USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 37
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
In the fall of 1847 Mr. Wood was earnestly urged by the prominent stockholders of the company to ac- cept the post of President,-Charles Ellet having ex- pressed an intention to resign in case of such accept- ance. He, however, shortly resigned uncondition- ally. Frederick Fraley was subsequently induced to accept aud still holds that post. The contest be- tween the two companies was maintained until 1870, when their interests were merged and the charges for carrying coal from the mines to the city have reverted to the rate paid prior to the construction of the Reading Railroad. While engaged in aiding the Schuylkill Navigation Company Mr. Wood was called to another public duty. The pressing necds of railroads from tide-water to the West had become evident. Such lines were being built through the State of New York, and Baltimore was urging the Legislature of Pennsylvania to grant her a "right of way " through that State for such a purpose. The most prominent business men of Philadelphia - among others, Thomas P. Cope, David S. Brown, John Grigg and Samuel V. Merrick-set themselves heartily at work, both to oppose the grant of such a "right of way " and to raise funds for the Pennsyl- vania Railroad Company, to construct the road from Harrisburgh to Pittsburgh. To promote this an enthusiastic public meeting was held December 10, 1845, and was presided over by Thomas P. Copc. Subscriptions were actively solicited to the stock of the railroad. In the spring of 1846 Councils were petitioned to vote $2,500,000. This not having been done, in the fall elections a ticket was run for Coun- cils pledged to such a vote. Motives of general politics defeated the ticket. But in November Councils voted $2,000,000, conditioned upon a pop- ular subscription of a like sum and the completion of one hundred miles of road. To secure this sub- scription the city was divided into districts and gen- tlemen were selected to canvass them. One of these was assigned to Mr. Wood. Retired men of means, manufacturers and merchants, larger or smaller, shopkeepers, draymen-in fine, whoever had a stake in the city, no matter what, were laid under contri- bution. The mighty effort * needed by a great city to obtain what would be now a moderate sum for an enterprise vital to her prosperity, is a most strik- ing example of the vast change in the financial con- ditions of that period and this day of great railroad syndicates and financial combinations. But the names of the men who made this struggle on be- half of their city should be remembered with honor.
March 16, 1847, Mr. Wood was a member of a com- mittee to nominate the first President and board of the company. On the next evening a mecting of the stockholders was held at the Exchange and rati- fied the nominations, and elected Samuel V. Mer- rick as President, and Thomas P. Cope, Robert Toland, David S. Brown, James Magee, Richard D. Wood, Stephen Colwell, George W. Carpenter, Christian E. Spangler, Thomas T. Lea, William C. Patterson, John A. Wright and H. C. Corbit, Mana- gers. On the twenty-eighth of the following month the board settled the terms upon which J. Edgar Thomson agreed to act as Chief-Engineer. In No- vember of the next year, feeling that duty no longer required a sacrifice of his time, Mr. Wood resigned from the board in favor of Commodore Robert F. Stockton. Mr. Wood has nowhere impressed him- self more strongly perhaps than upon the Cambria Iron Company. This company was created in 1852, to make iron rails at Johnstown, a point on the Pennsylvania Railroad where ores, fuel and trans- portation came together on exceptionally good terms. By the fall of 1854 the expenditures of the company had reached $1,100,000. Its early history, however, was one of miscalculation and embarrass- ment, and in the spring of 1855, having issued stock at forty per cent., and sold first and second mortgage bonds, it was threatened with final disaster from execution by creditors. In this crisis a combination under the namc of Wood, Morrell & Co. was made among its stockholders, which leased its plant for seven years. The active managers of this firm were selected by Mr. Wood. They were his brother, Charles S. Wood, his partner, E. Y. Townsend, who as a young man had entered his dry goods house in 1844, and Daniel J. Morrell, who had been strongly recommended to him by his friend Oliver Martin. This capable management, f although its great roll- ing mills were twice burned. down, wrought a final success. Some large contracts in the winter of 1857 relieved it from anxieties-since which time, until now, the works have never been without satisfactory orders. The Company is without debt, and has ten thousand men in its pay, and has expended $12,000,- 000 on its vast plaut and inventories of material. But those who own its stock, or are on its pay rolls, owe this good fortune, next to their own capabili- ties, to the sagacity and force of character of Mr. Wood. In December, 1850, Mr. Wood acquired from a debtor one of those relics of a by-gone time,
* The total subscription finally made by the city, the North- ern Liberties and Spring Garden amounted to $5,000,000, upon which investment there has been made a profit of $6,000,000, over and above six per cent. interest.
+ C. S. Wood and E. Y. Townsend have each been President of the Cambria Iron Company. D. J. Morrell twice repre- sented the Cambria district in Congress, was Chairman of the Committee on Commerce and introduced the bill authorizing the Centennial Exhibition in 1876.
