Doyle, Thomas F., writer on religion

Thomas F. Doyle was born ca.1869, perhaps in Canada. He arrived in the United States in the late 1880s or early 1890s, and was employed on the Grand Trunk Railway in Michigan at the time he joined the ORT on November 18, 1890. He came to the Lake Superior Division of the Northern Pacific in December 1890; much of his service with that carrier was on its Lake Superior and Minnesota Divisions, although he did work for part of a year on its Rocky Mountain Division. Doyle was one of the charter members of ORT Northern Pacific System Division No. 54, which was based in St. Paul and which received its charter on August 25, 1899. He resigned from the Northern Pacific on July 31, 1903, and went to work for the Soo Line railroad on August 28, 1903 as an agent at Maple Lake [Minnesota?]. He remained in that position until retiring on September 14, 1934. As a Soo employee he was a member of ORT Division No. 73.

The Order of Railroad Telegraphers (ORT) began in 1886 as a fraternal organization calling itself the Order of Railway Telegraphers of North America. In 1891 it reorganized as a protective union, and changed its name to the Order of Railroad Telegraphers of North America. Among other duties the telegraphers were responsible for the transmission of train movement orders.

The basic structural unit of the ORT was the subordinate (system) division, each of which included all of the Order's members employed on a given railroad system. Subordinate divisions were further divided into districts of about 100 members. Ultimate authority was vested in the Grand Division (international organization), which was elected by the subordinate divisions.

The name of the ORT was changed around 1965 to Transportation-Communication Employees Union (TCU), and in 1969 the TCU was absorbed by the Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees (BRAC). BRAC became the Transportation Communications International Union (TCIU) in 1987.

From the guide to the Miscellaneous papers relating to the Order of Railroad Telegraphers., 1883-1956., (Minnesota Historical Society)