You are right... I need to go visit this lady if she is still alive and
find out just how she hand hewed the logs.  I am in an interesting
position because my father bought ties in Louisa, Ky....so he knows
exactly where she is likely to have taken her tie(s) to be sold.  I grew
up with the invoices and information between the loggers and the
railroad.  That is what my people did.  Thanks for your information.
Marsha in WV

Mike and Annette Poston wrote:

>In Minnesota and Montana, the act of hand hewing railroad ties was referred
>to as "hacking ties."  Generally, this involved using a broad-axe or an adze
>to flatten at least one side (usually two opposite sides) of a log.  Some
>men did it all with a regular two-bitted axe.  It would have been a rare
>woman, indeed, to do that work in the first half of the 20th century.
>Hacking generally required the woodsman to fell the timber first and then
>hack out the tie.  (It sounds a bit like the old recipe for hasenpfeffer,
>doesn't it?  First catch your rabbit....)
>
>Mike Poston
>Rockville, Maryland
>
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