USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 27
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" Resolved, That in thus severing, at his own re- quest, the active connection of Mr. Tower with the company, we desire to place upon the permanent records of the organization our high appreciation of the great service he has performed in developing and rendering successful the enterprise. Mr. Tower came to its support in its infancy, and has been from the beginning its promoter and ruling spirit, giving to it always unselfishly the benefit of his ripe judgment and business experience, as well as unlimited aid from his own financial resources. During all the years of his connection with it, in- cluding years of general financial distress and anxiety, he has never faltered, and the full measure of prosperity which the company now enjoys is largely due to his personal efforts, and is a sufficient tribute at once to his business capacity and his patient courage. We exceedingly regret that Mr. Tower feels compelled to retire from the service of the company, but beg to assure him that he carries with him the gratitude and best wishes of the board and of all interested in the property."
Mr. Tower's life has been one of integrity, patient labor and of great good to others with whom he has lived. His influence extends very widely throughout the United States. As a citizen, in peace and in war, as a professional man, in business and in private life, his career has made him one of the remarkable men of his country and his time.
JOSEPH N. DUBARRY.
THE history of Joseph N. DuBarry as a railroad man is co-extensive with that of the Pennsylvania Railroad, with which he has been connected since a youth of seventeen years, in positions varying in responsibility and honor, from that of rodman with the surveying parties to the enviable one of Second Vice-President, though intermediately he performed some important work for other companies. He is a man who has risen solely through his own ability and close application to duty, from almost the low- est to almost the highest station in the employ of one of the largest railroad corporations in the United States, and his services for it have been invaluable. Joseph N. DuBarry was born November 19, 1830, in Bordentown, N. J., and was the son of Edward L. DuBarry, M.D., a surgeon in the United States Navy, and of Emma (Duane) DuBarry, a daughter
of William Duane, editor of the old Philadelphia Aurora-both parents being born in Philadel- phia. Young DuBarry received his classical edu- cation in Washington, D. C., and by natural incli- nation, at the age of seventeen years, entered the railroad service, which was just then beginning to attract the serious attention of young men, as a line of occupation promising a good future. This was in 1847, and from that time to 1850 he was engaged as a rodman, accompanying various corps of engi- neers in the preliminary survey of the Pennsylvania Railroad between Altoona and Pittsburgh. This was an arduous undertaking for the engineers of those days, and one which necessitated the over- coming of many obstacles, the chief one being the passage of nature's great barrier between East and West, the Allegheny Mountains. The long contin- uance and perplexing nature of the work gave the young man an experience which, in thoroughness and variety, would have been gained in no other field then open to railroad experiment in this coun- try, and he profited by it, gaining a knowledge which soon commended itself to his superiors, and resulted in his speedy advancement. In 1850 he was made Assistant Engineer of Construction, and he served in that capacity until May 7, 1852, when he was made Principal Assistant Engineer of the Eastern Di- vision, Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, surveys and location. In May, 1853, he became Principal Assistant Engineer of the Northern Pennsylvania Railroad, location and construction, in which position he re- mained until 1856, when the work being practically completed, and receiving an advantageous offer from the West he removed there. This post was that of Associate Engineer of the Surveys and Con- struction of the Pacific Railroad of Missouri. He filled it for over two years, performing very satis- factory work, and in September, 1858, accepted the still better office of Engineer on the western end of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway- which road was completed to Chicago under his charge-when he was made Superintendent of the Western Division of that road, extending from Crest- line to Chicago, 280 miles. From December, 1861, to July, 1867, he filled the responsible position of General Superintendent of the Northern Central Railway, Pennsylvania, and from the expiration of that period to February, 1875, he was Vice-Presi- dent of the same road. He was then made Assistant to the President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany, in which position he remained until October, 1882, a period of about seven years, when he was elected Third Vice-President of the same Company, and from this office he was elevated to that of Second Vice-President in July, 1888. His record
J. M. On Dany
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covers one of regular, constant advancement, which is seldom equaled in the railroad or in any other line of business. There were no leaps of prosperity in this career, but there was no cessation in the steady progress, and no backward steps. Every promotion was earned by faithfulness and efficiency, rather than attained by favoritism or adventitious circumstances, and there are few men whose judg- ment on matters of general railroad policy and man- agement is looked to with greater confidence in its correctness than in Mr. DuBarry's. He no doubt takes pardonable pride in his more than forty years' career as a railroad man, or at least it may be said he is entitled to do so, for it is a truly honorable thing for a man to make his way from one of the humblest to one of the highest positions in the ser- vice of so large a concern as the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company, employing thousands of men, among the ablest of whom there must necessarily be many rivalries. While his whole life has been devoted to a single calling, Mr. DuBarry has many pleasant social and other affiliations outside of rail- road circles, and enjoys the universal respect of those with whom he has been brought in contact. Mr. DuBarry was united in marriage February 15, 1859, to Miss Carrie, daughter of St. Clair Denny, of Pittsburgh, an officer of the United States army. They have one son and two daughters.
