Herman "H. B." Earling (1862-1942) was an influential turn-of-the-century Pacific Northwest railroad man. An older brother, Adelbert "A. J." Earling, served as the president of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad – the Milwaukee Road – from 1900 to 1917, while H. B., 14 years younger than A. J., worked his way up the corporate ladder to become a railroad vice-president in 1913. H. B. moved to Seattle that year to serve as the Milwaukee Road's western representative, a post he held until his retirement in 1941. When he died the following year at age 79 he left behind a lasting legacy. The Earling brothers "became identified with the last great period of railroad construction in the West. Together their years of service with the Milwaukee Road totaled more than one hundred" ("H. B. Earling").
Many Boys
Herman B. Earling was born to German immigrant parents on October 30, 1862, "one of a family of fifteen boys who grew up in the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin. The Earlings were railroaders near the heyday of the American Railroad. In their case, the railroad was the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul (CM&SP), often called the Milwaukee Road ... these men were proud of their engineering feats and timely schedules, monitored by the round gold watches that all railroaders carried" ("Roy B. Earling"). In truth, there were "only" 10 Earling boys: Peter, Jacob, Adelbert, Fritz, Carl, Emil, Philip, Heinrich, Gunther, and Herman, the youngest of the 10.
Herman, known by most as H. B., was 12 years old when he first tinkered with a railroad telegraph instrument at the home of his brother Adelbert, who by then had advanced through several positions with the Milwaukee Road. H. B. was 17 when he followed his brother into the company. "H. B. Earling entered the service of the road in 1879 as an agent and operator. He was an assistant train dispatcher at 21, and continued to rise through the ranks until, in 1906, he was appointed assistant general superintendent for the railroad at Minneapolis" ("H. B. Earling"). "I was always willing to work," Earling recalled, "and to do well the things I was required to do ... During this time, I was gaining a vast experience in all matters appertaining to the physical operation of the eastern part of the lines" ("My Luckiest ...").
In 1886, H. B. married Edna Brown (1863-1939), a Wisconsin native and part of a "politically connected American family that was proud of its pre-revolutionary war status. Symbolically, Edna's father was named George Washington Brown" ("Roy B. Earling"). Decades later, Edna would tell her granddaughters that when she and H. B. were first married, "they had a telegraph key in their bedroom, which clicked at night. When H. B.'s code name came over the wire, he would wake from a sound sleep to answer it" (Roy Earling, 13). The couple welcomed their first child, Roy, in 1887. A second son, Everett, was born in 1893.
Following his stint in Minneapolis, Earling moved to Miles City, Montana, in 1907 to be general superintendent of the Milwaukee Road's ongoing westward expansion to Puget Sound. In 1909, with the expansion complete, he was transferred to Chicago. Less than four years later, after two more promotions, he moved permanently to Seattle.
The Road West
The Milwaukee Road's westward expansion connected the line from the middle of South Dakota to Seattle and Tacoma.
"The CM&SP started expanding the line west in 1906, working in both directions from multiple locations, buying or leasing tracks from local railroad companies or laying new track of its own. The result was a 2,200-mile route (measured from Chicago) to Tacoma, with a branch to Seattle splitting off at Black River Junction. The rails crossed five mountain ranges – the Saddles, Belts, Rockies, Bitter Roots, and Cascades – and required 52 tunnels and a far greater number of bridges and trestles" ("Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railway inaugurates ...").
Among his duties directing the westward expansion, Earling oversaw several engineering feats in Washington. Family members recall that he was especially proud of the Beverly Bridge over the Columbia River eight miles south of Vantage. The bridge, nearly 3,000 feet long with a through-truss 85 feet above the river, was completed in 1909. In 1982, after decades of service, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1915, by then stationed in Seattle, Earling oversaw construction of a tunnel under Snoqualmie Pass that stretched more than two miles, eliminating some of the steepest and most perilous grades on the "high line" and shortening the route to Seattle by four miles.
On March 29, 1909, workers laid the final rail in Washington at Snoqualmie Pass, just in time for the Milwaukee Road to carry passengers to Seattle for the opening of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. In May 1911 the Milwaukee Road started carrying passengers the entire distance from Chicago to Tacoma and Seattle on its new, all-steel Olympian and Columbian trains. In his 1948 book The Milwaukee Road: Its First Hundred Years, August Derleth writes that the western lines were an immediate success:
"In only a short time, when full operation of the west-coast line began, the Milwaukee Road had become ... 'the Northwest passage,' for it was hauling raw silk, wood, oil, tea, cotton, porcelain, and wool from China or Japan; pelts from Siberia; and hemp and coconut oil from the Philippines, in addition to the varied products of the great northwest – all kinds of finished lumber, crude oil, grain, wool, livestock, zinc, fish, agricultural products, wood pulp, paper, posts, piling, manganese, copper, copper products – the traffic the far-sighted officials of the Milwaukee Road had foreseen when they made the historic decision to reach westward to the Pacific" (Derletch, 195).
