Grandson of last ticket agent remembers Aiken’s railroad past

[NS Newsfeed]

The Aiken (S.C.) Standard, September 12, 2015



Grandson of last ticket agent remembers Aiken's railroad past



By Larry Wood



Playing tennis with Fred Astaire and receiving a $500 tip from a grateful passenger are just two stories Carl Ardrey recounted about his grandfather, the late Frank E. Ardrey, who was the ticket agent at the Aiken railroad depot during the city's golden age as a winter resort.



Ardrey, a third-generation railroad man who is a trainmaster supervising the departure and arrival of trains for Norfolk Southern, spoke Thursday evening at the fifth-anniversary celebration of the rebuilt depot, which is home to the Aiken Visitors Center and Train Museum on Park Avenue.



His grandfather was the last ticket master at the depot from 1922 to 1954. During that time, he began professional acquaintances with some of Aiken's most famous Winter Colony residents. Most were wealthy businessmen and socialites from the North who came to Aiken for equestrian and other sports from mid-fall to early spring.



Ardrey, who lives in Florence, Alabama, said the inspiration for his presentation began when he and his son, Thomas, stopped overnight in Aiken during a Civil War battlefield tour. They visited his grandparents' former house on Newberry Street and saw a sign in front indicating it was the station master's cottage.



"We thought that was pretty cool and gave me an idea of what a big deal he was here," Ardrey said. "This town meant a lot to him, too."



In addition to playing tennis with Astaire, Ardrey said his grandfather had keys to many of the private clay courts at Winter Colony estates.



When the millionaires, as the late Ardrey called the Winter Colony residents, weren't in town, he kept up their courts, his grandson said.



Ardrey said his grandfather received the $500 tip in a letter dated June 1930 from George Galt Bourne, son of the president of Singer Sewing Machine.



Hearing that the late Ardrey was planning a vacation, Bourne wrote: "I herewith enclose my check for $500, which I hope will come in handy and help you to enjoy yourself."



"It would help me," said his grandson, drawing a laugh from the audience, who added that in 1930 his grandfather made about $100 a month.



To end his presentation, Ardrey showed an image of a canceled check for $700 written on the Farmers and Merchants Bank to Lucy Rutherfurd, another Aiken winter resident known for her relationship with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.



Ardrey said his son has a Steinway baby grand piano with ivory keys that has been valued at $80,000 that his grandfather had bought at an estate sale in Aiken.



"I was reading a book a few years ago about Roosevelt's funeral train and told my dad about how Lucy Rutherfurd was with the president in Warm Springs, Georgia, when he died and had to drive back to Aiken before the public found out," Ardrey said. "My dad said, 'Yeah, that's where the piano came from.' That's the canceled check in his scrapbook."