USA > Missouri > Howard County > History of Howard and Chariton Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most official authentic and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 53
USA > Missouri > Chariton County > History of Howard and Chariton Counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most official authentic and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages, together with a condensed history of Missouri > Part 53
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54
Personally Captain Hayes is a quiet, unassuming gentlemen. He is one of the few men whom position does not change in their bear- ing toward those around them. True manhood is superior to any
591
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
position, however exalted, and this quality distinction cannot add to nor make less. It is only the weak and vain, those whose positions are above their merits, who make their importance and authority con- spicuous. From no word or action of Captain Hayes outside of his official duty, would it ever be discovered that he is at the head of the greatest combination of railroad systems in the world. He is the same dignified, unpretentious gentleman now that he was before he became distinguished for his great executive abilities. In his office all who have business with him are treated with the consideration and respect due them. In this particular he is in marked contrast with not a few whose positions are far less prominent. If all were as he is it could not be said with truth, as unfortunately it sometimes seems to be, that he who becomes a railway official puts his modesty and good mannors behind him.
Captain Hayes's leading characteristics as a railway manager are coolness and cantion, united with firmness and great enterprise. No step of importance is taken without a thorough understanding of its results, and of the influence it is likely to have upon all the interests affected by it. But when a measure is once decided upon and ap- proved, it is carried out with a resolution and energy that makes its success a foregone conclusion. He not only directs the general policy of his roads, but personally overlooks the administration of affairs in the several business departments of the service. He sees to it that abuses are nowhere tolerated, and that the business of the different companies is dispatched with promptness and efficiency. The result is manifest, not only in the harmony with which everything moves through the half-dozen great roads over which he presides, but in the superiority of service they have rendered since he was placed at their head, and in the remarkable financial success they have achieved. Of all others, he is undoubtedly the man for the position he holds, and his selection for the place is but another proof of the remarkable sagacity of the man whose interests, mainly, he represents.
The second vice-president of the company, as appears above, in the role of general officers is Mr. A. L. Hopkins, but a sketch of his career as a railroad manager has been given in the review of the Missouri Pacific Railway in another volume issued by the publishers of the present work. Also the sketches of several other officer- of the Wabash appear elsewhere in connection with the Missouri Pacific with which they are likewise identified.
592
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
-
COL. H. M. HOXIE,
the third vice-president of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, and of the Missouri Pacific or Southwestern System, like many of our most successful mon, has risen to prominence and independence by his own energy and intelligence and the indomitable strength of his character. He is a Western man by birth, and started in life poor and without even the favor of influential friends. When a young man he went to Des Moines, Iowa, and there in a few year, became recognized for his high character and great enterprise as one of the most progressive and influential citizens of the place. Such was the consideration in which he was held that without his solicitation or even desire he was rec- ommended for and appointed to the responsible office of United States marshal. This position he filled with great efficiency until the expiration of his terin of office, at the conclusion of which he declined reappointment, desiring to devote his whole time and attention to business interests.
On the inauguration of the great Union Pacific Railway enterprise. Colonel Hoxie became connected with it as a superintendent of con- struetion : and there he first distinguished himself for great executive ability and indefatigable energy in pushing the work to completion with unparalleled rapidity. The energy and dispatch with which the road was rushed across the continent was regarded as one of the most marvellous pieces of enterprise the world had ever seen, and was commented on by the leading journals of Europe as an evidence of the wonderful spirit of progress prevailing in America. To Colonel Hoxie, more than to any other one man, is due the eredit resulting from the expedition and success with which the two oceans were for the first time "linked with hands of steel." He personally supervised the work under his charge and for months was on the ground at daydawn, to leave only at dark, direeting and pushing the work forward. The ability and success with which he conducted the construction of the Union Pacific attracted the at- tention of leading railroad men all over the Union, and his service- were in great request. On the completion of the road Col. Hoxie was made its general superintendent, at that time one of the most impor- tant and difficult positions to fill in the entire railway service of the country. But the result vindicated the high estimate the board of directors had placed apon his ability and energy. As superintendent
593
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
of the practical operation of the road his snecess was not less brilliant than his success had been as superintendent of construction. His future as one of the great railroad managers of the country was now assured.
From the Union Pacific he was called to Texas to build the Inter- national and Great Northern. There he displayed the same qualities he had shown in the construction of the Union Pacific. The Inter- national and Great Northern was built with amazing rapidity. Of this he also became superintendent and later along was appointed vice- president of the company. As soon as the Texas and Pacific passed into the hands of Mr. Gould he became superintendent of that road also. On the formation of the Southwest System he was appointed general manager of the International and Great Northern and of the Texas and Pacitic, and was also appointed third vice-president of all the consolidated roads. Afterwards when, in May, 1883, the Wabash was leased to the Iron Mountain, thus becoming practically a part of the Missouri Pacific or " Southwest System," as it is called, that road also came under his control, so far as the third vice-presidency is con- eerned.
