A Joint Project of the Sam Rayburn House Historic Site and the Fannin County Historical Commission
Celebrating America 250 with Spotlights of Fannin County Citizens Who Participated In or Witnessed Historical Events
Fannin County, Texas -- Walter Sidney Short was born September 19, 1882 in Oxford, Mississippi. By 1900, at age 13, he was living with his family in Dodd City. By 1910, at age 26, he was living in Oklahoma and was a railroad conductor.
During World War I Walter was living in Bonham where he enlisted and was sent to France as a member of the 66th Railroad Engineers, “where he was immediately placed in the train service, France and the Allies having taken over the French roads. He has often told how they ran in France - troop trains that hauled thousands and thousands of men and munitions and horses to the various fronts. ‘Theirs was not [to] ask the reason why,’ but to get the munitions of war to the place where they were needed at the earliest possible moment. Engines were sent from this country to Europe, and there set up on the French roads and worked unceasingly, all through the long struggle - Walter Short had charge of one of the trains as conductor. They were under military discipline, it was true, yet railroad orders had to be such that the train crews from America could at once interpret them, and expedite the work of getting the long freight trains, with their American box cars and flat cars, over the lines in the shortest time possible.” (Obituary from the Bonham Herald, May 22, 1939). Walter served in France for 14 months.
After the war Walter Short came back to Bonham where he worked for the Texas & Pacific Railroad.
He died May 20, 1939, being stricken just as he was getting ready to take out a local freight train from Sherman for Fort Worth. He was “called by the Great Superintendent to make his last run to that Terminal that has no junction points, no red boards to be turned, no trains to meet; the name of which is Eternity.” His funeral was widely attended and at his burial at Willow Wild Cemetery the Masonic Lodge conducted the burial ceremony and a number of the Legionaires attended the funeral.
“Among railroad circles, where he was best known, Mr. Short was loved and appreciated. He was considered one of Bonham's best citizens and his untimely and sudden passing was received with a shock here.” Obituary from the Bonham Daily Favorite, May 20, 1939.
