My Genealogy Hound

PETER ROCKWELL, of Sedalia, is Roadmaster of the Hannibal Division of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway. His experience, which extends over forty-one years, gives him a practical acquaintance with the proper construction of roadbeds second to none in the country. During this time he has been in the employ of many railroad corporations and has had the supervision of many thousands of miles of railroad.

Talbott Rockwell, a native of England, settled in Virginia on a large plantation, and was a soldier in the War of 1812. One of his sons, J. J., father of our subject, was born in the Old Dominion, where he resided until 1866, then moving to McLean County, Ill. He died in 1894, at the good old age of eighty-two years. His wife, Nancy, was the daughter of John Potter, who was of German birth, and conducted a farm in Virginia for many years. Mrs. Rockwell, who, like her husband, was a member of the Christian Church, died in the Prairie State in 1867. Their family numbered seven sons and three daughters. William, a Lieutenant in the One Hundred and Fiftieth Illinois during the late war, is now a resident of McLean County, Ill.; and Thornton, who was also a member of his brother’s regiment, is deceased.

Peter Rockwell was born near Bath, Morgan County, Va., May 29, 1834, and received his early education in the log schoolhouse. When seventeen years of age he became sectionman on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and soon was made foreman of an extra gang. In 1857 he accepted the position of Roadmaster on the Illinois Central, and for twenty-three years made Bloomington his headquarters. For this long period he was in charge of the Amboy & Clinton Division, and for two years and four months was General Roadmaster of the four hundred and forty miles of track between Dubuque and Centralia. In 1881 he was offered the position of General Roadmaster of the Missouri Pacific between St. Louis and Atchison, a distance of one thousand miles. He accepted the post and held it for six years, during this time having seven roadmasters under his orders. When the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway went into the receiver’s hands he was appointed General Roadmaster of their lines north of Denison, Tex., comprising over nine hundred miles, and here also had seven roadmasters under him. In April, 1894, the office of General Roadmaster was abolished, and as he had become attached to Sedalia, he decided to take a position with the Hannibal Division, where he has one hundred and forty-three miles of track to superintend. There are twenty-six sections in the division and four yards. When he was General Roadmaster of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the old tracks were supplanted by steel rails on a number of lines. In the fall of 1894 he helped to organize the Sedalia Mattress Company, of which he is part owner.

In 1859, in Virginia, Mr. Rockwell was married to Mary E. Cartney, a native of that state. Their only child, Charles H., who graduated from the Bloomington Business College, was for a time chief clerk for his father and now resides in this city. The family have a pleasant residence at the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Fifth Street, in addition to which Mr. Rockwell owns farm lands in Kansas. He is a member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, being one of its Trustees, and served on the Building Committee when the new edifice at the corner of Fourth Street and Osage Avenue was constructed.

For ten years Mr. Rockwell was an Alderman in Bloomington, and for two years was President of the Board. He was also Chairman of the Board of General Improvements, which built the water-works in Bloomington, they being considered the best in the state. He belongs to the National Association of Roadmasters of America. Fraternally he is a Knight-Templar Mason, being a past officer in the order; belongs to Evergreen City Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Bloomington; and is a charter member of the Royal Tribe of Joseph. In politics he is affiliated with the Republican party.