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179
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
the ruins of which may still be seen in the pine for- ests of New Jersey. It was the old charcoal furnace at Millville, on the Maurice River, with its circum- jacent traets of timber, in all 20,00) acres. The business carried on at it had been to make castings, stoves, water pipes, &c., in a primitive way, by dip- ping hot iron in ladles from its hearth. Early in 1851 Mr. Wood erected a small but well appointed foundry for making cast iron mains, and afterwards further utilized the water power by building a eot- ton mill, bleachery and dye house. These two in- dustries are now conducted by his sons and have grown to be one, perhaps, the largest, the other among the largest of their kind in the country. Millville is half way between Camden and Cape May. In 1850 a stage, square-bodied and yellow- curtained, dragged daily between either point a weary load through miles of sand and pines. South- ward from Camden an old railroad embankment ex- tended for seven miles. The traek liad long sinee been removed, and when a West Jersey man would come to town the yellow stage was his sole reliance. The old embankment was controlled by the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, and so also indeed seemed the whole State of New Jersey. To induce the C. & A. R. R. Co. to convert this embankment to the proper uses of a railroad for West Jersey, or, failing in this, to permit him to do so, was the earn- est aim of Mr. Wood, soon after entering the State. So great, however, was the inertia of this old rail- road corporation, and lest its power might pass from it, that for eight long years he pressed in vain. Finally, in 1860, they met him half way, agreeing to build from Camden eighteen miles south to Glass- boro, and granting him a charter to extend the rail- road * twenty-two miles further south to Millville, and thus began the West Jersey Railroad system. The joint roads were found to pay and were quiekly followed by branches to the chief points of West Jersey, and now the passenger trains daily leaving Camden for that portion of the State outnumber the yellow stages of twenty-five years ago. In April, 1861, Mr. Wood sold to C. K. Landis (then a young and unknown man), upon credit, the traet of land of 20,000 acres on the Millville and Glassboro Railroad, upon which the town and settlement of Vineland have since been formed. When sold it was a wilderness, but Mr. Wood pereeived its soil and position had capabilities which were not then under- stood, and he recognized also the ability of the pur- chaser to present these in such a manner as to at-
tract settlers. In this expectation he was not disap- pointed, for there have been gathered at Vineland nearly ten thousand souls. In November, 1864, immediately after the second election of Lineoln, knowing that the Rebellion would not last, Mr. Wood again sailed abroad and spent nearly two years in European and Eastern travel. IIe looked upon these seencs with the eyes of one always quiek to observe and to whom a long knowledge of books, men and affairs had given a true and keen insight into whatever touches the happiness of men wher- ever found. He observed the lives of men in the Old World and thought of the greater prosperity to be enjoyed in the New. He foresaw his own coun- try springing rapidly forward, no longer weighted with slavery, and wished that he were young again to participate in its movements. He returned home in the summer of 1866. That fall, in something of the fervid spirit prevalent at the North towards a rceonstructed South, he joined in an investment in Virginia. His latest thoughts of business ran much upon finding ores for a proposed furnace on tide water to supply his foundries with pig iron. Early in 1869 he was stricken with pneumonia from exposure while filling the great reservoir just eon- structed at Millville, and died in six weeks. It may be truly said of him that his "last days were his best days." Members of his day, perhaps, have left fortunes as large or larger than did Mr. Wood. Few, if any, have left records of more useful lives. The "Board of Trade," which he aided to found in 1833, upheld his example as the "constant friend and efficient counsellor and assistant of industrious and meritorious young men in their efforts to rise to eminence and usefulness in the relative positions of life;" and note that it had been said of him, that " there are at least one hundred men now enjoying affluence as retired merchants, or elevated positions as active business men in this community, who owe their first success to a partnership in some of the various business enterprises inaugurated and prose- cuted by Mr. Wood." And herein may lie his best legacy.
ROBERT PITCAIRN.
ROBERT PITCAIRN, General Agent and Super- intendent of the Pittsburgh Division of the Penn- sylvania Railroad, was born May 6, 1836, in the vil- lage of Jolinstone, near Paisley, Scotland. He was the son of John and Agnes Pitcairn; his father (now dead) being noted as an expert meehanie. His father and mother early in their married life
* The Millville and Glassboro Railroad was built under the charge of George B. Roberts, now President of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad, then a young engineer recommended by J. Edgar Thomson to Mr. Wood as a young engineer of promise.
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
immigrated to America, but had returned to their Scottish home. However, in 1846, when Robert was a boy of ten years, they returned to America and settled in Pittsburgh, for the sole purpose of giving their family a better chance than they would have in Scotland. Their circumstances being lim- ited, Robert reccived but the usual common school education, partly in Scotland, partly in the new home in America. From force of circumstances he was obliged to work for his living almost from his start in life, and thus his education would have been meagre, but that his ambition to learn set him to attending night school after his day's work was done. At first he served in a variety store, and in any other work he could get to do. But in 1848 his friend and early companion, Mr. A. Carnegie, then a messenger boy in the office of the Atlantic and Ohio Telegraph Company at Pittsburgh, se- cured for him a similar position, bringing him in contact with bright, hard-working, ambitious boys in the same condition of life-all of whom have since made an honorable record-and inciting him to extra exertions to keep pace with them. He was only twelve years old, and even at this early age scemed to have attracted the atten- tion (with others) of Mr. James D. Reid, the pioneer manager and superintendent of telegraph lines in this country, to whom so many boys are indebted for inspiration, help and advice, and who felt war- ranted in saying in his work on "The History of the Telegraph in America," the following :
"In Pittsburgh were five messenger boys who merit special record. Each of them has made a record of his own * * : k Robert Pitcairn ; he bore his character in his face.
