From the Morgue: The death of Cape's other railroad magnate

The month after Cape Girardeau’s own railroad builder — Louis Houck — passed away, residents here received word of the death of another entrepreneur who helped establish reliable train service in Southeast Missouri.

Newman Erb, a friend of the Houck family, passed away March 25, 1925, in New York at the age of 74. He was born in Germany, the son of Adolphus L. and Esther Peck Erb. According to “Goodspeed’s History of Tennessee” (1886-87), the Erb family came to the United States in about 1852 and “were among the first settlers in the State of Kansas."

Newman Erb was schooled in St. Louis and studied to be a lawyer. But before he was admitted to the bar, he spent some time as a merchant in St. Louis. After being admitted to the bar in 1872, Erb practiced his profession in Little Rock, Arkansas.

In 1881, according to Goodspeed, Erb became a director of the Kansas City, Springfield & Memphis Railroad, and his life as a railroad builder began.

Newman Erb married twice. His first wife was Theresa Levy, and they were wed Feb. 11, 1875, in Pulaski County, Arkansas. They had two daughters: Fannie and Edna.

By the 1900 census, the family was living in Manhattan. Fannie and her husband, Irving M. Dittenhoefer, resided with her family, as did a cook, a waitress and two servants, all female. Curiously, Newman and Theresa both listed their occupations as “lawyer”.

Theresa died Sept. 25, 1904, as the result of injuries sustained in a train accident. She and Newman were traveling in their private Pullman sleeper car on the New York Central line to St. Louis for the World’s Fair. At Lyons, New York, the last three cars of the train derailed, the cars being thrown onto the eastbound track, where they were struck by a freight train. While Theresa sustained fatal injuries, Newman’s injuries weren’t serious.

Newman is listed as a widower on the 1910 census. His household then included daughter Edna and her husband, Jesse Mayer, and their two children, ages 5 years and 4 months. Their needs were seen to by a staff of four women and one man, listed variously as cook, waitress, chamber maid, governess and “useful man”. The latter occupation is one I’ve never seen before on a census document.

Newman Erb may have downsized by the time of his death in 1925, as stories from that time say he was residing in an apartment house at 140 W. 58th St. in New York.

Here’s how the Southeast Missourian reported on Erb’s death — and his life in Cape Girardeau — on the front page of the March 25, 1925, edition:

Railroad builder who worked here dies in the East

NEW YORK – Newman Erb, president of the Ann Arbor Railroad, former vice president of the Pere Marquette Railroad and identified with nearly a dozen other lines, died early today at Roosevelt Hospital in his 75th year following an operation.

Erb underwent an operation for glandular trouble.

Erb was born in Breslau, Germany, but came to this country with his parents at the age of 3. As a young man he practiced law in Little Rock, Arkansas, but gave this up in 1881 to devote his time to railroad activity.

Five years later, without relinquishing his railroad interests, Erb organized the Western Telegraph Co., later merged with the Western Union.

* * *

Newman Erb, railroad magnate, who died today in New York, was known intimately to many of the older residents of Cape Girardeau as the builder of what is now the Frisco Railroad from St. Marys to Cape Girardeau, and as the receiver of a number of railroads which had been built in this section prior to that time.

During the time that the line from St. Marys to Cape Girardeau — linking this city with St. Louis — was built from 1900 to 1904, Erb made his headquarters in Cape Girardeau and maintained offices in the Houck building at the corner of Spanish and Independence streets.

He succeeded the late Louis Houck as head of the railroad system built by Mr. Houck, Erb being appointed receiver of the lines. The line between here and St. Marys was built by him under contract from the Frisco and was completed in 1904.

He left here after the completion of the road to go to Milwaukee, where he took charge of the Pere Marquette system.

Shrewd methods

Cape Girardeau citizens who had known Erb here today recalled his shrewd business methods, which were largely responsible for his remarkable advancement.

When he came here he took over the local division of the railroads then operated by Mr. Houck. He assumed active charge of all operations, in a few weeks, weeded out those employees who to him seemed inefficient, and showed his executive ability in many ways.

Erb was here when the first Frisco train ran between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau and authorized the erection of the old passenger station here.

W.H. Bohnsack, Main Street merchant, recalled that Erb, previous to the building of the old station, one afternoon was standing at the corner of Main and Independence streets talking to his attorney, the late Frank Burrough, and an employee.

Site for depot

“There’s where we will build the depot,” Erb said, indicating a point where the present station now stands. (Now the site of the South Main Street parking lot, across from Big Sandy Superstore. — Sharon)

Burrough, however, protested that the depot would have to be erected at the foot of Broadway to pacify property owners there whose permits were needed for the right-of-way. Erb yielded, finally, but always contended that the present location of the station was the best one.

Edward F. Blomeyer, another former Cape Girardean, who is now engaged in railroad work at Toledo, Ohio, was one of Erb’s “right hand men,” and left here with him when Erb went to Milwaukee to take a place with the Pere Marquette.

A message of sympathy to members of the Houck family, following the death several weeks ago of Mr. Houck, was received from Mr. Erb. He was always a close friend of the Houck family and a great admirer of Mr. Houck.

Joseph Goldbaum, a nephew of Mr. Erb, moved to Cape Girardeau about the time Erb came here, and was married while here to Antonio Astholz, a daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. H.A. Astholz. They now live in Toledo, and Goldbaum is expected to be one of the heirs of the estate.

Giboney Houck and Mrs. Astholz today received messages announcing Mr. Erb’s death.

Several days after that article was published, the Missourian carried a second story containing the startling information that Erb, a widower since 1904, had secretly married in May 1924.

Published March 28, 1925, in the Southeast Missourian:

Erb married a second time

NEW YORK – Newman Erb, 75-year-old financier and railroad man, who died Wednesday, was generally supposed to have been a widower 21 years, or since his wife died in 1904 of injuries received in a railroad wreck.

Yesterday it was learned that he married again, last May, and that the second Mrs. Erb was at his beside when he died.

His daughters, Mrs. Irving Dittenhoefer and Mrs. Jesse Mayer, knew nothing of their father’s second marriage until the day before he died. Last night Mrs. Dittenhoefer said they were still uninformed of the details, merely having learned their father had married.

Erb lived in an apartment house at No. 140 W. 58th St. Inquiry there brought the information that Mrs. Erb and her sister, Miss Catherine Trodden, occupied an apartment across the hall from Mr. Erb. The attendants at the apartment house learned of the marriage when Erb was taken to the hospital. Mrs. Erb was described as a woman in (her) 30s.

The telephone to the Trodden apartment was answered by a woman who said she was Mrs. Erb’s sister. She said her sister and Erb were married last May. She refused to state where the ceremony was performed or where she and her sister formerly lived. Mrs. Erb’s name before her marriage was Martha Trodden. The city directory gives Mrs. M. Trodden as living at No. 140 W. 58th St.

The funeral of Erb was held yesterday and burial will be in Salem Fields Cemetery, Brooklyn.

Newman Erb and his first wife, Theresa, were buried at Salem Fields Cemetery in Brooklyn, while the second Mrs. Erb — Martha Trodden Erb — was interred at the First Presbyterian Church of Port Kennedy Churchyard at King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. She passed away July 17, 1934, at the age of 54.

Sharon Sanders is the librarian at the Southeast Missourian.