Pullman Employee Cards

 

Pullman Private Car

Pullman Employee Records

I found the Pullman employee cards, bottom of post, for my family at Familysearch.org. The digitized collection is called "Employee records, ca. 1900-1949" (be sure to sign-in to your free account to see the unlocked records at FamilySearch).

The full employee files are not online and are held by the South Suburban Genealogical & Historical Society, South Holland, Illinois. This collection at the historical society is called the "Pullman Car Works Collection", and can only be searched by society staff members. You can request a search of these records at their website.

Types of information on the cards include nationality, race, and date of birth. The cards also give you an idea of when the person worked at Pullman. It's interesting to see how the employees were contracted to work on certain projects as recorded by dates hired and dates dropped. Employment wasn't guaranteed because of that. They could be laid off if there were no orders for them to work on. Since my great-grandfather began working for Pullman in 1910, and built up seniority, he worked steadily for them until his death in 1937. 

Since Frank Kappel worked for the company for so long I found more information recorded about him on these cards. For instance I didn't know Frank worked for the Standard Steel Car Company in Hammond, Indiana before working for Pullman. I also discovered he lived in a Pullman building when he started working for them. He lived in Pullman Block F. After his large family joined him he would have had to find a house to rent. 

Additional information for Frank Kappel appeared on a service form card when he first began working at Pullman. These forms were older than the employee index cards; they date from about 1900 to 1914. The forms include such information as sex, age, country of birth (may include countries of birth of parents, but not in my case), years in US, Naturalization information, marital status, number of dependents, last employer, and whether any relatives work for the company. There was also a section with information furnished to the Immigration Commission regarding their occupation before coming to the US, information about family, and language skills of immigrants.

 

Frank's last name is recorded as Keppel, likely because he entered the country under that name. 

My grandfather Rudolph Kapple (another surname spelling change) worked on and off for Pullman. He didn't have the seniority his father did and was laid off during the depression. He along with my grandmother Dorothy Mason-Kapple worked for Pullman during WWII when there was a labor shortage and workers laid off during the Great Depression were rehired. 

Family employee cards

Employee card for my great-grandfather Frank Kappel who began working for Pullman in 1910. 

 

My great-grandmother Mary Kappel's Employment card. 

 

My great-uncle Stephen Kappel's employment card.

 

My paternal grandfather Rudolph Kapple's employment card. During WWII Pullman also made other war related products such as aircraft. My grandfather worked in the aircraft division during WWII.

 

 

 My great-uncle Joseph Kappel's employment card

 

 

 

 My paternal grandmother Dorothy Mason-Kapple's employee card

 

 

My great-great uncle Frank Kurta's employee card. 

 

My great-great uncle Herman Kurta's employee card. 

I requested a search for additional information from the historical society. I haven't received anything yet, and may not receive anything for a long time due to the COVID shutdown.