Orville Ray Hoel was born May 12, 1906. He was the son of William Henry and Martha Ann Fisher Hoel. Orville was the seventh of nine children. He was Carl’s older brother.
On November 22, 1937 he married Eleanor Anna Johnson. They had four children, Donald, Doris Faye, Dorothy and William. Unfortunately, Donald died as an infant.
Orville worked for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (The CB&Q, also known as the Burlington Route). He worked in the shops in West Burlington, repairing and maintaining locomotives. The West Burlington shops were sort of a family thing. Orville’s dad, William Henry Hoel had moved his family to Iowa to work there. Both of my brothers worked there as well.
Milt’s Dollar
When my brother Tony started working at the shops in the 1970’s there were still a few old guys there who had worked with Orville. One of them related the following story.
One of Orville’s co-workers, Milt, was known to be both tight-fisted and a bit greedy. One day, towards quitting time, Orville walked over to Milt, drew a circle about three feet in diameter around Milt, and said “Milt, I bet you a dollar you can’t stand in that circle for ten minutes.” Milt saw a chance to get an easy dollar, and readily agreed. Each man duly handed a dollar to a witness.
A minute or two later the whistle blew to signal the end of the shift. Orville bade Milt good night, and walked off, along with the fellow holding the money. Milt rushed off after them, shouting “Where are you going with my dollar?”, whereupon Orville pointed out that the ten minutes weren’t up, and Milt was outside the circle…
The next morning Orville showed up wearing a curious pendant on a string around his neck. It was a dollar bill framed in Plexiglass, with the caption “Milt’s Dollar”.
Orville passed away on July 27th, 1958, in New London, IA. He is buried in Burge Cemetery in New London.
Digging Deeper: The CB&Q and the West Burlington Shops
You can find a nice summary of the history of the Burlington Route here. The West Burlington shops closed in 2003, but there’s a virtual museum you can visit. If you check out photo gallery 25, picture 78, my brother Tony is standing in front of the big F in BNSF, between a man in blue bib overalls and a man in a white safety helmet.
Sherrey
Lots of railroad men in the family!
Walt
There sure are! Michelle and I chatted about that too, it may become the basis of a future post.
Marty Hoel
Milt’s dollar…
Marty here… Walt’s brother. Like Tony, our “big brother” (who was shorter than Walt and I), the Burlington-Northern West-Burlington shops employed me from 1978 thru 1981. I knew Milt, one of the “old-timers” when I was there. He was a decent guy.
One adjunct to the “Uncle Orville story”…
For years after the “Lost Dollar” story occurred, there would mysteriously appear, drawn onto the floor of the shop, a chalk circle with a pair of foot-prints in the middle! “No one” knew the origin of the chalk image. Yeah… right!
When I knew Milt, I was aware of the legacy… but I never brought up the incident to him. I figure that all of us are well-aware of our own embarrassing incidents in life… we haven’t forgotten them, and we don’t need to be reminded. RIP both Orville and Milt.