As third vice-president of these roads Col. Hoxie has the manage- ment and superintendence of the entire freight traffic of the combined lines. These roads aggregate nearly 10,000 miles and together consti- tute the most extensive system of railways under one management in the world. To have the control of the freight interests on this vast system is a responsibility which but few men could safely undertake, a responsibility perhaps not equalled by that of any office, civil or military, in the government. The freight business on a railroad, as every one knows, is to the prosperity of the road what the advertising business of a newspaper is to the success of the paper - the very lite- blood of its existence. The main support of every prosperous road comes from its freight business ; this is the source of its greatest rev- enue and on the success of its freight management everything else de- pends. Nor is any other department of railroad management so com- plicated and difficult. The interests to be considered are innumerable and often conflicting, but all must be consulted and harmonized to the best possible advantage. It requires not only a broad compre- hension of the general principles of transportation and trade, but an intelligent and thorough knowledge of practical business affairs, and of the best methods of conducting business transactions. Not only must general interests be looked to, but details also must be closely
59.4.
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
regarded. Nothing will wreck a road quicker than bad freight man- agement. It is, therefore, one of the most important departments, if not the most important, of railway management.
The success that has attended Colonel Hoxie's administration of this department of railway service, as official figures show, is gratify- ing in the extreme. The receipts from freight transportation have been unprecedentedly large - out of all proportion, in fact, to former years, even allowing for the growth of the country - and notwith- standing this, rates have been steadily reduced. These faets, though perhaps not so conspicuous as his construction of the Union Pacific Railway, speak hardly less for his ability as a railroad manager. In- deed, it is at least questionable whether it required a higher exercise of ability to gain the applause of the world by linking the two oceans together than it does to successfully eondnet the diversified, compli- cated and extensive business of 10,000 miles of railway traffic.
Colonel Hoxie is now somewhat past the meridian of life, but his energy, resolution and force of character seem only to have been strengthened by his ripening years. A man of prodigious capacity for work, he superintends, directs and personally inspects every branch of the service in his charge : and he seems to be as active and as am- bitious of the future as he was before he had achieved either reputa- tion or fortune. Personally he is highly esteemed. Having risen from the people himself, there is nothing of the aristocrat either in his manners or thoughts. He weighs men according to their charac- ter and intelligence. and respects rank'and fortune in the individual only so far as be makes himself worthy of respect. A man of gener- ous impulses and a kind, sympathetic nature, he is a warm, true friend to those who gain bis confidence, and there is nothing, not dishonor :- ble, within the bounds of reason that he would not do to serve them. Those who have known him for years speak of him as one of the truest hearted and best of men.
One of the oldest general officers of the Wabash, or rather one among those longest at the head of the affairs of that part of it west of the Mississippi, is
COLONEL JAMES F. HOW,
the present secretary of the company. Colonel How is an old St. Louisan and comes of one of the best families of the city. He com- menced his railway career in the ticket office of the old North Mis- souri Company but rapidly rose by promotion to one of the general
595
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
offices of the company. Prior to the organization of the present Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific he was the vice-president of the St. Louis. Kansas City and Northern, the predecessor to the Wabash west of the Mississippi. The St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern was the successor to the old North Missouri and was one of the most successful, enterprising and progressive railways ever operated on this side of the river. It not only brought the affairs of the old North Missouri out of embarrassment. but improved the road in every particular and added hundreds of miles of track to its original lines. It built and opened the line to Omaha and increased the ser- vice, both passenger and freight, on all the lines of the road. Its financial success was unequivocal and most gratifying; so much so that it became one of the most valuable pieces of railway property in the country. Its management was characterized by unusual ability and vigor, and to no one was it more entitled for its rapid and brilliant success than to Colonel How. A man of a high order of ability and of extensive experience in railway affairs, young and full of energy, and ambitious to make the road a success, he infused into its management a new life aud vigor aud urged it forward upon a poliey that soon placed its success beyond the shadow of a doubt. Looking back upon the record the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern road has made, he has every reason to feel satisfied with the influential and leading part he took in its management. Colonel How now has much to do with the finanees of the road, so far as its practical operation is concerned, and has entire control of its tax department. In these department, of railway management he had already established a high reputation. Ilis success in the tax affairs of the St. Louis, Kansas City and North- ern was particularly conspicuous. He saved hundreds of thousands of dollars to the company annually by defeating exorbitant and er- roneons levies. He is in every sense a worthy member of the present brilliant management of the Wabash.
