J H Regan had been an employee in the offices of the Alton railroad in Bloomington, but on this date in 1916, he wrote to his old friends from Russia, where he was working on railroads there. He wrote from Vladivostok, which the Pantagraph noted was a port city in Manchuria. He wrote of planning a trip from Vladivostok to Petrograd and referred to it as comparable to a trip from Bloomington to Chicago. The Pantagraph was quick to point out that such a trip would actually cover over 6000 miles.
Regan had moved from Bloomington to join the Pressed Steel Car Company in Pittsburgh. It was this company that had sent Regan to Russia on a mission to build and sell railroad cars to the Russian railroads.
Another old friend was with him in Russia, Mr. Linstrom, who had been a draughtsman with the railroad in Bloomington.
The necessities of war had made his appointment necessary, so that Pressed Steel could conduct business in Russia in support of their war needs.
Five years later Regan was mentioned in the Pantagraph again, indicating that he had pneumonia 5 times in the past years. One might wonder if travelling in cold areas of Russia could have lowered his resistance to disease.
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