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Great as were the energies he devoted to his business, he had other important interests. He was a friend to every good work and to the church and her charities, he gave not only of his substance but of his business and executive ability.
Prompt, fiery, tireless, patient, painstak- ing and indomitable, he could endure no failure. What he undertook must suc- ceed, and once enlisted in a cause, who- ever failed or flagged, he was reliable. He was devoted to Ireland, her cause was his cause and her friends his friends. He was a prominent member of the Fenian Brotherhood and was treasurer of the fund that equipped the ship "Catalpa" (of which he was part owner) which rescued from penal servitude in Australia six members of the brotherhood who had been in the British army and were under conviction and sentence for treason. He was founder of the Monroe County Land League, a member of the Celtic Club and in constant communication with friends of Ireland at home and abroad. He was a close reader of the Irish press and no significant event or drift of opinion escaped his quick intelligence. Had he devoted his talents and energies in the same degree to American politics, he would have gone high in public life. He was one of the chief organizers of the Catholic Times Publishing Company in Rochester, and at the time of his death was a director and treasurer of that com- pany. In politics he was a Republican, and in religious faith a Roman Catholic, a devoted and prominent member of St. Patrick's Cathedral for many years. He was also a leading member of the Young Men's Catholic Association. He passed from life with mind unclouded, fortified by the strengthening sacraments and ministrations of the church, the tender devotion of his wife and family, the genuine respect of the community, at peace with God and the world.
Patrick Mahon married (first) Mary McQuillan, who died in 1864, leaving a daughter, Mary Evelyn. He married (second) February 14, 1871, Kate C. Mc- Roden, who survives him, daughter of Michael McRoden, who was born in
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Monaghan, Ireland, in 1817, died in Rochester in 1844; became one of the best known clothing merchants of the city ; he was a man of high character, most scru- pulous in his integrity, greatly esteemed by all who knew him. His wife, Julia McRoden, died aged fifty-six years, a woman of lovely disposition, leaving two daughters, Mrs. Patrick Mahon, and Mrs. James Mooney, of Buffalo. Mr. and Mrs. Mahon were the parents of five children : Patrick Vincent, Corinne L., Arthur J., Julia D. (Mrs. George P. Gilman), Alex- ander.
CORTHELL, Elmer Lawrence, D. Sc., Civil Engineer, Author.
"Coming events cast their shadows be- fore." At the age of twelve Dr. Corthell was librarian at the village library, and at that age had read all of the two hun- dred volumes in that library, a collection ranging from "Confessions of an Opium Eater" to "Dwight's Theology." At six teen the walls of his bedroom were plas- tered with Latin and Greek mottoes, such as "Improbus Labor Omnia Vincit" (Per- severing Labor Overcomes Everything"), "Gnothi Sauton" ("Know Thyself"), who later ranked as one of the great civil engi- neers of the world.
Bibliography of his own publications reads like the catalogue of a library, and at the time of his decease, May 17, 1916, he was in the full prime of his intellectual and professional strength. After com- pleting a record of most distinguished achievement the opinion of Dr. Corthell as to the value of college training was valuable, as valuable as his opinions, which great corporations, governments and municipalities sought and paid liber- ally for when contemplating engineering projects of magnitude. He said in his argument for the affirmative : "I say here
advisedly, and as a result of experience, that I was enabled to attack and to solve the problems (engineering) solely by this discipline of a classical education at Ab- ington, Exeter and Brown University. There is no opinion about this matter. It is a fact that has appeared plainly at many times of my life. The education outlined has enabled me to do things that I never could have done without it. It has given me power in my professional work during the past forty-seven years (1914)-more than that it has carried me far afield of engineering, and given me world-wide interests along many lines of human activity. What I have said about the real value of a classical education in my own case I can say from personal knowledge about engineers all over the world where my business and my inter- ests have taken me."
