Story: Boiled Eggs Anger Railroad Workers; Cooks Are Attacked - 1953

Escanaba Daily Press, October 21, 1953

MANISTIQUE - Two workers in a DSS&A extra gang near Creighton who attacked the cook and cookie in a railroad kitchen car Tuesday morning because they wanted "fried eggs, not boiled eggs," were arraigned in Manistique Justice Court Tuesday afternoon on charges of assault and battery.

One of the men, Ubie G. Wills of Saginaw, entered a plea of guilty before Probate Judge John S. Faketty, acting justice of the peace in the absence of Victor P. Deemer, and was sentenced to 20 days in jail.

The other, John A. Smith of Germfask, pleaded not guilty and will be heard in justice court Tuesday October 27. He is being held in jail after failing to post bond of $200.

The men were apprehended in Marquette by Michigan State Police, at the request of Sheriff John M. Hewitt of Manistique, who ordered the men held via state police radio. They were arrested at the payroll offices of the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic railway.

Complaint in the cases was made by Allen Paulson, 36, of Duluth, cookie for the railroad gang, Paulson told investigating officers he attempted to stop the men when they attacked the railroad cook, Wesley Thorpe, 52, also of Duluth.

Smith and Willis, Paulson reported,, came into the railroad dining car, looked at the plates and declared they wanted "fried eggs, not boiled eggs." They then went out to the railroad cook's car and attacked Thorpe, who wears a hearing aid. When Paulson attempted to intervene, the men hit him with a flashlight, Paulson reported.

The railroad cook suffered an ear injury and his cookie a head cut. Both required medical treatment in Manistique. They are employees of the Addison-Miller Company of St. Paul. which supplies food to railroad gangs.

Smith and Wills are members of a 14-man crew repairing railroad track near Creighton. Previously they had been at Shingleton, Paulson said.