(April 10, 1851-October 5, 1950)

Lawrence McCormick, 99, retired New York Central Railroad engineer and one of the oldest residents in the village of Norwood, died at 6 a.m. October 5, at his home, 46 S. Main St.. Death was due to the infirmities of old age.

He was born in Norwood on April 10, 1851, a son of Patrick and Catherine Collins McCormick. He was a life resident of Norwood and had been in the railroad business for over 50 years, retiring at the age of 70. He married the former Miss Elizabeth Sullivan, Norwood, and the couple noted their 50th anniversary in 1924. She died a few years ago.

Lawrence McCormick, in his years of railroading, most of them at the throttle of a locomotive, never injured anyone. After attending school, he went to work on the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg railroad, now the St. Lawrence division on April 1, 1867.

He lacked ten days of being 15 years old when he went to work on the railroad. He worked on the section in winter and fired short runs between Norwood and DeKalb Junction in the summer. In 1869 he started firing engine No. 16, known as Silas Wright, between Norwood, then known as Potsdam Junction, and DeKalb Junction.

For seven years he worked on the section and was promoted to foreman. He left the section to become a regular fireman out of Watertown, his first regular firing being done for the late G. W. Schell, with whom he worked until Feb. 1, 1885, when he was promoted to engineman.

A short time later he left the passenger service and entered the freight operating out of Norwood. He retired on April 30, 1923. Mr. McCormick remembered that the first time coal was used to fire an engine it took the train 63 hours to travel from Watertown to Norwood. The engineman was Jeff Wells, and they had to stop about every mile to get up steam in the boilers because the locomotive was built for wood.

In addition to being one of the last of the pioneer railroadmen, Mr. McCormick was one of the engineers who operated the famous engine "999".

Mr. McCormick, and his son, Frank, who completed 50 years as a railroad man before his retirement, were awarded the Gold Pass, a certificate given them by the president of New York Central.

Mr. McCormick’s chief hobby was race horses, and he built a race track in this village. He was a follower of the Yankee baseball team and enjoyed listening to baseball games on the radio.

When Mr. McCormick first lived in Norwood, the name of the village was Racquetteville and was later changed to Potsdam Junction. Few buildings had been erected here when he was born and he was able to recall a time when there were only two village wells for drinking water.

The locomotives in those days had names instead of numbers and some of the ones Mr. McCormick operated were the Watertown, the Rome, the Adams, the O. V. Hungerford, and the W. C. Pierrepont.

In the early railroad days, each engineer had his own engine, and there was considerable rivalry as to who had the most attractive looking engine.

When Mr. McCormick’s brother, Cornelius, retired several years ago, Mr. McCormick went with him on his last run to Massena. When in 1896 the line was extended from Norwood to Massena, Mr. McCormick was the first engineer to put a locomotive over the new tracks.

Mr. McCormick was the only surviving charter member of the Potsdam Council, Knights of Columbus, and was also a member of the Brotherhood of Railroad Engineers.

The survivors include a son, Frank, also a retired railroad engineer; two daughters, Mrs. Margaret Quinn and Mrs. Catherine Dolan, all of Norwood, and Jack, of Watertown; a grandson, Thomas Dolan, Potsdam and two great-grandchildren.

Services were held at 10 a.m. October 7 in St. Andrew’s church, Norwood. The Rev. Francis J. Maguire, pastor, officiated, and the interment was in Calvary cemetery.

(From the Wednesday, October 11, 1950 edition of the Potsdam Herald, page 14, courtesy of the Northern New York Library Network @ news.nnyln.net).