In view of the strong position Dr. Corthell took in favor of a classical edu- cation, and the importance he gave it as a vital force in his own success, the course of preparatory and college study he pur- sued is of deep interest. He was born at South Abington (now Whitman), Massachusetts, September 30, 1840, son of James Lawrence and Mary Ellis (Gur- ney) Corthell, of Scotland, the founder of the family in America. His ancestor on his father's side, six generations ago, was Robert Corthell. His mother's family was French and came to England with William of Normandy. The French name was Gurné-anglicized to Gurney. John Gurney, the noted Quaker, was a member of the family. His father, a man of little school education, craved it for his chil- dren, and at the age of three years sent his son, Elmer L., to the village school. At twelve he was librarian of the village library and familiar with the contents of every book it contained. Rollin's "An- cient History," Grote's "History of
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Greece," Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Hume's "History of England," Cooper's and Irving's works, were part only of his reading at that age, and the contents of those books remained in his memory, although read at so early an age. At sixteen he entered enthusias- tically into the study of Latin, Greek and higher mathematics, one of a class of ten boys and girls studying under the village school master, a young man fresh from Bowdoin College.
Early in 1858 he was prepared for en- trance to Phillips Exeter Academy as a senior, but disappointed in not receiving $1,000 for his education promised by his grandfather, and his father not having the means to send him, he borrowed $15.00 from him, for which he gave his note, and with a small shoe-mending kit of tools, a little leather, and a flat iron, which his mother gave him, he entered Exeter, where the door of his room was adorned with the announcement, "boots and shoes mended" and "washing done here." He literally "worked" his way through the first year, won a scholarship, and was graduated with honors. In 1859 he en- tered Brown University, and as at Exeter earned the money to meet expenses, doing the most menial work if honorable. He also found some private pupils to "tutor," yet stood second in his class at the close of his freshman year. During the ensu- ing vacation he obtained through the kindness of Professor Cilley, of Exeter, the position of "coach" in Latin, Greek and mathematics to the two sons of Gov- ernor Anderson, of Ohio, who had been "conditioned" at Harvard, for which serv- ice he received a "professional fee" of eighty dollars, a sum which he testifies amounted to more, to him, than later the two thousand gold pesos did when handed him for one month's services as consult- ing engineer of the Argentine Republic.
Before the close of his sophomore year he enlisted in May, 1861, for "three years or the war" as a private in Battery A, First Regiment Rhode Island Light Ar- tillery, was at first battle of Rull Run and saw four years and two months of active service, principally with the Army of the Potomac in Virginia, and in North Caro- lina. He was promoted, corporal, ser- geant, second lieutenant, first lieutenant, and in the last year of the war in the Shenondoah valley, captain of Battery D of his own regiment.
Following his return from the army was his return to Brown University, whence he was graduated as Bachelor of Arts, third in his class of 1867, and the following year won the degree of Master of Arts. In 1894 the degree of Doctor of Science was conferred upon him by Brown for distinguished engineering serv- ices to the country and for his contribu- tions to engineering literature. His work in the earlier years of his course won him the Phi Beta Kappa key, and his later work the Sigma Xi, and in 1894 his alma mater conferred the degree "Scientae Doc- toris pro Meritis." He applied himself so closely to his studies that before the close of his senior year he was advised that to escape a permanent breakdown he should secure out-of-doors occupation. This neces- sitated a change in his plans, but he met the situation squarely, abandoned his original intentions, and selected civil engi- neering, a profession he was prepared for only as every liberally educated boy is prepared for anything. Almost imme- diately after graduation he was called to Hannibal, Missouri, as assistant on the construction of the railway line, now a part of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railway system. His work demanded a knowledge of railway and bridge con- struction which he did not possess, but in place of experience and practice he had a
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fund of knowledge stored up and the dis- cipline from his college study which en- abled him, with a night's special study, to solve engineering and construction prob- lems submitted to him during the day.
Thus with but the little time devoted to special technical study in the offices of Cushing & DeWitt, civil engineers, Provi- dence, Rhode Island, he was able to satis- factorily fill the position of assistant engi- neer. His equipment was largely the regular college classical course. It is on this fact that he based his argument in favor of a classical college education no matter what profession is to be followed. In less than a year he was made division engineer of forty-five miles of the Hanni- bal & Central Missouri railroad and so rapid was his rise that in 1870 he was ap- pointed chief assistant engineer on the construction of a bridge across the Mis- sissippi river at Hannibal.
