They came from Chicago and jerkwater towns in Nebraska, from farms and steel mills, from the stage and the pulpit.
"Land of the Burnt Thigh"
Edith Eudora Kohl
He had actually built up the Hendrickton and Pas Alos from a narrow-gauge, "jerkwater" road into a part of a great cross-continent system that tapped a wonderfully rich territory on both sides of the Pas Alos Range.
"Tom Swift and his Electric Locomotive or, Two Miles a Minute on the Rails"
Victor Appleton
And we can empty that pocket just as well with a little jerkwater outfit like this as we could with a big crew and a real mill.
"The Killer"
Stewart Edward White