USA > Missouri > Centennial history of Missouri, vol. 2 > Part 15
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The marriage of William Blair and Mary Jackson took place in 1835. William Blair was a man of notable force and ability. ITis aptitude for business and polities was exemplified by a brief but energetic career. Ile was a soldier in the Black Hawk war, a lead miner at Galena, a farmer, merchant, builder of flatboats and a political leader. Ile died in 1845, at the age of thirty-two, at Springfield, Illinois, while serving his third term as representative of Pike county in the state legislature. Among his personal friends and political associates were Douglas, Richardson, Starne and Donaldson, all advanced later to politieal distinction. His widow subsequently became the wife of James R. Williams of Barry, Pike county, Illinois, where she lived until November, 1897.
Between the ages of six and sixteen years, Albert Blair was a pupil in the public schools of Barry, Illinois, and then spent three years as a student in Christian University at Canton, Missouri, and one year in Phillips Academy of Exeter, New Hampshire. Entering Harvard, he completed a three years' course there by graduation as a member of the class of 1863. He also remained at Harvard as a law student for a year, at the end of which time he was offered
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the position of teacher of Latin in the University of Missouri at Columbia. Preferring other employment, however, he accepted a position in the freight department of the North Missouri Railroad Company at Macon, Missouri, and thus served for several years. His desire to enter upon a professional career, however, led him to become a law student in the office of Williams & Henry, leading attorneys of that eity, while at the same time he occupied the position of secretary with the Keoknk & Kansas City Railroad Company, which had undertaken the building of a railroad from Keokuk, Iowa, to Kansas City. The project succumbed in the widespread financial panic of 1873. Mr. Blair afterward spent a year as land agent and attorney for the old North Missouri Insurance Company, which also went into bankruptcy. Having invested all his savings in the former enterprise and lost them, he began his career in St. Louis with less than one hundred dollars.
Undiscouraged, however, Mr. Blair took up the active work of the profes- sion here and has since continued in general practice while giving considerable attention to corporation law. He is thoroughly qualified along the latter line and his practice of this character has been important. He has aided in the organization and promotion of various companies which have figured prom- inently in the business development of St. Louis. He was one of the organizers of the American Brake Company; the Chicago Railway Equipment Company ; the Missouri Electric Light & Power Company and the Wagner Electric Manu- facturing Company. He has also become connected with several other impor- tant business concerns.
Mr. Blair was married February 2, 1907, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Mrs. Clara Urquhart Spencer, whose death occurred in 1918. She was a native of St. Louis and a daughter of George Urquhart, who for many years was vice president of the Plant Seed Company of this city.
In politics, Mr. Blair has ever been a stalwart advocate of republican prin- ciples and in 1898 was a candidate of his party for the state senate, on which occasion he succeeded in reducing the usual democratic majority from two thou- sand to one thousand two hundred. He has always stood for elean politics and progressive methods in relation to municipal, state and national affairs. He was one of the committee which drafted the act of the Missouri legislature pro- viding the Australian ballot method in holding elections and also of the com- mittee which brought about the adoption of the Corrupt Practices Act of the State of Missouri. For several years he was a member of the Missouri Civil Service Reform Association. The nature of his interests is further indicated in his connection with the Missouri Historical Society; the Law Library Associa- tion; the Missouri Bar Association and the American Bar Association. He has ever been keenly interested in literature, to which he has largely devoted his leisure.
By reason of the superiority of its apple products, . Pike county, Illinois, as well as its more famous neighbor, Calhoun county, is noted for its large com- mercial orchards. For many years Mr. Blair has been interested in the growth of apples and is one of the principal owners of the Williams orchards, situated near Barry, Pike county, Illinois.
