Collected and posted by BILL
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OCONTO COUNTY
Wisconsin
Scenes from Oconto County Past.
Photographs, descriptions and history from the "old days."
How the very old city of Oconto got the nickname "Jab Switch"
Don't be caught asleep at the switch!
My understanding (from old stories) is that their were several
railroads that converged in the old City of Oconto. Some of these regularly
hauled logs in to the mills, others hauled cut lumber out to various
distribution centers in major cities such as Milwaukee and Chicago, there
were passenger trains in several directions, trains that hauled farming
products, trade good, factory goods, materials for making goods, coal for
factories and the railroad engines, salt for winter roads, live cattle and
fowl to stockyards and markets (no refrigeration), and more. Some trains to
be sent to sidetracks to wait to be loaded and unloading or for other trains
to pass in the opposite direction. It was a busy place and the tracks were
constantly being “switched” to route the trains in the right directions.
The poor souls who manned the switches carried “Jabbers”, which were
wooden or metal poles with a hook and heel on one end, to move/jab the
switches that moved the tracks to connect properly. They were given signals
from a person stationed in a tower overlooking the switches as to how to set
the switches, sometimes several at a time. The tower man would yell “Jab
Switch” down to the pole man on the ground to get his attention and then
signal which switchs to move to which tracks....usually in a hurry for the
next train was right behind the one he was switching. “Jab Switch” was
yelled so often, day and night, that it stuck as a city nickname. The pole
men were also responsible for shoveling snow around the actual switches and
the switch tracks they controlled. They did this at night by lantern as well
as daytime. Some of the old switches were locked with a sturdy key to keep
them from being thown when they were not supposed to be.
I have not seen this in writing, but it was passed down in the many generations of my pioneer family.
I have not seen this in writing, but it was passed down in the many generations of my pioneer family.
Rita – Oconto County WIGenWeb Coordinator
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