CHARLES B. WRIGHT.
CHARLES B. WRIGHT, a well-known citizen and business man, ex-President of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and for the past eighteen years conspicuously identified with the affairs of that great corporation, was born January 8, 1822, in Wysox Valley, Bradford County, Pa., to which place his parents had emigrated from New London, Conn., in 1814. Hisfather, Rufus Wright, who was a currier by trade, had (with a number of other Connecticut people) intended to settle in the Wyom- ing Valley, but was afterwards induced to locate at Wysox, where he established the first tannery that was put in operation in the valley of the upper Susquehanna. In that business he continued with success until the year 1830, when he removed to Tioga Point, or, (as better known in later years,) Athens, Pa., where he was connected with the bus- iness of the toll bridge across the north branch of the Susquehanna River. Five years later, when Charles was thirteen years of age, his father re- moved to a farm about five miles from the river, on the uplands in Smithfield, Bradford County. Until
that time Charles had been kept at the Athens Acad- emy, but after his removal with the family to the farm he only enjoyed the advantages of the winter term at the common school, for the completion of his education. He had sisters older and younger than himself, and an elder brother, who was engaged in business in the West. On him, therefore, his father principally relied for assistance on the farm, and he was constantly employed in the work re- quired upon it, except during the winter season. The farm was well adapted for the purpose of stock raising, and this business his father made a specialty, having a large number of cattle, sheep and horses. Charles became an expert rider, and made frequent trips to the village, two miles from the farm, to market the butter, eggs and other produce, and to purchase the store goods necessary for the use of the family, sometimes including ammunition for his shot gun. On these trips the young farmer usually rode a fleet horse, of which there were several on his father's pasture, and he seldom returned home without having had a race with some of the boys or men of the surrounding country, who could always depend on his being ready for that kind of amusement. In the spring of 1837, on one occasion when young Wright was engaged in trading his butter and eggs at the village store, he was partic- ularly noticed by a gentleman who was visiting there from the eastern part of the county, and who, after the lad's departure, made inquiries concerning him, receiving very favorable replies. On the fol- lowing day he visited the Wright homestead, and, in the absence of the boy and his father, informed Mrs. Wright that he was the proprietor of a trading post or store of general merchandise, at Le Rays- ville, on the border of Susquehanna County ; that he had seen her son, and, being very favorably im- pressed by his appearance, had come to offer him a position as clerk in his store. This information Mrs. Wright imparted to her husband and son on their return, and by the boy it was received with delight. During the second year of their residence on the farm, he had begun to grow restless. The growth of the crops was too slow a process for him; it was taking too long a time for the steers (which his father had given him) to become oxen; in short, the quiet farm life had begun to be distasteful to him. He therefore eagerly urged the acceptance of the merchant's proposal. Mr. Wright, however, opposed it, tellirg his son that he wished him to remain on the farm, and in a few years to assume its management. The mother also opposed the plan, but Charles reasoned with her, begging so earnestly, that she finally gave her assent, which also secured that of her husband, though both
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yielded in the full belief that homesickness would soon bring their boy back to them, to settle down and be contented with the farmer's life. The next day Charles met the merchant at the village, when the arrangement was made for him to go to Le Raysville in about thirty days. At the end of that time he took the stage (then the only means of con- veyance) and after a long day's ride reached the place of his destination, tired, sad, and already feeling the pang of homesickness, which, however, was soon dispelled on meeting his employer's wife, a kind and pleasant lady who had no children, and who received him cordially, assuring him that he was to be one of their family trio. Afterwards for a little time, symptoms of homesickness returned at intervals, but he resolutely repressed them. He had read the "Life of Benjamin Franklin," and from it he had learned the lesson that only by per- severance in his undertakings could he hope to win success in the world. He kept steadily on, winning the confidence of his employer, who, in 1841, gave him an interest in the business, he being then only nineteen years of age. He continued in the busi- ness two years longer, but at the age of twenty-one years, desirous