This man’s obituary revived a few memories

Published 9:17 am Friday, June 6, 2008

One of my daily duties here at the Tribune involves proofreading. On May 14 I was looking over Page 3. This is the page with the obituaries and other items of interest to our readers. One of the obituaries on this particular day was for a person named Roland Peek. There was something familiar with this name, but I didn’t really make the connection until the next day.

The following day I happened to scan through the Minneapolis newspaper. On page B12 I found a special article about Roland Peek under the heading of “News Obituaries.” All of sudden I made the connection between his name, a farm near Freeborn, a railroad once called the “Bug Line,” and three of my columns published last year.

I should add right here that “News Obituaries” is a fairly new part of the Minneapolis newspaper. Each one is more like an article or special eulogy and features a person who merits extra attention. This was certainly justified for Roland Peek. He was the retired chief psychologist for the state who did so much during his lifetime to get better and more humane treatment for mental patients.

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My connection with Roland came in early January 2007 when he sent me a chapter from his 2001 self-published book, “Bittersweet Chronicles: A Farm Boy Remembers.”

Roland grew up on a farm owned by his father, Charles Peek, which was located in the northeast corner of Carlston Township and about two miles southeast of Freeborn near County Road 29.

The Peek farm was intersected by the tracks of a railroad folks called the Bug Line. He wrote, “The daily passage of the train was part of my childhood memories.”

This Bug Line was part of the railroad system, constructed in 1907, and originally known as “The Alphabet Line.” It went from north of Graceland Cemetery to Freeborn, Matawan, Waldorf, Pemberton, a place once known as Cream, and ended in St. Clair. The original intention was to have this railroad branch line become a link between Albert Lea and Mankato, but that never became a reality. In 1910 the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad took over the Bug Line and used it as an agricultural feeder operation. The Bug Line ceased operations in 1973.

The chapter from Roland’s book was published with his permission in these columns on Jan, 26, Feb. 2 and Feb. 9, 2007.

One of his boyhood memories was based on placing various objects on the tracks for the train’s wheels to run over to see what weird shapes evolved. He mentioned pins, tacks and nails. There was an implication that penny coins would have been interesting objects as well. However, this was during the Depression era and kids could spend those pennies for something interesting to eat, like candy.

I’m not sure where Roland went to high school, but I have a hunch it was Freeborn. His obituary confirmed that he attended Albert Lea Junior College and graduated in 1942. Then he became a member of the U.S. Army during World War II.

During all the years of living near those railroad tracks he had never ridden on one of those trains. However, Roland’s chapter published in two of these columns confirmed that he rode on the Bug Line twice when he came back to Albert Lea on military furloughs.

By the 1940s, the Bug Line had ceased passenger service. Yet, the engineer let Roland ride in the engine’s cab the first time as a guest, and in the caboose at the end of the freight train the second time. On both occasions, months apart, the engineer stopped at the crossing near the Peek family farm so Roland could walk home and surprise his parents.

It’s contributions like this that have helped to make these columns something worth creating.

Ed Shannon’s columns have been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.