USA > Indiana > Allen County > Fort Wayne > Valley of the upper Maumee River, with historical account of Allen County and the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Volume II > Part 7
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been entered into by the Midland company with a large eastern car building concern by which mammoth car shops, which are expected to give employment to at least 1,000 men, are to be located here.
Jesse L. Williams, who was for a period of more than forty years prominent in the history of the public works of Indiana, Ohio, and the whole great west, was born in Stokes county, N. C., May 6, 1807. His parents, Jesse and Sarah T. Williams, members of the society of Friends, removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and subsequently to Warren county, and in 1819 to Wayne county, Ind. In his early youth he was a student at the Lancaster seminary at Cincinnati for a short time. He early selected the profession of civil engineer as his life work, being inspired by the great schemes of canal improvement then popular. The Erie canal was nearing completion, and the Miami and Erie canal from Cin- cinnati to Maumee bay was about to be surveyed. At the age of sev- enteen he accepted a minor position in the engineer corps on this work, and served until the construction of the canal in the Miami valley. In the spring of 1828 he was appointed by David S. Bates, then chief engineer of Ohio, to make the final location of the Ohio canal from Licking summit to Chillicothe, and to construct a division of that work. In his twenty-fifth year he was appointed chief engineer of the Wabash & Erie canal, and two years later, in 1834, the surveys of all other canals in Indiana were placed by the legislature in his hands. In 1836, under an act for internal improvements he was appointed engineer-in-chief of all the canal routes, to which duties were added those of chief engineer of railroads and turnpikes in 1837, giving him supervision of 1,300 miles of public works. In the summer of 1841 he attended thirteen let- tings of contracts, and he journeyed during those four months, on horse- back, some 3,000 miles, the mental task of mastering the details of construction being at the same time an equally gigantic effort. His work was actively prosecuted until 1841, when the improvements were suspended for want of funds. From March, 1840 until 1842 he was also by appointment of the legislature, ex-officio a member of the board of internal improvements and acting commissioner of the Indiana divis- ion of the canal, including the management of the canal lands. In 1847 the Wabash & Erie canal, under the state debt act, passed into the con- trol of a board of three trustees, two of whom were appointed by the bondholders and one by the legislalure. The act required the appoint- ment of a " chief engineer of known and established character for expe- rience and integrity," and Mr. Williams was selected for this position in June, 1847. This was held by him until the canal was sold by decree of the United States district court in 1876. Prior to 1842 there were many criticisms arising from political excitement, but a legislative com- mittee appointed by the legislature in 1842, after making an exhaustive examination of the management of state improvements, completely exonerated, Mr. Williams, closing with the words, "every man has his enemies who deserves them." In February, 1854, he was appointed chief engineer of the Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad, which
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he held until its consolidation in 1856 in the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad. Of the last named company he became a trustee. Mr. Williams was appointed by President Lincoln a government director of the Union Pacific railroad in July, 1864, and held that place until the Union and Central Pacifics met west of Salt Lake, in 1869, being com- missioned by three successive presidents. He served on the committee of location and construction, and made frequent tours of inspection through the canyons and over the slopes of the Rocky Mountain ranges, always insisting on the adoption of the lowest possible maximum grade. He made frequent reports to the secretary of the interior, which were communicated to congress and printed as public documents. In his re- port of November 23, 1866, he described ten distinct routes, describing briefly each proposed line. The lowering of the maximum grade was his object. Congress, for want of preliminary surveys had fallen into the grave error of authorizing by law, a maximum grade of 116 feet per mile. But Mr. Williams, having ascertained that a maximum grade of ninety feet per mile was possible, resisted the establishment of any higher grade, which would limit the load of a train for the whole road. This question was intimately associated with the cost of the road, in which congress had also acted unadvisedly. Mr. Williams submitted a report November 14, 1868, showing that the actual cash outlay for con- structing and equipping the entire road of I, IIO miles would be $38,824,821; while the cash means provided by the act of 1862, as a subsidy, together with the company's first mortgage bonds, amounted to $56,647,600, without including the value of the land grant. Mr. Will- iams' report led to discussion, and the famous " credit mobilier " investi- gation followed. January 19, 1869, Mr. Williams was appointed receiver of the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad company, and in October fol- lowing he resigned his position as director of the Union Pacific, and devoted his energies to the completion of the Grand Rapids road, open- ing for transportation nearly 200 miles of that road. Mr. Williams was married November 15, 1831, to Susan Creighton, daughter of Judge William Creighton, of Chillicothe, Ohio, who was a representative in congress from the Chillicothe district during the war of 1812, and from IS28 to 1832.