yours faithfully J. a. L. Waddell
John Alexander Low Waddell
OIIN ALEXANDER LOW WADDELL, of Kansas City, who without invidious distinction may be termed one of the fore- most bridge engineers of the world, was born at Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, January 15, 1854, his parents being Robert Needham and Angeline Esther (Jones) Waddell, the former a native of Ireland, while the latter was born in New York City. The father crossed the Atlantic to Canada in 1829 and there lived until 1886, at which time he went to Denver, Colorado, to reside, and there he passed away in 1889. He had for many years been in mercantile pursuits in Port Hope, Ontario, and on receiving appointment in 1864 to the life office of high sheriff of the United Counties of Northumberland and Durham, he removed from Port Hope to Cobourg, Ontario, the duties of the office requiring his residence at the latter town, the county seat. Ile was very active in all mat- ters pertaining to the public welfare and was held in high esteem. The mother, who is in her ninetieth year, resides at La Jolla, a suburb of San Diego, California. J
John Alexander Low Waddell pursued his early education in the publie schools of Port Hope and Cobourg, later attending Trinity College School at Port Hope, while subsequently he entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York, from which he was graduated with the degree of Civil Engineer in 1875. He received early in 1882 from McGill University at Mon- treal, Canada, the ad eundem gradum degree of B. A. S., and a few months later took by an examination lasting two full days the degree of M. E., and finally in 1904 the degree of D. S. in course. He was accorded the honorary LL. D. degree by the Missouri State University in 1904, received the honorary degree of D. E. from the University of Nebraska in 1911 and the honorary degree of Kogakuhakushi from the Imperial University of Japan in 1915-the highest academie or scholastie honor in that country.
His professional career has been one of steady progress. In 1875 he became a draftsman of the Marine Department at Ottawa, Canada, and in 1876 and 1877 served as engineer in connection with the field work of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, after which he was engineer of a small coal mine at Coalburg, West Virginia. He was then made assistant professor of rational and technical me- chanics at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, so continuing from 1878 until 1880. Through the two succeeding years was chief engineer with Raymond & Campbell, bridge builders at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in 1882 he accepted the professorship of civil engineering in the Imperial University of Japan, with which he was connected until 1886.
From 1887 until 1899 he practiced his profession independently as consult- ing engineer in Kansas City, Missouri, and in the latter year became senior
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partner in the firm of Waddell & Hedrick, which maintained its existence antil 1906. He was then a partner in the firm of Waddell & Harrington until 1915, and since the latter date has been senior partner in the firm of Waddell & Son.
In January, 1917, he opened an office in New York City, since then operating from both offices; and lie has also established branch offices, headed by local engineers of prominence, in Chile, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, China, India, Australia, Spain and Franee. Ile is about to add to this list Japan and Brazil.
As chief engineer of the Pacific Short Line Bridge Company, Dr. Waddell designed and supervised the construction of the combined railway and high- way bridge over the Missouri river at Sioux City; and when chief engineer of the Omaha Bridge & Terminal Railway Company, he designed and supervised the building of a double-track railway and highway bridge across the Missouri river at East Omaha in 1893.
His work has always been of a most important character. He designed and constructed a highway bridge across the Missouri river at Jefferson City, Mis- souri; and he engineered the Northwestern Elevated, the Union Loop Elevated and other elevated railways in Chicago. He was also advisory engineer to the Elevated Railway Company of Boston, Massachusetts. He was the engineer in charge of the building of the Y-shaped railway-and-highway bridge over the Fraser river at New Westminster for the government of British Columbia, and he built more than two hundred bridges on the Vera Cruz & Pacific Railway of Mexico.
