Jay G. Brockway 1881-1962

BROCKWAY, LARSON, HAMMEL, STERNBORG, LOFTEN, LOFTON, ASSING, MOLAMPHY

Posted By: Merllene Andre Bendixen (email)
Date: 1/31/2011 at 21:56:41

Jay Brockway, Emmet Resident 71 Years, Dies
Jay Brockway, resident of Emmet county for 71 years and longtime railroad engineer, died yesterday at 4:15 p.m. at Holy Family Hospital where he had been a patient since Oct. 9. In failing health for some time, Mr. Brockway had been hospitalized at various other times.

Born Aug. 29, 1881, at Indianapolis, Mahaska County, Iowa, he came with his parents at the age of 10 years to Estherville. The Brockway family lived first on a farm nine miles east of Estherville.

Mr. Brockway’s first employment, other than on his father’s farm, was in the fall of 1898 when he was employed by a Minneapolis and St. Louis construction crew to help lay the roadbed and trackage for the company’s new railroad through Estherville.

Mr. Brockway was married March 30, 1901, to Susan Larson of Estherville. On Aug. 3, 1902, he began his first employment with the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad as a machinist helper. On July 1, 1903 he became a foreman and on Dec. 6, 1907, he was sent out as an engineer.

He transferred as an engineer on Aug. 1, 1901, to the M. & St. L. railroad, but returned to the Rock Island two years later and served as an engineer until his retirement on May 26, 1947.

During Mr. Brockway’s 46 years on the railroad, 28 of those years were spent in passenger service. He was a longtime member of Division 605, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.

Mrs. Brockway died July 6, 1957 [1956]. Mr. Brockway later was married April 1, 1958, to Mary Hammel of Rochester, Minn. Mr. and Mrs. Brockway, who have made their home in Estherville since that time, have traveled extensively, making trips to both the west and east coasts.

Surviving his death are his widow, Mary; one son, Glenn, a Federal Government executive on the West Coast, San Carlos, Calif.; three daughters, Mrs. Fred (Fern) Sternborg, Estherville, Mrs. Marshall (Esther) Loften Keokuk, and Mrs. Henry (Lavaughn) Assing, Cedar Rapids; one step-daughter, Mrs. Tom (Lila) Molamphy, Winfield, Iowa; 11 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren and one brother, Willard Brockway, Chicago, Ill.

Preceding him in death were his first wife, his parents, four brothers and two sisters.

Funeral services for Mr. Brockway are to be held Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Sandin-Fuhrman Funeral Home, the Rev. James K. Lyon officiating. Burial be in Oak Hill cemetery.

Friends may call at the funeral home until time of the services.

Active pallbearers will be Carl Skog, Herman Wiese, Elmo Bartelman, Peter Gell, Ward Fletcher and Harry Simpson.

Honorary pallbearers will be Horace Soper, Guy Nicholson, Lewis Stammer, Ed Rost, Mike Kelly and Harry Danielson. (Estherville Daily News, Estherville, IA, October 22, 1962)