of entering a wider field of enter- prise, he decided to leave Le Raysville and travel in the Western States, a part of his plan being to visit his sister, Mrs. William Spaulding, who was then residing in the town of Janesville, Rock Co., Wisconsin. His purpose having become known to Christopher L. Ward, President of the Bank of To- wanda, the latter invited him to visit him before his departure. He did so, and while at Towanda Mr. Ward and the other directors of the bank intrusted him with the charge of important landed interests in various parts of Illinois and Wisconsin, and in Chicago, which at that time was a town of only five thousand inhabitants. With this trust, and with the most sanguine hopes, the young man started for the West early in May, 1843. At that time such a jour- ney as he proposed to make was regarded as so serious a matter that on his departure he was bid- den good-by by many of his friends, who believed that the farewell was to be a final one. Traveling by stage and canal for eight days, he reached Buffa- lo, N. Y., whence he proceeded by way of the Lakes and was landed in Milwaukee in sixteen days from the time of his leaving Towanda. From Milwaukee to Janesville, sixty miles over mud roads, the con- veyance was a mail-wagon which ran three times a week. After a stay of about two weeks he traveled on horseback to Chicago, a distance of one hundred and thirty miles, much of the route being through a region where there were neither settlements nor roads, and when his only guide was his pocket
compass. Attending to the business with which he had been entrusted, he remained in Chicago two years. At the end of about that time he received in- telligence of the death of his father, and returned to his old home in the Susquehanna Valley. The estate was soon settled, and he again set out for the West, having, while in Pennsylvania, purchased (on time) the lands of which he had charge in Chicago and vicinity, and which, in consequence of the great western emigration in the years 1845-46, appreciated so rapidly in value that he was enabled to dispose of them during those years at a price which, after paying all his indebtedness, left him a profit of about ten thousand dollars, -a considerable fortune in those days for a young man of twenty-four years. In his travels backward and forward, between the East and West, Mr. Wright had repeatedly visited his mother's brother, Dr. Beebe, of Erie, Pa. There he formed the acquaintance of Miss Cordelia Wil- liams, daughter of an old merchant of that place. In August, 1847, they were married, and, in accordance with a condition exacted by the bride's mother, took up their residence in Erie; but in a few months the young wife was prostrated by a violent hemorrhage of the lungs, resulting in a lingering but fatal con- sumption. At Erie Mr. Wright was associated in partnership in mercantile business with his father- in-law, under the firm name of Williams & Wright. This was continued for about three years, after which they opened at Erie the first banking house ever established in Pennsylvania northwest of Pitts- burgh. It proved successful, and Mr. Wright re- tained hisinterest in it for about eight years, though in the meantime engaged in other business enterpri- ses. In 1825 he opened a branch of the Erie Bank on Third street, Philadelphia, and the business was continued under the firm name of C. B. Wright & Co., Mr. Williams retiring from the concern. In the year 1855 Charles B. Wright was made a direc- tor of the Sunbury & Erie (now Philadelphia & Erie) Railroad, representing the entire interest of the road west of the Alleghcnies. In February, 1857, he sailed for Europe as bearer of dispatches from the U. S. Government to its Ministers in Lon- don, Paris, Rome, Naples, and the Hague, and while engaged in the duties of this mission, and after they were completed, he made an extended tour of six months' duration on the Continent. While at Naples, Italy, he met Miss Sue Townsend, daughter of the late Wm. Townsend, of Sandusky, Ohio. After his return to the United States he was married (in August, 1858) to Miss Townsend, at Sandusky. He then retired from the Erie banking firm (which had been very successful in its business) and devoted most of his time and energies to the construction of
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C BUnight