Busy in Seattle
The death of Milwaukee Road executive Roswell Miller in January 1913 precipitated Earling's move to Seattle. In the company reorganization following Miller's death, H. R. Williams, in charge of the Puget Sound division of the road, was tapped to replace Miller on the executive committee in New York. At a momentous board meeting, Earling was promoted to vice president and selected to fill Williams's position in Seattle. His arrival in February was noted in The Seattle Times, which characterized Earling as "one of the best known operating men in railroad work in the United States ... According to railroad men, no railway official of the West is better posted concerning the states of the Pacific Northwest and of the Mississippi Valley than is he" ("H. B. Earling is Well Known ...").
Earling dove headfirst into his new assignment. In 1914 the Milwaukee Road added 500 new freight cars to its western fleet and announced plans for a new passenger service between Seattle and Spokane on The Cascadian, to begin upon completion of a Spokane branch line in the summer of 1915. "This train will leave each of the two terminals at night and will be made up of the most modern all-steel equipment that can be obtained" ("Milwaukee Will Order ..."). Further expanding its reach, the Milwaukee Road leased rail lines from existing regional operators to provide access to Grays Harbor County and Mount Rainier National Park.
To support the railroad's marine operation on the Tacoma waterfront, construction crews completed Milwaukee Dock No. 1 in 1913, followed by Milwaukee Dock No. 2 early in World War I. A fleet of barges was acquired to transport rail cars on Puget Sound from Tacoma and Seattle to port cities such as Bellingham and Port Townsend. In 1913 the railroad christened the tugboat Milwaukee, said to be the finest tug on the West Coast. By 1915 the the company had obtained a lease for Seattle's Pier 6 (now Pier 57) to go with its existing dock on the East Waterway.
In the 1920s, Earling helped direct the electrification of a substantial portion of the Milwaukee Road, including 216 miles in Washington between Othello and Tacoma. Instead of burning coal or oil, new locomotives could run on power distributed over a catenary trolley system suspended about 20 feet above the running rails.
"Electrification entailed considerable up-front expense but saved money in the long run by using plentiful and cheap hydropower generated from rivers along the way and distributed through railroad-built substations. It also protected passengers from the not-insignificant risk of tunnel asphyxiation from the smoke and exhaust of steam and diesel engines. Eventually, a total of 656 miles, more than a quarter of the Milwaukee Road's route west, would be electrified ... Combined, it was the longest stretch of electrified train service in the world" ("Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railway inaugurates ...").
Earling routinely worked six days a week, yet he and Edna found ample time for leisure. They were named often in newspaper society columns – hosting dinners at the Rainier Club, celebrating Christmas at the Sunset Club, enjoying plays at the Century Theater, and so on. Meanwhile their sons, Roy and Everett, went off on their own adventures. Roy studied at the Michigan School of Mines, became a renowned mining engineer in Arizona and Alaska, and retired in 1952 to a home on Bainbridge Island. He died in 1964. Everett graduated from Yale University and spent much of his adulthood living a life of leisure in Europe. He died in Chur, Switzerland, in 1965.
Money Man
A few years after Earling's arrival in Seattle, a Seattle Star reporter dropped by his office. The reporter was trying to answer the question, "Who's the highest salaried man in town?" In his research "several men declared that H. B. Earling, head of the Puget Sound lines of the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound railroad was the guilty party. The Star man hurried to Earling's sanctum in the White building. It was mid-afternoon. Mr. Earling was very busy, the outer guard informed the reporter. Was there anything he could do? The reporter stated his mission and the outer guard smiled. 'I do not know how much he gets, and I wouldn't advise you to ask him, for, as you see, it is six stories up here, and Mr. Earling is very muscular'" ("Who's the Highest Salaried ...").
Ushered into Earling's office, the reporter "found a pleasant-faced man, eyes twinkling behind spectacles, touches of gray here and there in his hair, seated behind a flat-topped desk in a spacious, sunny office. He was pulling on a very fat cigar, and, with a friendly nod, bade the reporter be seated" ("Who's the Highest Salaried ..."). Their conversation touched on topics other than Earling's salary. Earling lamented that laws regulating railroads were becoming "more and more stringent, and the business of operating is in consequence becoming more and more complicated ... We can't make any move without consulting the legal department." Circling back to his salary – estimated by the Star to be $80 a day – Earling "paused again and blew a fragrant cloud towards the seventh story. 'No, I don't find my salary too much'," he said ("Who's the Highest Salaried ...").
Highs and Lows
Earling was often reminded that running the Milwaukee Road was fraught with financial peril.
"Technological marvels, the lines were never successful, and were a major contributor to a bankruptcy in 1925. In 1928 the Road reorganized as the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific. It was bankrupt again in 1935 and 1945 ... Despite its financial difficulties, the Milwaukee was innovative. It pioneered long-distance electrification, construction of all-welded freight and passenger cars, and operation of high-speed intercity passenger trains. (The steam-powered Hiawatha commonly ran over 100 mph.) The road employed thousands and touched millions during its operation" ("Milwaukee Road History").
