The Elm House on Court Street in Auburn was a noted hotel in the first 50 years of the last century. It was the site of many meetings of municipal officials or local organizations, as well as statewide gatherings.

The Elm House, named for the five or six towering trees in front of the building, originated as a boarding house in the mid-1800s and it was a popular stop for stagecoach drivers.

However, it’s not the building’s history that prompts this column. It is the popularity of the Elm House among railroad conductors about 100 years ago. A story in the Lewiston Journal Illustrated Magazine Section of Jan. 11, 1908, profiled a group of Maine Central Railroad (MCRR) conductors who were great friends and frequent patrons of the Elm House. They made the Auburn hotel their home-away-from-home because Auburn was about midpoint on the MCRR lines between Portland and Bangor by way of Augusta, from Skowhegan to Portland by way of Lewiston, and from Bath to Farmington via the Lewiston lower station on the Belfast and Dexter branches.

In 1876, the whole MCRR system of about 350 miles was operated by 15 conductors. They were a distinctive group of men whose unquestioned authority was legendary among railroad patrons of that time. They became well known personally, and their names became connected with the MCRR trains and routes they rode.

The news story described several of those conductors who stayed regularly at the Elm House.

“They were large men physically as well as mentally and they occupied a large place in the social and business life of the time,” the story said. They knew their patrons well, and the riders of their trains, as well as residents of the Lewiston-Auburn area, came to know and respect them.

One of these conductors who could often be seen at the Elm House between his runs between Augusta and Portland was John Jewett.

“Where other trains were called by numbers, Jewett’s was referred to only by the name of the conductor who ran it,” the story said.

Jewett began working for the MCRR in the year the line was built, and he continued with about 55 years of service. He started as a switchman in the yard at Gardiner, later working in the freight station and then as a brakeman.

George H. Knapp, another of the conductors, was remembered as “a big hearty social man.” He was one of the regular boarders at the Elm House, and the hotel’s manager, William Young, would say he was never content “until Knapp was in.”

A native of East Livermore, Knapp began his railroad career as “boss of the crew laying the iron for the Leeds and Androscoggin Railroad.” Most of the track he worked on was in Farmington.

William Bodge was originally a stage driver, and when he entered railroading he became known for many years of service on the Lewiston-Waterville route.

Augustus Lincoln was another conductor who would meet with friends at the Elm House in Auburn.

The article said, “No one ever ran a train who could handle a crowd better than Gus Lincoln. He could handle a tough or a bully, and in a train fight he never called for help. He was a first-class railroad man of the old-school.”

Oscar Williams was another veteran conductor. “He too was a big man, so broad that he filled the aisle,” the article said.

“His coming was portentious … all dignity. He unbent to a few friends and was highly genial, but on the train he was the embodiment of ‘Pay up.’”

Luther Jones also was among those legendary conductors of the late 1800s. He retired to Lewiston at an advanced age to his home near the Maine State Fair grounds. He served 30 years as a conductor between Portland and Lewiston, and for many years after his retirement he was station agent at Leeds Junction.

Those profiles of MCRR conductors give us a glimpse of what it was like to ride the trains of the past. More echoes of those days are assured by the recent renovation of the old MCRR station at the end of Bates Street, Lewiston, and plans for preserving the Grand Trunk station on Lincoln Street, Lewiston.

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and a native of Auburn. He can be reached by sending email to [email protected].