His engineering work likewise includes the construction of two lighthouses and standard plans for the highway bridges of Cuba ; most of the bridges on the Kansas City Southern Railway and the Tennessee Central Railway, together with a large bridge over the Maumee river at Toledo, Ohio: the Halsted street lift- bridge at Chicago; the Hawthorne avenue lift-bridge at Portland, Oregon; the reinforced concrete bridge over the Colorado river at Austin, Texas; the Red Rock cantilever bridge over the Colorado river for the Atlantie & Pacifie Rail- way Company ; the principal bridges on the Shreveport & Red River Valley Railway; ten large bridges on the International & Great Northern Railway in Texas; a large and costly bridge with a lifting deek over the Missouri river at Kansas City ; a large bridge with a lift span over the Mississippi river at Keiths- burg, Illinois, for the Towa Central Railway; two reinforced concrete trestles having the longest reinforced concrete girders then built, at Tacoma, Washing- ton ; the Granville street, the Cambie street and the Westminster avenne bridges over False creek, Vancouver, British Columbia ; a large viaduct joining Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, and crossing the Kaw river; a large bridge with lifting deek and lifting span combined over the Willamette river at Portland, Oregon, for the Harriman System; and a bridge with a lift-span over the Arkansas river at Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Dr. Waddell has also designed and engineered, among numerous others, the following important structures: The eonerete Arroyo Seco bridge at Pasadena, California; the Twelfth street viaduet at Kansas City, Missouri; the lift-span for the Don river bridge at Rostoff, Russia ; a lift-bridge over the City Waterway and another over the Puyallup river at Tacoma, Washington ; the Pennsylvania
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Railroad Company's lift-bridge over the south branch of the Chicago river and two similar strnetures over the Calumet river, South Chicago, Illinois; the Great Northern Railroad Company's bridge over the Yellowstone river and a similar one over the Missouri river in Montana ; nineteen bridges for the Canadian Northern Pacific Railway Company over the Fraser, Thompson and North Thompson rivers, etc., in British Columbia ; the Louisiana & Arkansas Railway Company's bridges over the Black river and the Little river in Louisiana ; the Salem, Falls City & Western Railway bridge over the Willamette river at Salem, Oregon ; the Pacific Highway bridge between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington ; the lift-span of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's bridge at Louisville, Kentucky, and the Swope Park, College Avenue and Fourth Street bridges in Kansas City, Missouri; also the Kansas City Southern Railway Company's bridge over the Kaw river at Ohio Avenue, Kansas City, Kansas, and the river boulevard viaduct for the Kansas City Southern Railway Com- pany at Independence, Missouri.
Dr. Waddell is also well posted on railroading; for, in addition to his early practice on the Canadian Pacific, he was for many years chief engineer to the Omaha Bridge and Terminal Railway Company, vice president and principal engineer to the Trans-Alaska-Siberian Railway Company, chief engineer to the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Company, and advisory engineer for several projected (but not yet built) steam and electric railroads.
In 1903 Dr. Waddell was retained by the International Niekel Company of New York City, which then controlled three-quarters of the world's total output of nickel, to make an extensive investigation concerning the suitability of nickel steel for bridge building. ITis experiments covered every conceivable kind of practical tests and ocenpied over three years.
Following the investigation and the completion of the reports, he wrote for the American Society of Civil Engineers a long paper deseribing fully the tests and drawing numerous deductions. This paper, under the title of "Nickel Steel for Bridges," was published in the society's transactions for 1909, and won the Norman medal. The result of his investigations has been the use of nickel steel for at least three long-span bridges-the Manhattan bridge at New York, the Municipal bridge at St. Louis, and the new Quebec bridge. The firm of Waddell & Son is also using the alloy in the moving spans of some of their vertieal-lift bridges.
The work of Dr. Waddell extends over the entire United States and Canada, and parts of Cuba, Mexico, Japan, New Zealand and Russia.
When in 1917 and 1918 the Public Belt Railroad Commission of New Orleans desired to select three engineers for an "Advisory Board" to study the advisability and economies of bridging or tunneling the Mississippi river at or near that eity, it invited a large number of the most prominent American engi- neers to address its members in conference, with the result that after many months of consideration, Dr. Waddell was selected as the bridge expert on the said board. The joint report of the three experts was finished and presented to the Commission early in 1919; but its contents and findings have not yet been made publie.
Dr. Waddell has also made many valuable contributions to the literature of the profession. His authorship includes The Designing of Ordinary Iron Iligh-
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way Bridges, 1884; a System of Iron Railroad Bridges for Japan, 1885; General Specifications for Highway Bridges of Iron and Steel, Some Disputed Points in Railway Bridge Designing, Elevated Railroads, The Possibilities in Bridge Con- struction by the use of High Alloy Steels, for which he was awarded the Nor- man Medal; Alloy Steels in Bridgework, Foundations for Important Buildings in the City of Mexico, Flow Line Bridge at Kansas City, Vertical-Lift Bridges, What Can Best Be Done to Advance the Interests of the Engineering Profes- sion in the United States, Technical Book Writing, Engineering Ethics, numerous important papers on Technical Education and on the Study of the Spanish Languages in the U. S. A., Engineering Economies, The Economics of Steel Arch Bridges, Comparative Economies of Cantilever and Suspension Bridges, Economie Span-Lengths for Simple-Truss Bridges on Various Types of Foun- dations, Comparative Economies of Continuous and Non-continuous Trusses, Comparative Economies of Wire Cables and High-Alloy-Steel Eyebar-Cables for Long-span Suspension Bridges, Possibilities and Economics of the Transbordeur, Economies of Alloy-Steels for Bridgework, Bridge versus Tunnel for the Pro- posed Hudson River Crossing at New York City, and numerous other important memoirs; De Pontibus in 1898; Engineering Specifications and Contracts in 1908 ; and Bridge Engineering, 2 vols., in 1916.
