of George Baker, Jr. the Engineer on the last train to Yorktown, February 1972.
The Yorktown Historical Society sincerely appreciates the contributions from numerous individuals and organizations including Larry Butler, Pam Culpepper, Jean Herwig, John Janacek, Dorothy Mayfield, Shirley Mueller, Robert Muschalek, Jo Ann and Gene Henry, Dolly Ruppert, Stuart Schroeder, Susan Wieland and Mark Eversole, President, Flatonia Historic Rail Park ( www.railcrossroadstx.com ); Ramona Noone, Karnes County Museum, Helena; Cathy Voelkel, President, Nordheim Historical Museum; Marie Adcock, Archives Assistant and Sheron Barnes, Director of the, Victoria Regional History Center ( www.vrhc.uhv.edu ) and Jamie Kelley, Director, Yoakum Heritage Museum (FB) and Beth Riedesel, Yorktown Public Library (FB).
If you or your organization have memorabilia and photographs of the railroad in your community, please consider lending your items to the Yorktown Historical Society. All photographs will be scanned and printed for display. Original items will be returned to you at the end of the exhibit. For more info call Jo Ann Henry, 361.564.4864.
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