COLONEL R. II. ANDREWS,
the general superintendent of the road, was originally from Philadel- phia. and was superintendent of the old Wabash, east of the Missis- sippi, for a number of years before the consolidation. The success of that road was largely due to the able and energetic manner in which he conducted the affairs of the superintendent's office. Having estab- lished a wide and enviable reputation while with the old Wabash,
596
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
when the consolidation took place he was naturally placed at the head of the same department of the new company Colonel Andrews is not only a railway official of high standing, but is possessed of the qualities, to a marked degree, that challenge the respect and esteem of all men. He is a man with whom it is a pleasure to have business relations, and who adds much to the popularity and patronage of the road with which he is connected.
.
H. C. TOWNSEND,
the general passenger agent of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific and Missouri Pacific System, is distinguished for being one of the most pop- ular and efficient general passenger agents in the United States. His rise in the railway service has been unprecedentedly rapid. Possessed of a quick, active mind, and of stirring energy, in each position he has held he comprehended the scope of his duties almost at a glance, and discharged them with so much spirit and success that his advancement was assured and rapid. That he is the general passenger agent, al- though still a young man, of the most important railway sys- tems in the United States, a system in which none but the ablest and best men are permitted to hold important positions, is, in itself, the highest indorsement of his character and ability that could be given. And he is worthy in an eminent degree of the prominence to which he has risen. With qualifications far above the position he holds, al- though it is one of the first in prominence and responsibility, he brings to the discharge of his duties that ability and dignity, that elear and intelligent grasp of the influence and effects of measures upon the dif- ficult interests of the road, and that self-respecting, manly bearing which not only make him a marked success, but elevate and dignify the position he holds. Personally Mr. Townsend is a man of wide and genuine popularity. Of an open, frank nature, well disposed toward the world and full of life, he always has a pleasant word for every one, and apparently, without effort, wins the good opinions and confidence of all with whom he comes in contact. His personal pop- ularity was by no means the least consideration that influenced his promotion to his present office. In business affairs he is courteous, polite and affable, and no one leaves his office with an unpleasant inci- dent to remember. His chief clerk,
1
MR. H. A. FISHER,
is also comparatively a young man and is highly esteemed both in
.
597
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
railroad cireles and by the general public. He commenced life for himself by learning the printer's trade, and having the qualities for a successful man in almost any calling, he of course succeeded as a printer. He became an artist in his trade -one of the finest printers throughout the country. Subsequently he was called into the service of the Wabash Railway to superintend its tine advertisement work, of which he has since had charge. It has doubtless been noticed by every one who has travelled in the West that the Wabash has the handsomest, most artistic and unique advertisements of all the West- ern roads. This of course is the result of Mr. Fisher's control of its advertising department. And he has made the distribution of his advertisements as judiciously as he has made their appearance at- tractive. Indeed, he has been remarkably successful in advertising the road, and its rapid increase of business is proof that the industry and good judgment he has shown in his work have not been without their reward. In the entire service of the road no one is more popu- lar and more deservedly so. He is as accommodating and gentle- manly as if it were his only study to be pleasant and obliging. Per- sonally the writer desires to acknowledge here a favor received at his hands - material assistance in collecting the data for the preceding sketches of the Wabash Railway.
COLONEL WELLS H. BLODGETT.
general solieitor of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific in all business of a legal character affecting the active management of the road, be- came connected with the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern, the predecessor of the present Western Division of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, as its assistant attorney during the winter of 1873-74. In June following he was elected general solicitor of the St. Louis. Kansas City and Northern by the unanimous vote of its board of directors. On the consolidation of that company with the old Wa- bash in 1879, he became general solicitor of the new Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, the position he now holds. Colonel Blodgett's ca- reer as a railroad lawyer has been one of marked ability and success. Gifted with a legal mind of a high order and of fine administrative ability, industrious almost to a fault, and an inveterate student, of the highest integrity of character and of close, exact business habits, justly popular with all who know him for his smooth. gentlemanly de- meanor, and for his high, personal worth, a clear, philosophical
40
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
thinker and a pleasant, logieal speaker, he combines, to an eminent degree, all the more important qualifications, both natural and ac- quired, for the chief law officer of one of the great railway corpora- tions of the country. Like most men of real merit who have risen to eminence, he is essentially a self-made man.