Ever since 1916 Dr. Waddell has been engaged upon an elaborate series of investigations on the economics of bridge designing and construction, with the intention of solving the last hitherto unsolved major economie problem in the specialty of bridges. At the present writing the last of these investigations is drawing to a close.
For a year or more the Doctor has been putting into book form the results not only of this series of economie investigations but also of all the economic studies on bridges that he has made during the last three decades. The name of the treatise, which will contain between 500 and 600 printed pages, is to be "Economics of Bridgework." The manuscript thereof is now nearly ready for the printer; and the prospects for the early issue of the book are good. Very few engineers besides Dr. Waddell have made any investigations worth mentioning on bridge economies. What has been written hitherto has generally been based upon the manipulation of mathematical formulae, which really are not applicable to economie investigations for bridge designing. Dr. Waddell has based his studies upon detailed designs and estimates of quantities of materials.
Thus it is that Dr. Waddell has become one of the most eminent bridge builders and best known engineers of the world. He was decorated by the emperor of Japan in 1888 as Knight Commander of the Order of the Rising Sun, and by the Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, a sister of the late Czar, with the First Class Order of her Société de Bienfaisance, for services as Principal Engineer of the Trans-Alaska-Siberian Railway. He is a member of the leading scientific societies of the United States, Canada, and a number of foreign countries, including the American Academy of Engineers; the American Institute of Con- sulting Engineers; the American Society of Civil Engineers; the Institution of Civil Engineers of Great Britain; La Société International d'Etudes de Corre- spondence et des Changes, Concordia, Paris ; the Geographical Society of France ; and the Sigma XI. He is honorary member of the Japanese Engineering
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Society, of Tau Beta Pi, the Phi Beta Kappa, and the Engineers' Club of Kansas City.
Of all the honors, however, that have come to Dr. Waddell in recognition of his standing as a praetieal seientist, a literary man, and a constructing engineer, there is none so high as that conferred upon him by the French government on December 16, 1918, when it admitted him into L'Institut de Francee as Corre- spondant of the Académie des Sciences, which is universally acknowledged to be the most seleet scientific body of men in the world. He is the first American engineer ever received into its ranks, and the twenty-first American eitizen taken thereinto during the one hundred and twenty-four years since it was reorganized upon its present basis.
This recognition was specially complimentary, in that it was awarded imme- diately after the armistice, when the French government, desiring to show to America its deep appreciation of the help rendered in winning the war, and in the most conspicnous manner possible, did so by conferring upon one of her eitizens the highest honor within its gift.
Dr. Waddell is prominently known in elub cireles, having membership in the Country, University, and Engineers' Clubs of Kansas City, and the Railroad Club of New York. By reason of his professional ability he has been called to many sections of the world ; and his broad travel and wide study have made him a cultured gentleman, with a command of two languages besides his own, while his increasing professional ability has gained him an unexcelled eminence among bridge builders throughout the entire world.
