OBIT: David Tate CRAMER, 1917, native of Blair County, PA

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Hollidaysburg.

D. T. Cramer.

  David T. Cramer, of Mifflin, died at his home yesterday noon after a 
brief illness.  Mr. Cramer was advanced in years and contracted a heavy 
cold, later developing a siege of grip which proved fatal.  Mr. Cramer 
was born April 15, 1836, and would have been 81 years of age on his 
next birthday.  He was the youngest son of Daniel and Mary Cramer, and 
came to Hollidaysburg with his parents in April, 1840.  He was married 
to Katherine Sanderson in Conemaugh in 1853.  His wife preceded him to 
the grave several years ago.  All the Cramer family were well known 
railroaders in this section, the deceased being the last of the family.  
Five sons and two daughters survive him: Mrs. John Wissinger, of 514 N. 
Penn street, is a daughter; James M. (Jim) Cramer, late candidate on 
the Democratic ticket for state treasurer, is a son.  A number of 
relatives reside in Hollidaysburg and Altoona.  Mr. Cramer will be 
remembered by the older residents of town.

Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Tuesday Morning, January 30, 1917

DAVID TATE CREAMER IS DEAD AT MIFFLIN
Veteran of War and Railroad Service Was Well Known in Blair County

  Mifflin, February 2. - The funeral of David Tate Cramer, which took 
place here yesterday, was largely attended by railroad men, many of 
whom had grown gray in the service.  The deceased was probably the 
oldest of the railroad men, both in age and point of service, in this 
section of the state, he having been born April 15, 1836, at Sarah 
Furnace, Blair county, a son of Daniel F. and Mary (Anderson) Cramer.  
As a mere boy he accepted a position driving mule team on the 
Pennsylvania canal between Hollidaysburg and Columbia, Pa., resigning 
at the age of 16 to accept a position as brakeman on the Pennsylvania 
railroad, and was one of the few survivors of the Old Portage branch, 
over which the canal boats were hauled in sections.  One promotion 
followed another until he was made foreman of the Mifflin coal wharves 
and the grooming of locomotives at that point, where he remained until 
eleven years ago, when he reached the age for retirement under the 
pension plan.
  Mr. Cramer was a veteran canal boatman, a veteran railroader and a 
veteran of the Civil war, receiving three separate pensions at the time 
of his death - one each from the United States government, the 
Pennsylvania Railroad company and the Carnegie commission.  As a 
soldier he enlisted in company D, Twenty-third Pennsylvania militia, 
serving only a short time; later he enlisted in company D, One Hundred 
and Ninety-second Pennsylvania volunteers, and was mustered out at the 
close of the war at Harpers Ferry, Va.
  It was in the pioneer days of railroading that he became associated 
with Andrew Carnegie, who was then superintendent of the Pittsburg 
division, and all through his life was an ardent admirer of the little 
Scot.  Long after he had ceased to dream of his idol of boyhood days, 
Mr. Cramer received a letter one morning which enclosed a substantial 
check and a letter which informed him that he would receive a pension 
from the Carnegie fund as long as he lived and begging him to accept it 
in the spirit it was sent, "for the sake of auld lang syne from one who 
had been just a little bit more successful financially than himself."
  Mr. Cramer enjoyed the pension for fifteen years, and while not an 
actual necessity, it did much to make his declining years more 
comfortable.
  In the early days of the railroad Mr. Cramer became associated with 
Thomas Scott, James McCrea, Samuel Black and many others of the old 
school and was blessed with a fund of reminiscences of the one-track 
system and wood burners, with which he loved to regale the "kids," and 
indeed the boys a little older grown in the service!
  David Cramer comes from an illustrious family who followed the 
fortunes of the rail, the son of an early brick manufacturer, and one 
of six boys, all of whom made their way to positions of responsibility 
- James and William, both holding lucrative positions in the service in 
the Altoona yards at the time of their retirement; Daniel, who was crew 
and train dispatcher at Mifflin for many years; Wilson D. Cramer, local 
freight train master, with charge of the entire freight movement over 
the Middle division and headquarters at Mifflin; George Cramer, at one 
time superintendent of the Philadelphia Terminal division and for many 
years the librarian at Broad Street station.  Their services aggregates 
265 years, with a progeny of direct descendants that aggregated a 
service record of more than 600 years.  It is little wonder that Frank 
Ellmaker, as superintendent of the Middle division, once asked the 
question if the Middle division was owned and operated by the Cramer 
family.
  Mr. Cramer was 81 years old at the time of his death, which occurred 
last Monday afternoon, after an illness of only eight days from an 
attack of the grip.  The Pennsylvania Railroad Veterans Employes' 
association was one of his hobbies and he took great interest in its 
organization and advancement.

Altoona Tribune, Altoona, Pa., Saturday Morning, February 3, 1917