Pliny Hoagland, who was prominently associated with canal, rail- road and city improvement of the Maumee valley, began his professional life as an engineer on the Sandy and Beaver canal, in the spring of 1835. In 1838 he was engaged in the same capacity on the Ohio por- tion of the Wabash & Erie canal, and remained so until the canal was completed in 1843, when he was given charge of the work he had been engaged upon, and of the Western Reserve and Maumee road. In the fall of 1845 he removed to Fort Wayne, and thereafter took an active part in all the schemes for improvement of the city and its com- mercial avenues. When the Ohio & Pennsylvania road was partly con- structed to Mansfield, and the company was hesitating whether to build to Chicago or simply connect with Cincinnati, Mr. Hoagland urged upon
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the projectors the probable advantages of a Chicago extension, and writing to Hugh McCulloch regarding the situation, he urged that movement of the citizens of Fort Wayne which secured the road. The Indiana legislation in regard to this road was secured chiefly by Mr. Hoagland's efforts, and when the corporation for connecting Crestline and Fort Wayne with the Ohio & Indiana railroad was formed, Mr. Hoagland, Judge Hanna and William Mitchell became contractors for the whole line, except furnishing the iron, and taking the contract Janu- ary 28, 1852, completed it November 1, 1854. From that time Mr. Hoagland held the position of director of the road, under its various names, and subsequent to 1866 was a director of the Grand Rapids and Indiana road. In 1856 he was elected to the lower house of the assem- bly, and in 1862 to the senate. His position as senator he resigned to accept the presidency of the Fort Wayne branch of the bank of Indiana, succeeding Hugh McCulloch. When this concern became a national bank he declined the presidency and became vice president. During his service in the city council, beginning in 1865, the system of sewer- age, which is hardly excelled in any city of the land, was begun at his instance. Permanent street grades and Nicholson pavements were also begun at that time. In the upbuilding of the schools, models of effi- ciency, his influence was also strongly felt. His career as a public man was most honorable, and was characterized by a degree of independence and devotion to the public good, that is apparently becoming most rare. This benefactor of the city died January, 1884.
Joseph K. Edgerton, who has been prominent in the railroad and political history of Indiana, is the third son of Bela and Phebe (Ketchum) Edgerton, and was born at Vergennes, Vt., February 16, 1818. His maternal grandfather, Joseph Ketchum, was a merchant and ironmaster at Plattsburg, N. Y., and died in New York, in September, 1794. He is of the fifth generation in direct descent from Richard Edgerton (or Egerton, as the name is spelled in England), one of the band of English Puritans, who, under the leadership of Maj. John Mason, the hero of the Pequod war, removed from Saybrook to Mohican (afterward Nor- wich, Conn.), and on the 6th of June, 1659, purchased from Uncas and other sachems of the Mohican Indians, a tract of land nine miles square, embracing the site of the city of Norwich, Conn. Another of the Eng- lish settlers and proprietors was William Hyde, one of whose female descendants, in 1744, married Elisha Edgerton, grandson of Richard. The late Chancellor Walworth, of New York, who was a descendant of this William Hyde, devoted the leisure of the later years of his life to the compilation of a genealogy of the Hyde family. In a letter addressed to the subject of this sketch, he wrote: "I suppose you have seen my Hyde genealogy. I find, by the congressional dictionary you sent me, that fifty-two senators or members of the house of representatives, were either descendants of our ancestor, William Hyde, of Norwich, or mar- ried wives who were descendants." Col. Elisha Edgerton represented the town of Franklin in the legislature of Connecticut in 1803, and was
