By Dale Welch
Maj. Robert John Moscrip made his mark on maps, plats and lives qll qcross America, winding up his last marks along the Upper Cumberland.
Moscrip was born on Jan. 4. 1844, in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, to Robert and Eliza Fairchild Moscrip. Of Scottish descent, he was at least the third generation “Robert,” on his father’s side. His father, a merchant, moved the family to Omaha, Nebraska, where the young Robert and his sibilings graduated private school, in Bellville, Neb.
As the Civil War began, Moscrip joined the Union Army and attained the rank of major. He also obtained a degree in civil engineering.
When Reconstruction began, as early as 1865, Gen. U.S. Grant placed Moscrip on the payroll of the new Union Pacific Railroad as a civil engineer and surveyor. The purpose was to build a transcontinental railroad across the United States along public lands, meeting up with the west coast. Three railroad companies were charged with building the 1,911-mile of tracks. The Western Pacific Railroad Co. built 132 miles of track from the Oakland Wharf, in San Francisco Bay to Sacramento, CA; the Central Pacific Railroad Co. built 690 miles from Sacramento eastward to Promontory Summit, UT; the Union Pacific Railroad Co., where Moscrip worked, built 1,085 miles westward from Council Bluffs and Omaha, Neb. to meet up with the Central Pacific Railroad, in Utah.
Though a civil engineer, Moscrip was not a surveyor, the job for which he was hired. No problem! Another former Union soldier, “Buffalo Bill” Cody took him under his wings and taught him the trade. All those miles were quite the adventure. Though surveying across public lands, the Native Americans hadn’t got the message. At one point, Moscrip was captured by a band of natives. Native scouts that had been hired by the railroad found out where he was being held and rescued him in the night.
Six miles of track were laid per day, using 400 tracks per mile. Each spike was struck three times. On May 10, 1869, a one-word telegraph was received that said, “Done.” During the ceremony of the laying of the golden spike, at Promontory Summit, in Utah territory, Maj. Robert Moscrip was there. Travel that once took six months by wagon now only took six days by steam locomotive.
After all the notoriety with the Transcontinental Railroad project, Moscrip was in high demand and began working for several railroad companies: Union Pacific, 1865-1871; Canadian Southern. 1871-72; the division engineer of the Texas Pacific, 1873-74; division engineer with the UP & OSL, 1875-81; as a local engineer, he built the Utah Northern, from Franklin, Idaho to Butte, Montana, 1882-85; was a division engineer for the Missouri Pacific, 1887-1901; and chief engineer of the Nashville & Knoxville Railroad, 1884-1901; and chief engineer in charge of opening coal lands on the Cumberrland Plataeu for the Crawford Coal & Coke Co., 1901-05.
On March 28, 1874, in Omaha, Neb., Mosscrip married Emma Slightam. As Emma followed him from job to job, there children were born all over the country. Their seven children were born in Nebraska, Idaho, Texas, and Tennessee. Their last daughter, Emma lived to be 109.
When Alexander Crawford, founded the Nashville & Knoxville Railroad, in 1884 it was an attempt to open the coal and iron ore areas in Middle Tennessee to the Northeastern U.S. Though it was called the Nashville & Knoxville Railroad, it was only built between Lebanon and Standing Stone. The section from Lebanon to Gordonsville opened on Aug. 11, 1888; and to Cookeville, in 1890. Crawford died that year, but his sons continued it. Mostly being built by prison labor, Moscrip engineered the rail up the steep climb to Standing Stone, by Aug., 1893.
With the progress of track coming up the mountain, the Cumberland Mountain Coal Company, a group of 10 investors, bought property from T.J. Whittaker that contained coal. The company was interested in building a new company town to provide housing and commercial ventures for the workers. They hired Maj. Moscrip to lay out the new town. A contest was held to name it. Moscrip won! The new town was to be named “Monterey,” which meant “King of the Mountains” and coal was king.
Unfortunately, while topping the Plateau, Moscrip brought the rails right through the Standing Stone. The stone was believed to be carved into a “dog-like” shape by Paleo-Indians 1,500 years before. The Mound Builders were sun worshipers and their idols set toward the rising or the setting sun. The Standing Stone set toward the setting sun. Maj. Moscrip got into quite a bit of trouble for blowing the ancient structure up. But, their was no 24-hour news feed or social media. Moscrip’s great grandson, John Moscript (the “t” was added by Maj. Moscrip’s daughter-in-law later) ssid that his great grandfather had said that there wasn’t any other way. The Improved Order of Redmen took a portion of the remnants, had it engraved and set on a lighthouse-shaped pedestal next to the current Montetey Library.
Moscrip continued engineering the railroad tracks out the Crawford Branch into Overton County. That line opened by 1894. He was also hired to open coal lands for the Crawford family up to 1904. A female contractor was hired, which was unheard of at the time, to build a portion of that line.
Moscrip later served as a City of Cookeville alderman, where he was said to have made the first map of Cookeville, naming several of its streets. The family lived right next to the Cookeville City Cemetery, not far from the Cookeville Depot. On a train trip to Nashville, Moscrip was severely injured when the train derailed, in Buffalo Valley. He survived that, but died on June 30, 1917, in a Nashville hospital after a stroke. He is buried in the Cookeville City Cemetery, in what would have been his back yard.
Surveying the quickest route across the county was his trade. He left his mark across most of it. His dedication cut travel time from months to days across America and from a week to hours from Monterey, the town he named, to Nashville.
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