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, which was com- pleted in 1863, and leased to the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company. During this period the discovery of oil had been made in Venango County, and Mr. Wright, with a few associates, commenced the con- struction of the Warren & Franklin Railroad, to run from a point on the Philadelphia & Erie line, near Warren, down the Allegheny River to Oil City. This enterprise was quickly carried through, and the road was consolidated with the Oil Creek road, under the name of the Oil Creek & Alleglieny River Rail- road. Mr. Wright took sole charge of the finances of the company, and also of the auditing depart- ment, and he had supervision of the other depart- ments. This road yielded an immense revenue for seven years, covering the period of the oil excite- ment in that region. In February, 1870, Mr. Wright sold the control of the road to the Allegheny Valley Railroad Company, and on the second of March following entered the direction of the North- ern Pacific Railroad Company, representing the five million syndicate raised by Jay Cooke & Co. This fund was the first money that went into the construc- tion of the road, the amount being subsequently increased to more than twenty millions. Since the autumn of 1873 perhaps no one connected with the Northern Pacific Railroad has given its affairs closer attention than the subject of this sketch. When the financial crash of the year fell upon the whole country, Mr. Wright was acting in the capacity of Vice-President. The financial agents had dis- posed of nearly or quite thirty millions of first mortgage bonds. The company had a floating debt of five million six hundred thousand dollars ; there were about six hundred miles of completed road, including one hundred miles on the Pacific Coast ; some two hundred miles could not pay its running expenses, and with hungry contractors, the situation was critical. To prevent the creditors from seizing the road by foreclosure, through the United States Courts at St. Paul, Mr. Wright, with his counsel, took prompt action before the United States Court at New York, threw the company into bankruptcy, and immediately asked for a receiver. The Presi- dent of the road, Gen. Geo. W. Cass, was made receiver, and Mr. Wright was elected President. The fortunes of the enterprise were at their lowest ebb at that time; the company had no credit, and was pressed with debts it could not pay. By skill- ful and conciliatory management, Mr. Wright ar- ranged to retire the floating debt, trading the assets of the company, of various sorts, with the creditors for its obligations. He operated the company with great economy, so that it began to earn a steadily increas- ing surplus over its expenses. In 1876, to satisfy the
people of Washington Territory that the company had not abandoned its original purpose of building a transcontinental line, he ordered work to be begun at Tacoma, on Puget Sound, and the portion of the Cascade branch reaching from that town to the Puyallup coal fields was constructed. It was im- portant to promptly disarm the opposition to the company in Congress and on the Pacific Coast, and Mr. Wright purchased the first cargo of iron for the new work on his own credit, the company having none at that time. In 1877 Mr. Wright secured for the Northern Pacific a terminus in St. Paul,-an im- portant point which had been overlooked in the charter,-by purchasing the franchise of a local Min- nesota road, reorganizing the corporation under the name of the Western Railroad Company, securing for the Northern Pacific Company a majority of its capital stock, and building a line from Brainerd southward to Sauk Rapids, a distance of sixty miles. He let this work, purchased the rails on his own responsibility, and in less than five months opened the connection between the main line and Brainerd and St. Paul, a distance of one hundred and thirty-seven miles. In 1878 the credit of the Northern Pacific Company had been restored to such an extent that a plan for resuming construction on the main line west of the Missouri River was adopted and ways and means provided to build two hundred and ten miles to the Yellowstone River. A similar plan was adopted to construct two hundred miles, from the head of the navigation of the Columbia River, on the Pacific slope, to Spokane Falls. The whole four hundred and ten miles were at once placed under contract and pushed to completion. In the spring of 1879, the long continued strain for six laborious years had made such an inroad upon his physical condition that it became necessary for Mr. Wright to retire from his active duties, and, contra- ry to the wishes of the entire board of directors, he decided to be relieved from the responsibility as President, and on the twenty-fourth of May, 1879, he addressed the following letter to the board of directors :
" Gentlemen :- Duty to myself and family compels me to resign my position as President of the com- pany. The long continued strain upon me, men- tally and physically, makes withdrawal for a time from active labor necessary to establish a condition favorable to the success of a critical operation which I am advised to have performed, for the restoration of my sight. In retiring from the Presidency of the Northern Pacinc Railroad Company, I beg to ex- press my gratitude for the confidence you bestowed upon me during the entire period since the reorgan- ization, and for the kind, considerate and efficient support you have at all times given to my efforts. My constant desire has been to see the affairs of the company established upon such a basis as would,
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
