Gandy Dancers - Josephville, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 50.553 W 090° 47.762
15S E 691277 N 4301612
A Gandy Dancer is one who worked on the railroad repairing or installing tracks before the modern automated machines.
Waymark Code: WMTEDK
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 11/11/2016
Views: 1
County of memorial: St. Charles County
Location of memorial: 1390 Josephville Rd., St. Joseph Cemetery, Josephville
Memorial erected: 2013
Erected by St Joseph Parish
I grew up in a Gandy Dancer town, Jedburg, Missouri.
Most people today have no idea what a Gandy Dancer is. Well, he was a railroad worker. Who laid track, repaired track, etc...they rode to the work site on those little carts with sea-saw pump handles (called a Gandy) to create motion and move them along the track, and when they pumped, from a distance, they looked like they were dancing a demented dance....and were tagged Gandy Dancers
The town, Jedburg (post office Sherman) was on the Missouri Pacific Railroad line, and Mr. Goff, among others, told me the story of how they got their name in 1948.
"The Gandy Dancers were the poorest of the poor immigrants. The ones that are buried at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Josephville, Missouri were Irish immigrants. They worked on the railroad called the short-line, which ran from Wentzville to Hannibal and passed through the outskirts of Josephville. Their job was to make sure the railroad tracks were level. They used a long iron pole called a gandy and laid it across the tracks. Wherever it was not level workers would wedge the gandy under the track and lean into it or “dance” while others would shovel rocks, sand and dirt under the track while yet others would swing a pic to tamp it down tight. This was all done in tempo with a worker whose only job was to sing all day.
"The workers contracted and died with cholera, which is very contagious and there is no cure. No one in the neighboring towns would allow these men to be buried in their cemeteries, but St. Joseph’s Parish gave them a resting place.
"This all took place back in the late 1800's and St. Joseph's Church has been advised to never deeply disturb the ground where the Gandy Dancer’s rest because no one knows how long the cholera germ may live." ~ St. Jospeh Historical Web Page (see link below)