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a member of the constitutional convention of that state in 1818. His son, Bela Edgerton, born September 28, 1787, was graduated at Middle- bury college, Vermont, in 1809; was a lawyer and magistrate in Clinton county, N. Y., and in 1827, '28 and '29, represented that county in the legislature. In 1839, Bela Edgerton removed to Hicksville, Ohio, where for many years he was engaged in farming. In the later years of his life, he resided at Fort Wayne, Ind., in the family of his oldest son, Alfred P. Edgerton, and died September 10, 1874. He was a man of ability and fine social qualities. Joseph K. Edgerton was educated in the common schools of Clinton county, and at the Plattsburg academy, until his sixteenth year, when he became a law student in the office of William Swetland, of Plattsburg -"the great lawyer of northern New York," as he was called by his cotemporaries. In 1835, Mr. Edgerton sought employment in the city of New York, and became a student in the law office of Dudley Selden and James Mowatt. He was admitted to the bar of New York in 1839, and until 1844 practiced law in that city, associated with George B. Kissam, under the firm name of Edger- ton & Kissam .... He was married in 1839 to Hannah Maria, youngest daughter of William and Elizabeth (Chatterton) Spies, of New York. In IS43 Mr. Edgerton visited the west in the interests of a New York client, and being favorably impressed with the country, he removed to Fort Wayne and established an office here in 1844, occupying the office of ex-Governor Samuel Bigger, with whom he formed a partnership in the following year, which was terminated by the death of his partner in 1846. Mr. Edgerton soon established a profitable business as a land and collection agent, and from July, 1850, to July, 1851, was associated in practice with Charles Case. He was one of the first to interest himself in the progress of the Ohio & Indiana and Fort Wayne & Chicago rail- roads, and on his own account and on behalf of clients made large land subscriptions, including large tracts in LaGrange county, owned by the New York house of Grinnell, Minturn & Co. . Mr. Edgerton was made a director of the Fort Wayne & Chicago road in 1854, and in Novem- ber, 1855, succeeded Mr. Hanna as president. He was elected director of the Ohio & Indiana road in January, 1856. During the critical period of the existence of these companies, Mr. Edgerton was promi- nent in their affairs, proposed the consolidation which was effected and the formation of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad com- pany, and negotiated the preliminary contract for that purpose and the final articles. He was the first vice president of the new company, until his appointment as receiver in December, 1859. From 1857 he had also been financial and transfer agent of the company with his office in New York, and from February until December, 1859, was the legal adviser of the company with office at Fort Wayne. Owing to the oppo- sition of the Pennsylvania company, which aimed to acquire the new road, he resigned the receivership, and in March, 1860, he was defeated as a candidate for director, though supported by 37,000 shares. His defeat in this connection was the end of the final struggle of the builders
Warm Bir il
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of the road to preserve its independence. The reorganization and sale that followed, at great expense, put the road forever out of the hands of those who had struggled for its success in the early days. In July, 1866, upon the solicitation of the Michigan directors, Mr. Edgerton became president of the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad company, on the death of Samuel Hanna, and again had an arduous struggle to encounter for the establishment of a great thoroughfare. In August, 1871, after five years' service, Mr. Edgerton left the company on the removal of its offices to Grand Rapids, being succeeded by William A. Howard of Michigan. In the mean time, the land grant had been fully protected by the construction and putting in operation, under a contract with the Continental Improvement company, of 200 miles of the road, from Fort Wayne to Paris, Mich. In the leisure following the cessation of his railroad duties, Mr. Edgerton, in the fall of 1871, crossed the continent to San Francisco.