Nice Printer
Charles Parsons Senter
C HARLES PARSONS SENTER, president of the Senter Com- mission Company of St. Louis, was born at the home of his grandmother, in Trenton, Tennessee, February 14, 1870, al- though his parents had been residents of St. Louis from 1864. His father, William Marshall Senter, a native of Henderson county, Tennessee, was born April 11, 1831, his parents being Alvin Blalock and Janet (MeNeil) Senter, who were natives of Cumberland county, North Carolina. In 1857 William M. Senter wedded Luey Jane Wilkins, a daughter of Little John and Luey Jane (Tanner) Wil- kins, who were natives of Virginia, while their daughter, Mrs. Senter, was born in Gibson county, Tennessee, on the 14th day of February, 1832. In the year 1865, William M. Senter and his brother-in-law, William Thomas Wilkins, foreseeing that St. Louis was to be the gateway of the great southwest, came to St. Louis and established the firm of Senter & Company, engaging in the cotton, grain, fur, wool, ete., commission business, which they conducted until their deaths, which occurred respectively on the 29th of January, 1901, and February 3, 1902. Mr. Senter became a leading figure in commercial and finan- eial eireles in St. Louis. In 1876, when the St. Louis Merchants Exchange built and moved into its then new building, on Third street from Pine to Olive, he was its vice president. He was especially active in the building up of St. Louis as a cotton market, and was one of the organizers of the St. Louis Cotton Exchange, and its original vice president ; the next year he succeeded to the presidency, and was re-elected for ten years, although not consecutively.
One of the main eauses for the advancement of St. Louis as a cotton market was the establishment of the St. Louis Cotton Compress Company, with its mod- ern warehouses and high density presses, in which St. Louis was the pioneer. Mr. Senter was one of the organizers of this company, and its original vice president, and later served as its president for a number of years. One of the bulwarks of St. Louis' control of the trade of the south and southwest is its railways, and Mr. Senter was one of the group of loyal St. Louisans who, when it looked like the Iron Mountain Railroad would be lost, responded to the appeal of Thomas Allen, its president, and subscribed the money necessary to save it. At that time Mr. Senter was elected one of the directors of the com- pany, and continued as such until Jay Gould, recognizing the value of the railroad, purchased it. Shortly after this, a group of St. Louisans projected and built the Cotton Belt Railroad, Mr. Senter being one of the most active, and its original vice president. IIe was also one of the organizers of the Union Trust Company, of which he was a director until the time of his death. However, his chief efforts were in developing the extensive commission busi-
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ness, which, upon his death, was incorporated under the name of the Senter Commission Company.
Charles P. Senter received his primary education at the Stoddard school, one of the public schools of St. Louis, and then attended Smith Academy, the preparatory department of Washington University, from which he was grad- uated in the class of 1888. He pursued his studies at the University of Virginia for two years. Upon his return to St. Louis, his interest in Smith Academy continued, and at the organization of the Alumni Association he was elected its secretary and treasurer, and has remained such to the present time. His inter- est in the athletics of the school, as well as of the Inter-Scholastic League, caused him to be appointed chairman of the Olympic Inter-Scholastic Committee, as well as chairman of the Olympic Marathon Committee at the Olympic Games which were held in connection with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904; and he was grand marshal of the Olympic games.
After a business training in one of the banks and in the real estate business, in 1890 Mr. Senter connected himself with his father's business, and after the death of his father and uncle, this business was incorporated as the Senter Commission Company, and since 1903 he has been its president. Like his father he has been honored by his associates in the cotton business, and has served four terms as president of the St. Louis Cotton Exchange. He is also a member of the Merchants Exchange, and of the St. Louis Raw Fur and Wool Association, as well as of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce. He is presi- dent of the Allen Store Company of Malden, Missouri, and a director of the St. Louis Cotton Compress Company.
Mr. Senter has long been an active member of the Third Baptist church, of St. Louis, of which he is one of the trustees, and has been honored by being called upon to serve as president, both of the St. Louis Baptist Mission Board and of the State Mission Board. He is vice president of the Missouri Baptist Sani- tarium, and is a member of the executive committee of the Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association. He is a democrat in politics, and has been active in the party's councils although never a candidate for office.
Although he is a bachelor he maintains a home for himself at No. 1 Beverly place, where he has surrounded himself with the articles of culture and refine- ment. He is a member of the Noonday, St. Louis, Racquet, Franklin and Sunset Hill Country Clubs, and the Missouri Historical Society, all of St. Louis, and the Grolier Club of New York. In 1908 he served as a member of the executive committee of the St. Louis Centennial. Mr. Senter was active in all the work connected with the World war, the great mass meeting at the Coli- seum as well as the breakfast at the Missouri Athletic Association tendered to the French Commission upon their visit to St. Louis, having been under his supervision.
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