Ilis father, Israel P. Blodgett, now deceased, was a respectable farmer of Illinois, but like most of his neighbors in that then new part of the country, was not a wealthy man. Wells HI., therefore. had little or no pecuniary means to assist in establishing himself in life. After acquiring a common school education, supplemented with a few terms of college instruction, young Blodgett went to Chicago and began the study of law under his brother, Hon. Henry W. Blodgett. now judge of the United States district court there, but then the gen- eral solicitor of the Chicago aud Northwestern Railway. Of studious habits, a superior mind. and entirely devoted to his chosen profession. he made rapid progress in his studies, and was admitted to the bar in 1860 with expressions trom the court highly complimentary to his at- tainments and promise for the future. He at once entered actively upon the practice of law in Chicago, and was making rapid progress in his profession when the civil war burst upon the country with all its fury. The life of the nation imperilled, he saw but one duty before him - to go manfully to its detence. He became a private soldier in the army of the Union and followed the flag of his country with un- faltering devotion until it floated in triumph from the granite-ribbed hills of Maine to the sunlit waters of the Southern Gulf. For meri- torious conduet as a soldier he was repeatedly promoted, and rose to the command of a battalion with the rank of colonel. lle was twice commended by written reports of the commanding general for con- spicuous gallantry on the tield. Two honorable sears, the proudest decorations a soldier can wear, attest the patriotie part he took in the war.
After the war Colonel Blodgett located at Warrensburg, Missouri, in the practice of the law. There he at once took front rank in his profession, and in 1866 was elected to the House of Representatives of the State Legislature. Two years afterwards he was elected to the State Senate. Following this, in 1872, he was unanimously nominated by his party for re-election to the Senate, but was defeated at the polls by a test party vote. Indeed, he ran far ahead of his own party ticket, and was defeated only by a small majority.
In the Legislature, his ability and attainments made him a leading
599
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
member in each of the houses in which he sat. A clear, sober-minded thinker, and a conscientious, upright man, the fact that he supported a measure left but little or no doubt in the minds of others that it was for the best interests of the State ; and advocating it in his calin, lucid nianer. he seblom failed to carry it to a successful issue.
Though a Republican. earnest and faithful, Colonel Blodgett was one of the first prominent men in the State to advocate the en- franchisement of those who had been in rebellion. His record in the Legislature on this question forms one of the brightest pages in the history of his career. With him the broad, vital principle upon which our government is founded -equal and fair representation for all - was of vastly more importance than any temporary party advantage or expedient. Indeed, his conception of true partisanship is that it should strive to keep the party identified with the best interests of the country. The rank and file of those formerly in rebellion he believed to have been honest but misguided : and respecting their honesty of purpose and bravery, since they had submitted to the authority of the government and sworn to obey the laws, he believed no good pur- pose could be served by showing distrust of their sincerity, and con- timing them under the ban of civil ostracism. Hence he advocated earnestly and ardently their restoration to citizenship; and to his efforts, less than to no man's in the State, were the enfranchised in- debted for their ultimate right to vote.
By the close of his term in the Senate, such was the high standing he had attained as a lawyer, no less than as a public man, for he had continued the active practice of his profession all the time, that his services as official attorney were sought by various important corpora- tion interests. Indeed, he had already distinguished' himself in cor- poration practice, a department of the profession for which he has a special taste. In the spring of 1873 he accepted the assistant attor- neyship of the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railway as stated above, and was soon afterwards elected general solicitor for the road.
The St. Lonis. Kansas City and Northern was the successor to the old North Missouri ; and the mere mention of the name of that road suggests confusion, chaos and law suits without ending. Its policy was to fight everything and pay nothing - perhaps because it had nothing to pay with. It finally went down under a perfect maelstrom of litigation ; and the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern inherited from it a very sea of legal entanglements. To straighten out these
600 '
HISTORY OF HOWARD AND CHARITON COUNTIES.
and get the new road in proper condition, so far as its law interests were concerned, was the first work to which Colonel Blodgett ad- dressed himself, and it was a work which no ordinary lawyer could have accomplished. None with less ability than he showed, none with less industry, less energy and resolution, less system and method in the conduct of business, could have succeeded. But being a thorough business man no less than an able lawyer, he went to work in his of- fice and in the courts, and in a remarkably short time had his dock- ets practically cleared - clearer by far than railroad dockets usually are - and in almost every case with success to his company. His of- tice, also, became a model of system, order and method; indeed this - orderly arrangement of everything connected with his legal and business affairs - is one of his chief characteristics, without which the diversified and complicated business of which he has charge could not be sneeessfully conducted.
In the settlement of damage cases against the railroad, and, in- deed, of every class of claims, Colonel Blodgett inaugurated an entirely different policy from what had before prevailed. He has al- ways made it a rule to compromise every claim on a fair basis in which there is any merit at all, even though the law does allow the claim, where compromise is possible. This policy, which has since been adopted by the law departments of several important roads, he has found best in every respect. It tends to promote that good feeling between the people and the road so advantageous to both ; whilst it saves thousands of dollars legal costs to the company and to claim- ants. As claimants can afford to compromise their claims at much less than they might ultimately recover by litigation, on account of the great cost and delay attending it, thus, without injury to them, the road saves additional thousands by fair compromises. This policy both good conscience and business sagacity approve.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.