During the years 1871-1874 he was chief engineer of the Sny Island levee on the Mississippi river in Illinois, and in 1873 chief engineer of the Chicago & Alton railroad bridge over the Mississippi at Louisiana, Missouri, with a draw four hundred and forty-four feet long, the longest draw in the world at that time. He had in the meantime attracted the favorable regard of the great engineer, James B. Eads, and at his request Mr. Corthell, furnished a statement and gave an opinion regarding the proposed jetty construction for improving the South Pass of the Mississippi river. This state- ment was used before Congress, and when Mr. Eads was awarded the contract he chose Mr. Corthell to take charge of the construction of the now famous jetties at the South Pass mouth of the Mississippi. He was engaged in this work for four years, the results obtained in deepening the pass amply justifying the confidence and faith in the success of the project held
by both Mr. Eads and Mr. Corthell. These jetties increased the depth on the South Pass Bar from nine to over thirty feet, and have maintained that depth of chan- nel until the present time. As a result the ocean commerce of New Orleans has vastly increased, as has the importance of the city as a railroad terminus in the development of the "Mississippi Valley Route." One of the interesting and valu- able books emanating from Mr. Corthell's pen, "History of the Mississippi Jetties," was published in 1880. But a little over a decade had passed since with some mis- givings he accepted his first engineer's position. His reputation had in that time become national and he was rated with the brightest lights of his profession.
In the winter of 1880 he went to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, to make surveys for the ship railway, associated with Mr. Eads. He made a survey of the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos river, on the gulf of Mexico, and an examination of the Pacific coast for a harbor for the ship railway. In 1881-1884 he was chief engi- neer on the construction of the New York, West Shore & Buffalo, and the New York- Ontario & Western railways and their terminal at New York City, being in charge of the work "in the field." He was in charge at the same time as chief engi- neer of the extensive surveys on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec for the ship rail- way. From 1885 to 1887 he gave nearly his entire attention to this important project and the inter-oceanic question,
studying and writing upon its engineer- ing and commercial features. He ad- dressed the commerce committee of the House of Representatives, United States Congress, which had before it the bill to charter the ship railway. He delivered addresses in several cities of the United States, particularly at Ann Arbor, Michi- gan, before the American Association for
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the Advancement of Science; the Lowell Institute, Boston; the Academy of Science, New York; the Franklin Insti- tute, Philadelphia; a Commercial Con- vention at Pensacola, Florida; at the Ex- position, New Orleans; and in the Acad- emy of Music, Galveston, Texas. Sev- eral of these addresses were printed and widely distributed. He wrote a complete illustrated exposition of the subject, treat- ing fully its historical, engineering, con- structive and commercial features. The pamphlet, with others written by him, was sent to every civilized country, and did much to enlighten the world upon the method proposed and the great value to commerce of an inter-ocean route.
In 1887-1888 he was associated in an engineering partnership in New York and Chicago with George S. Morison, en- gaged in the design and construction of railroads, bridges, harbor works and water works. During this partnership there were constructed : The Cairo bridge over the Ohio river for the Illinois Central railroad, the longest steel bridge in the world; Nebraska City bridge over the Missouri river for the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy railway ; the Sioux City bridge over the same river for the Chi- cago & Northwestern railway; two bridges in Oregon; the railroad bridge over the St. John's river at Jacksonville, Florida, and several other large bridges and viaducts. Mr. Corthell made at that time several expert examinations of rail- road properties for bankers in London and New York.
In 1889-1890 he was chief engineer of the construction of the St. Louis Mer- chants' bridge over the Mississippi river ; chief engineer of the improvements at the mouth of the Brazos river, Texas, con- sisting of jetties built into the gulf of Mexico, increasing the depth of water from five feet to twenty feet. In 1890-
1893 he was in charge, as consulting engi- neer, of important railroad constructions in Chicago for the Illinois Central & Atch- ison, Topeka & Santa Fe railways, called the "Independent Entrance" of these roads. This work comprised the construc- tion of a six-track railroad, where only one had existed, and a rearrangement of the tracks at one of the most complicated track situations in the United States, if not in the world.
