Childhood and Catastrophe
Mr. Galloway was born on Christmas Day, 1902, to Philip and Anna Galloway. His parents had both been born in Pennsylvania, but by the time of the 1900 U.S. Census, they were living in Binghamton, New York, where Philip worked as a cobbler. In 1901, the Galloways had their first child, a boy name Glyn, but he died before the year was out. For reasons unknown to me, they were in Kentucky when Leon was born, although they returned to Binghamton afterwards.
Railroads were at the heart of America’s economy in that era, and Philip got an entry-level job at one of them as a brakeman, earning more money than a cobbler did. It was considered the most perilous job in railroading. Brakemen separated or coupled together freight cars, and they set or released the cars’ brakes. As the train moved along, they often had to cross from the roof of one swaying boxcar to the next, getting themselves into position to split the train between the right cars as it neared the next destination.
One February evening in 1906, Philip Galloway fell to his death from a train as he toiled in the railroad yards in Scranton, shown in this photograph from 1900. Look closely below the laundry hanging on the line, and you’ll see the silhouette of a man standing on a boxcar roof, with absolutely nothing to hold onto. That’s where brakemen spent most of their time.
Why did Philip fall? Maybe his hands and feet were numb from the February cold. Or maybe he couldn’t see his footing clearly because February evenings got dark early. There could have been black ice on the roof. Maybe he was just plain tired, or maybe he had the flu. If a tired or sick brakeman stayed home, he wouldn’t be paid; he’d be fired.
Although the newspaper report states that he died from the impact of a fall, his Death Certificate is more precise: Philip Galloway died because the train was moving when he fell, and it ran over him.