Mr, Edgerton's political career has also been a notable one. Prior to 1860, though until then never active in politics, he had been a whig, and voted with the party up to 1853. In 1852, after the taking effect of the new constitution making judges elective, he was an independent can- didate for judge of the court of common pleas for the district of Allen and Adams counties. Judge James W. Borden was the democratic nominee and was elected, the district being strongly democratic. In October, 1860, Mr. Edgerton made his first political speech in Indiana in favor of Stephen A. Douglas for president. The address was printed, and with other publications from his pen, gave Mr. Edgerton prominence as an advocate of the democratic doctrine of popular sovereignty, rep- presented by Mr. Douglas. In August, 1862, Mr. Edgerton received the democratic nomination for congress in the then tenth district of Indiana, against William Mitchell, of Kendallville, the republican nomi- nee, who had been elected in 1860, by nearly 3,000 majority, and Mr. Edgerton was elected by 436 majority. In the summer of 1863, Mr. Edgerton visited Europe, but just before his departure published a letter in the Indianapolis Sentinel, concerning the right to free discussion, which was widely commented upon. It was called out by the military order No. 9, of Gen. Milo S. Hascall, commanding the district of In- diana, following military order No. 38, of Gen. Burnside. In the XXXVIIIth congress, Mr. Edgerton was a member of the committee on naval affairs, but for over two months of the first session was kept from his seat by sickness from small-pox. During his term in congress, he spoke in opposition to the republican measures of confiscation, the constitutional amendment as to slavery, and on reconstruction, taking conservative democratic ground. He was re-nominated for congress in 1864, against Joseph H. Defrees, of Goshen, but was defeated by 580 majority. Pending the canvass of 1864, and the enforcement of the draft of that year, the state was greatly excited, and Mr. Edgerton was invited to attend a meeting at Indianapolis, on the 12th of August, of the democratic state central committee. He was requested to prepare
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a brief address, in the name of the committee, and his draft, with some modifications, was adopted, and the address published, which was made an occasion by Gov. Morton, for a proclamation "To the people of Indiana." Since engaging in railroad service in 1855, Mr. Edgerton has never fully resumed the practice of his profession, although he has con- tinued to be an active business man .. He is among the largest owners of land in Allen county, but these for a long period proved more of a burden than a profit. In 1866, he established the Woodburn lumber and stave mills, on his property in the eastern part of Allen county, but the mills were burned in 1867, involving a large loss. In 1871, he aided in establishing the Fort Wayne steel plow works, and in 1875, became sole owner, and so continues. This house manufactures the Fargo harrow, the Pioneer plow and Osborn fanning mill, and is an extensive establishment. In 1878, on its organization, he was made president of the board of trustees of the Fort Wayne medical college, and is the author of the law of Indiana, of 1879, to provide means for obtaining subjects for scientific dissection. For many years, Mr. Edgerton has been a member of the Vestry of Trinity Episcopal church.
Bernard O'Connor, prominent in railroad and telegraph history, was born in Ireland in 1817, and at the age of twelve years journeyed alone to America. Joining an uncle, a Catholic priest at Lancaster, Pa., he resided with him for several years and was educated. About the year 1835, he became a contractor for the construction of a portion of the Susquehanna canal, and from that found his way into the then young science of telegraphy, engaging in line construction. He is now the old- est living telegraph builder in the United States. In 1845 he built the telegraph line from Baltimore to Philadelphia, by Havre de Gras, and Wilmington, which was the first telegraph line built by private enter- prise, continuing the first line from Washington to Baltimore, built by the government. Bernard O'Connor became the third operator in the United States, and he was the first to use the ground as one-half of the circuit, in opposition to the opinion of S. F. B. Morse, that such an arrangement would be a failure. Soon afterward, he and Henry O'Riley made important contracts for the construction of telegraph lines, and from Buffalo, N. Y., put up lines to Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Vicksburg and New Orleans. His next important enterprise was the building of the Charleston & New Orleans railroad, and this was followed by the construction of the Keokuk & Des Moines railroad. Obtaining extensive contracts for building levees on the Mississippi, he was there engaged, and next in the construction of the Vandalia & Terre Haute railroad, the St. Louis & Southeastern, and 105 miles of the Houston & Texas Central. In early life he was married at Lancaster, Penn .; to Elizabeth McGonigle, and the completion of a half century of happy married life was celebrated by them at their wedding aniversary, October 23, 1888. To them were born five children, of whom four are living. Mr. O'Connor and family made their home at Fort Wayne in the fall of 1858, and they have since resided here. He retired in 1872
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from the occupation which had busied him for many years, and in which he had been an important factor in the development of the country north and south. In ISSI he engaged in the establishment of the City National Bank at Dallas, Texas. Bernard S. O'Connor, son of the above, now a prominent capitalist with interests in Fort Wayne and Dallas, Texas, was born in Lancaster county, Penn., in 1842. He removed with his parents to Illinois when eight years old, but returned to Lancaster a year later. From 1852 to 1855 he resided at Dayton, Ohio, and there attended school. He finished his education at St. Mary's Landing, Mo., at a Catholic institution where his brothers also were educated. During this time the family removed to Alton, Ill., where Charles died. In 1859 he came to Fort Wayne, and learned the crafts of machinist and marble cutter. But his father being then engaged in levee work on the Mississippi, Bernard joined him and afterward was engaged with his father in his enterprise. His brothers, John and James, subse- quently joined them and the firm of O'Connor & Sons was formed. In the banking business, John F. owns a controlling interest and James C. is president. The latter, in 1873, went to Europe, where he was joined the next year by Bernard S, and they made a trip through England, Ireland and France. Mr. O'Connor, with an energetic spirit, has inter- ested himself in various enterprises. He is a stockholder in the Salamonie gas company, the Natural gas company of 1888, the Sum- mit City soap company, the Gladstone land company, of Kansas City, and has interests at Duluth, Minn. He is a member of the Cathedral congregation. Mr. O'Connor was married November 4, 1878, to Marietta Fox, of Mansfield, Ohio.