In 1889 he made examinations, plans and report on the proposed improvement of the harbor of Tampico, Mexico, for the Mexican Central railroad, and had charge of the construction of the jetties as chief engineer during (1890-91-92. They in- creased the depth from about eight feet, which existed at the mouth of the Pánuco river, over a changeable and dangerous bar, to a wide navigable channel with a least depth of twenty-eight feet. They raised the port of Tampico from one of little importance to be second entrepot of Mexico, and reduced freight rates from all United States and European ports to the entire interior of the Mexican Repub- lic. In 1895 Mr. Corthell wrote a descrip- tive and illustrated paper upon these works for the Institute of Civil Engineers, London, for which he was awarded the Telford premium and the Watt medal. The deep channel was practically produced by the works alone without resort to dredg- ing, except to remove some hard material which had formed around a large num- ber of wrecks sunken into the bar. The channel was maintained without any dredging whatever. In 1890 Mr. Corthell made a thorough personal examination between the Great Lakes and Quebec, Canada, of the question of an enlarged waterway between Chicago, Duluth and other ports of the Great Lakes, and the Atlantic seaboard, and wrote a paper on this subject for the Canadian Society of
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Civil Engineers, and the Western Society of Engineers at Chicago. He was presi- dent and chief engineer of the Southern Bridge and Railway Company, incorpor- ated in 1889 to build a bridge over the Mississippi river at New Orleans, and completed the plans and specifications for construction.
In 1891 Mr. Corthell visited Europe with several important objects in view. As trustee of the University of Chicago he examined six of the leading universi- ties and technical schools of Europe to obtain information for the university in carrying out its purpose of establishing in connection with it a great school of engineering and architecture. As a mem- ber of a committee of the Western Soci- ety of Engineers, engaged in solving the difficult railroad problem of Chicago, he examined in Europe thirty-five railroad terminals and complicated situations. He examined twenty-six harbors of Europe to get special information to use in con- nection with his work at Tampico, Mex- ico, and elsewhere. He examined nearly all the subways of the world from Buda- pest to Glasgow.
In 1892, under a contract with the Mex- ican government, he was engaged with two associates (Messrs. Stanhope and Hampson) on the completion of the Na- tional railroad of Tehuantepec, Mexico, which opens up a new and important inter-oceanic route across the Mexican Isthmus. He had charge of the surveys, plans and estimates for the harbors for the route, and made a report upon them to the Mexican government. He was chairman of the executive committee of sixteen engineering societies, which or- ganized an International Engineering Congress, held at Chicago, at the World's Exposition in 1893, and was chairman of the general committee of the Congress. In November, 1895, Mr. Corthell deliv-
ered a lecture before the National Geo- graphic Society, at Washington, D. C., on the Tehuantepec Inter-oceanic Route. This lecture was considered by the United States Senate of sufficient value to the general subject of inter-oceanic transit to authorize the printing of about 1,850 copies.
In 1897 Mr. Corthell undertook an ex- tensive tour of Europe to examine a great variety of engineering works-harbors, terminals, railroads, mountain railways, methods of building and maintaining ship canals, methods of dredging, the protec- tion of sandy coasts against encroach- ments of the sea, ship building, under- ground rapid transit, and particularly to learn the present methods of engineering education with the view of presenting the subject to President Harper of the Uni- versity of Chicago. His report on this subject was exhaustive, after examining nearly all the best schools of Great Britain and Continental Europe. This report was published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Many of the results of his various ex- aminations and investigations were pub- lished in the Engineering Magazine in New York and London. The most ex- tensive work done by him, however, in the two years' time in Europe was upon the subject of maritime commerce, its past, present and future. In August, 1898, he presented the results of his work to the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, which held its fif- tieth anniversary at Boston, Massachu- setts. The object of the paper was to show the development of commerce in the half century past and probable develop- ment in the half century to come.