with due regard to prudence and safety, enable the work of the construction to be resumed. And it is now highly gratifying to be able to say that the time has arrived when this enterprise may be vigorously pushed, with every prospect of speedy completion. The finances of the company are in a healthy condi- tion. No cash liabilities exist, except those recently incurred for materials for construction, and to meet those ample means are provided. On the nineteenth of September, 1873, the company's bills payable and other floating indebtedness amounted to five and a half millions of dollars. Many of these debts were of a peculiarly sacred character, such as wages due for labor and cost of materials purchased on credit and for construction, money borrowed under cir- cumstances that demanded payment on every prin- ciple of good faith. There was also a large amount due on the Pacific Coast for wages and materials, which was afterwards increased by reason of the ex- traordinary efforts made to reach Puget Sound with- in the time limited by law. The larger part of these debts and liabilities of the old organization was se- cured by collaterals, which were of more value than the particular debts they severally secured ; and so it was for the interest and advantage of the reor- ganized company to pay these in order to protect and save collaterals. I am happy to say that all these debts and liabilities have been settled and wiped out of existence, except that about $40,000 (the payment of which has been postponed for one or two years) has been carried to the account of bills payable in the new organization. The last matter in the litigation growing out of that old in- debtedness has been settled by the payment of $500. The present financial condition of the company is a subject on which you well may be congratulated. It is also a pleasure to me to say that my official and personal relations with the officers have been, with- out exception, uninterruptedly harmonious ; and to each of them I extend my thanks and best wishes. Although I resign the office of President of the company, my interest in its affairs will never be abated, and its future prosperity and final success will be objects of my most cherished hopes. With great respect, I am,
" Yours faithfully,
"CHAS. B. WRIGHT, President."
In June, 1879, Mr. Wright sailed for Europe, where he made a somewhat extended tour for the restoration of his health. On his return home in the autumn of that year, a committee of the direct- ors of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company pre- sented him with a handsomely bound book con- taining the following words, beautifully engrossed :
" The directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company have listened with great regret to the an- nouncement of their President, Chas. B. Wright, of his resignation of that office. While the board have not been unprepared for this decision on his part, they had hoped that it might not have been found imperatively necessary, but that Mr. Wright might have been able, by temporary absence, to have obtained the repose needed. It cannot but be a source of special sorrow to us all, that the skillful pilot who took the helm in the darkest moments of the storm in which our company bid fair at one
time to be engulfed, should now, spent by his labors for our enterprise, be compelled to quit the control of guidance of the company at the time he has, . by his caution, watchfulness and unceasing care, brought us into smooth and clear waters, and when every breeze seemed to waft prosperity. This board is deeply conscious of the obligations which both this company and ourselves owe to Mr. Wright. From the moment of reorganization he has labored unceasingly, and with absolute unselfishness, for the common good. He has never spared himself, nor has he sought for himself profit or glory. He has even been satisfied not to receive honor well merited for his services. If the company has obtained the benefit, he has not cared to reap the praise. To have successfully brought the company to its present po- sition has been a task which required talent of no common order. To rebuild a fallen edifice of credit, which, when once shaken, is the most difficult of all things to restore ; to combine as he has done, a thorough and searching eccnomy with a full main- tenance of efficiency ; to have preserved friendship when it existed, and to have concilitated almost every hostile element encountered-these are indeed laurels to administrator. But the directors are per- haps excusable for dwelling most at this time upon those qualities and characteristics of Mr. Wright which have most strongly come home to themselves. His uniform courtesy, urbanity and kindness ; his readiness to listen fully and patiently to every one's views ; his total lack of pride of opinion ; his just and equal balance of mind have so especially en- deared him to those over whom he has presided for the past years, that our personal regrets are as strong as those we feel for the great enterprise we have been laboring for together, and which now, for a season at least, loses the guidance of his firm and gentle control.
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