The Great Depression hit hard. By the end of 1930, the Milwaukee Road's net operating income had plunged 39 percent since the 1929 stock market crash. In January 1932, with the country and the railroad still reeling, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published a hopeful story written by Earling:
"Railroads must spend considerable money even in periods of depression," he wrote. "Certain capital expenditures must be met, and track, bridges and equipment must be kept up to their usual high standards of safety so that passengers and freight may be transported safely and expeditiously. During the coming year the Milwaukee will make purchases of material and supplies of products of the state of Washington totaling about two and half millions of dollars, and has budgeted for expenditures in the state [of] approximately five and a half millions of dollars" ("Wheat Swells Rail Receipts").
Nonetheless, the Milwaukee Road was soon bankrupt, but it rallied again before World War II. During "Railroad Week" in Seattle in June 1935, Earling spoke of progress:
"There have been wonderful developments in railroad transportation since I first knew it ... I am proud to say that the western railroads of the country are not only keeping pace with the modern developments in transportation, but they are pioneering many new improvements. Streamlined trains, air conditioning of all passenger cars, and electrifying roadways are only a few of the improvements to be found on our western railways. We are up to the East in all other new refinements and luxuries of travel" ("Old Jobs Lure ...").
A particular high point came in 1937 when the railroad developed the Milwaukee Bowl ski area at Snoqualmie Pass and promoted its rail service to the mountain using the catch phrase "Let the Engineer Do the Driving":
"The ski bowl, a glacier-formed valley, was a set of five ski runs located on Milwaukee property at the top of the pass between the east entrance of the Snoqualmie tunnel and Hyak. The runs were named for Milwaukee's best known trains: the Hiawatha, Chippewa, Arrow, Pioneer, and Olympian. Trains ran on a two-hour schedule every Saturday and Sunday, leaving from Union Station in Seattle. The recreation package was more popular than the company expected. Daily use exceeded 1,000 passengers, and the Milwaukee brought in extra coaches" ("Milwaukee Ski Bowl").
In May 1941, in one of his last official acts before announcing his retirement, Earling negotiated with the City of Seattle on behalf of all the railroads serving the city to contribute $250,000 toward construction of the elevated Spokane Street Viaduct, securing unimpeded access for the many rail lines entering the city from the south.
A Late Retirement
Edna Earling died at the couple's Capitol Hill home on November 4, 1939. She was remembered by her granddaughters as "a small, quiet woman who loved her family, a beautiful home, exquisite furnishings and clothing ... The family remembers that H. B. missed her sorely" (Allen, 16). At the time, H. B. was 76; he was 78 when he retired in June 1941. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer made note of the occasion under the headline "He Earns a Rest," noting that Earling had worked for the Milwaukee Road for more than six decades and witnessed revolutionary changes in the transportation industry – first the automobile, then the airplane:
"It's a long hop over sixty-two years from the squat, bulbous-funneled locomotives of 1879 to the silver-winged Alaska Clipper of today. But Herman B. Earling, retiring Western representative of the Milwaukee Road, will take the step all in his stride. After the greater part of a lifetime riding steel, he is forsaking that time-honored mode of transportation for one undreamed of when he started his long career with the road as a telegrapher ... Earling, now silver-haired and slight, will close up his desk for the last time. That afternoon he will step aboard a trim Lockheed plane and only a few hours later will be in Fairbanks, Alaska. This, his retirement and his first airplane trip, ends sixty-two years continuous service with the Milwaukee" ("He Earns a Rest").
Whatever joy Earling may have taken from retirement was brief. He fell ill during a golf outing in British Columbia, contracted pneumonia, and died at Providence Hospital in Seattle on August 17, 1942, two months shy of his 80th birthday. His obituary in the Milwaukee Road's in-house magazine detailed his railroading career and his contributions in Seattle:
"Widely known and held in affectionate esteem as the dean of western railroad men, Mr. Earling was active in civic affairs in Seattle throughout his 29 years in residence there. In recognition of his services to that city, he was elected an honorary life member of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce at the time of his retirement from active business life. He was a member of the Masonic Order, the Rainier Club, Seattle Golf and Country Club, Athletic Club, and University Club. The memory of H. B. Earling will long endure in the hearts of the people of this railroad" ("H. B. Earling").
Surviving H. B. were his two sons, Everett and Roy. They split an estate valued at $60,000 (nearly $1.2 million in 2024 dollars). Two years after Earling's death, his granddaughter Mary Lou Earling (Roy's daughter) married Jim Ellis (1921-2019), who had recently graduated from Yale and was serving in the U.S. Air Force. Ellis would become a Seattle bond attorney and revered civic leader best remembered for his efforts to clean up Lake Washington, create Metro, build Freeway Park, and protect the Mountains to Sound Greenway. As for H. B., The Seattle Times saluted him as "all that a good railroad man should be; a stout-hearted, public-spirited citizen, and a kindly friend" ("Editorial").