In the spring of 1898 the Secretary of State, Mr. Sherman, commissioned Mr. Corthell as delegate to the seventh Inter- national Congress of Navigation held at
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Brussels in July of that year. He was elected vice-president of the congress, and placed upon the bureau of the congress to arrange for a permanent organization to be adopted at its next meeting at Paris in 1900. He wrote a report upon the Brus- sels Congress of two hundred and forty- five printed pages and one hundred and fifteen illustrations, which was printed as a United States Senate document by the suggestion of Secretary John Hay, one thousand copies being bound and distrib- uted by the State Department to all parts of the world.
Mr. Corthell, upon his return to the United States, was engaged as expert on several important works in the United States and Mexico. He was for eleven years engaged as engineer upon the pro- ject of the "Boston Cape Cod and New York Ship Canal" across the Isthmus of Cape Cod to shorten the distance between points south and points north of the peninsula, around which now pass annu- ally over 28,000,000 tons of commerce.
In 1899 the Argentine government re- quested the United States government to recommend an engineer of large experi- ence upon river and harbor works who would undertake to act as its consulting engineer for two years upon the impor- tant problems connected with the great rivers and harbors of that country. Mr. Corthell was recommended for this posi- tion, the contract for which was signed in New York on March 23, 1900, and on the 26th of the same month he left for Buenos Aires, where for over two years he was engaged in solving problems for commerce, and reporting to the minister of public works. Thirty-six different sub- jects were referred to him for investiga- tion and report.
He presented to the International Navi- gation Congress, Paris, 1900, a paper on "The Ports of the World," in which he
compiled important information relating to one hundred and thirty-one principal ports and ship canals of the world. The object of this paper, the tables of which were made up after an extended correspond- ence, was to show the necessity of making deep channels for sea-going vessels and the paper was really supplementary to that upon maritime commerce noted above, presented to the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science in 1898.
In 1902 Mr. Corthell was elected presi- dent of the government board of the port of Rosario, Argentine. The propositions and plans from Europe, presented to the government, were examined by the board during two months. It decided upon the plans and made its report to the govern- ment. The works were inaugurated by the president of the Republic on October 26, 1902. They cost $12,000,000 gold. Mr. Corthell represented the Argentine gov- ernment as a delegate to the International Navigation Congress held at Dusseldorf in the summer of 1902. He was also ap- pointed by the United States upon the permanent international commission of Navigation Congresses, which has its domicile in Brussels, and which position he held up to the time of his death. He was commissioned by the United States State Department delegate to the Inter- national Navigation Congress, convened at Milan, Italy, September 24, 1905, which he attended and where he presented a paper on the dimensions of vessels and ports of the world, the result of five years of investigations of two hundred and twenty ports from Aberdeen to Yoko- homa. During the winter of 1902 and the spring of 1903 Mr. Corthell delivered thirty-six lectures in thirty cities of the United States and Mexico upon "Two Years in Argentine as Consulting Engi- neer of National Public Works." These
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were delivered before universities, com- mercial bodies, engineering societies, etc., at the request of the Argentine govern- ment.
He was appointed in February, 1904, by Governor Odell of New York State upon the advisory board of consulting engineers, to build the barge canals of that State, to cost over $100,000,000, from which he resigned later to give all his time to Brazilian works. During 1904-05 he was engaged in making examinations, plans and estimates for extensive works in Brazil, at Para, in St. Catharina, and Rio Grande do Sul, and was engaged in the construction of the Para and Rio Grande works, consulting engineer of the former and chief engineer of the latter. He was engaged as consulting engineer on commercial works in other countries, and in hydraulic works of the United States.
In 1904 he presented a paper to the International Engineering Congress held at St. Louis on "Railroad Terminals, Re- view of General Practice." In the same year he wrote an illustrated article for the Encyclopedia Americana on "Large Pas- senger Stations of the World." In 1906 he presented a paper to the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, on "Pressures on Deep Foundations," and to the French Society of Civil Engineers on "Currents in the Navigable Waterways of the World." All four papers were the results of very extended investigations covering several years.
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