C. D. Law, superintendent of the western division of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago railroad, was born in Philadelphia, Novem- ber 23, 1844. Three years later his parents removed to Carlisle, Penn., where he was reared, and obtained his early education in the public schools. He then entered the polytechnic institute at Philadelphia, and graduated from the same in 1863. In the same year he enlisted in the army of the Union, in Company G, Thirty-second Pennsylvania regi- iment, and served from 1864 until 1866 with the United States engineer corps, in the army of the Cumberland. At the close of this service he began his railroad career with the engineer corps of the Philadelphia & Trenton, now part of the united railroad of the New Jersey division of the Pennsylvania road. Subsequently he was engaged with an engi- neer corps in Connecticut, and in April, IS73, he was appointed civil engineer of the western division on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chi- cago. At this time he became a citizen of Fort Wayne. In February, IS80, he was given the position of roadmaster of the same division, and on November 15, 1881, was appointed superintendent. In 1880 he removed to Chicago, but returned in 1886, and has since made Fort Wayne his home. Mr. Law takes an active interest in political and fra- ternity affairs. During the campaign of 1888 he served as president of the local Harrison and Morton railroad campaign club. He was made a
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Mason at Matteawan, Duchess county, N. Y., in 1868, of Beacon lodge, and has since attained eminence in the order, being past eminent com- mander of Fort Wayne commandery, No. 4, Knight Templars, and has passed through the chairs of Wayne lodge, No. 25, and Fort Wayne chapter, No. 19. Mr. Law was married in June, 1870, to Josephine Clarkson, of New York city, and they have had three children, of whom two survive.
Patrick S. O'Rourke, superintendent of the Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad company, was born at Newark, N. J., September 25, IS30. His parents, Christopher and Ellen (Flannagan) O'Rourke, natives of county Kildare, Ireland, were married about 1823, and two years later, came to the United States, and made their home in New Jersey. In 183S they removed to Ohio, and subsequently to Fort Wayne, where they died. Mr. O'Rourke's career, which is a notable illustration of the opportunities for advancement which the development of this country offers to talent and energy, however circumstances may impede at the outset, first found employment on the farm, and gained his early education in the country schools of Carroll county, Ohio. Afterward, he was engaged on a construction train on a railroad, beginning at the humblest point his long and distinguished career as a railroad man. His executive ability and strength of character were soon manifested, and in 1856 he was made conductor of a construction train, the next year freight conductor, three years later a passenger con- ductor. He became master of transportation in IS66, assistant superin- tendent in 1871, and superintendent in 1872. He is now recognized as one of the most successful railroad men of the west, thoroughly acquainted with all details, shrewd in conception of enterprises, and of undaunted energy in execution. Mr. O'Rourke has found time also to devote con- siderable attention to political affairs, and has given the great questions of statesmanship thorough study. He stands high in the councils of the democratic party. He is particularly devoted to the doctrine of tariff reform, which he has ably advocated upon the platform and by the publication of papers upon the subject. His devotion to party is strong but more to what he believes the true principles of the organization than to nominations, so that in 1872, he supported O'Connor in preference to Greeley, because of the latter's protection principles. He and family are members of the Catholic church.
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