Frederick William Heilich Sr CRR of NJ Engineer

Fred Heilich
Dec 19, 2024
2 min read

William Frederick Heilig emigrated to the US from Germany as a young boy with his family and settled in Weatherly, PA. He served with the US Army during the Spanish-American War. In 1901 he hired on as a fireman on the Central Railroad of New Jersey. He was promoted to engineer on Feb 5, 1907. He settled in Dunellen, NJ running out of the Dunellen yard. He changed his name to Frederick William to avoid confusion with a cousin who lived in Elizabeth, NJ with the same name. In the 1911 timeframe, he changed the spelling of his last name from Heilig to Heilich but it was never an official change. It was still pronounced the same. He did this as Germany was rattling its sword pre-WWI, and it wasn't popular at the time to have a German name on the East Coast. All of his railroad information and CRR of NJ associates still retained and used William Frederick Heilig until he retired. He ran from the Dunellen to Jersey City with the camelbacks and then ran the double-ended commuter engines from Jersey City to Newark on the Newark Branch during the day, returning on an evening run back to Dunellen with a camelback locomotive. Warren Crater, a renowned CNJ engineer, historian, and photographer, told me in his later years that his first job firing on the CRR of NJ was for my grandfather. Another interesting fact was that my grandfather, George Haag his fireman, and William Hopler his conductor owned adjacent houses on Jackson Ave in Dunellen.

The following are items from my collection of his personal items. I also have his Hamiliton 992 pocket watch and his backup Illinois pocket watch both in operating condition.