Gentle, steady, prompt, true."
The same sturdy determination to advance which had characterized him when he employed his even- ing's leisure in study at the night school, now set Robert to work on the study of the telegraph, and to perfecting himself as an operator. He soon ac- complished his desire ; was one of the first opera- tors to read by sound, and, as quickly as he was found to be fitted he was promoted and soon after sent to Steubenville, Ohio, as assistant operator and telegraph line repairman, when the railroad west of Steubenville was started. He was next pro- moted to operator at Pittsburgh on the Cleveland line, when the old Ohio & Penna., now the P., F.W. & C. R. R. was started, and afterwards as operator at Pittsburgh on the Atlantic and Ohio, (a line from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia) when the Pennsylvania Railroad was nearing completion. The railroad busi- ness that passed through his hands gave young Pit- cairn a lively interest in the same, and a desire to be-
come connected with it. In 1852 or 1853 he was suc- cessful in entering the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. as telegraph operator and assistant ticket agent at the Mountain House, near Holidays- burg, while the road was still using the old Portage road with its inclined planes over the mountains. In February, 1854, the company completed their own track over the Alleghenies, and Pitcairn was transferred to the General Superintendent's office at Altoona, temporarily, to await a position similar to the one at Mountain House, at one of the moun- tain way stations then about to be opened. By this timc, the only ambition which Mr. Pitcairn has ever experienced began to grow within him. Thomas A. Scott, afterwards President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, was in charge of the road west of Altoona, and was recognized as one of the most promising young railroad men in the country. Mr. Scott and the other young and rising officers of the Pennsylvania Railroad (then in its infancy) became young Pitcairn's ideal, and his objective point the Superintendency of the Pittsburgh Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. With this object in view, it was fortunate for him that, instead of being sent out as telegraph operator at some little mountain station, he had made himself sufficiently useful and valuable to be worth retaining in the General Superintendent's office at Altoona. Here in fact he remained, filling different positions until 1861, ex- cepting for about a year, when he was sent by the Pennsylvania Railroad to the Western Division of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago, while the road was being completed between Plymouth and Chicago. In 1861, Mr. Pitcairn having served as Act- ing Division Superintendent in previous years, was regularly appointed Superintendent of the Middle Division, embracing that part of the line between Conemaugh and Mifflin. Soon afterwards, however, the road was divided into three instead of four divi- sions, leaving Mr. Pitcairn (the last appointed Super- intendent) without a division, when a new depart- ment was created for him, that of Superintendent of Transportation, which position he was appointed to, and he organized the Car Record, System of Car Mileage, and other matters pertaining to that position as it is now conducted. As Superintendent of Transportation, the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion found him of course heavily taxing his skill, experience and labor in the transportation of large bodies of troops and supplies. Particu- larly was this the case in 1862, when after the battle of Antietam he had charge of the trans- portation of the troops and general traffic between Harrisburgh and Hagerstown, and, in addition, had charge, as Superintendent, of the Middle Division,
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
between Harrisburgh and Altoona, and as Superin- tendent of the Pittsburghi Division, between Altoona and Pittsburgh. As Superintendent of Transpor- tation he had the best lopes and chances of pro- motion, but his early ambition and desire were so strong that in 1865 he sought and secured (though at less compensation) the object of his higliest am- bition : that of Superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division, and his long cherished dream of return- ing to Pittsburgh-where he first broke ground as an humble messenger boy-filling the honored posi- tion of the highest local official of the great corpo- ration he served, was at last realized. This ardent wish had finally been secured by industry, fidelity and perseverance, and no wonder he felt proud of his achievement. When it is cousidered how very few men ever set before them a definite object to be attained, other than wealth, or power and posi- tion in the abstract, it is extraordinary to find such a determination not only deliberately formed, but successfully carried out. For ten years he con- tinued to hold this position, when, in 1875, that of General Agent of the road at Pittsburgh was added to it ; of course largely increasing his duties and re- sponsibilities. Mr. Pitcairn has thus grown up, as it were, both with the telegraph and the railroad business, which he has seen grow from inception to their present vast proportions, with the agree- able and satisfactory reflection that he has been among those who have helped to shape the progress of these great industries. In 1856, on the 26th of July, Mr. Pitcairn was married to Miss Elizabeth E. Rigg, daughter of John Rigg, a well and favor- ably known resident of Altoona, formerly of Lewis- town, Pennsylvania. Of this marriage there have been born four children, three girls and a boy, the youngest child born October 2, 1874. While not in any sense a politician, Mr. Pitcairn has been a staunch and unwavering Republican from the or- ganization of the party. He was Secretary of the first Republican Convention held in Blair County, Pa., being next to that in Allegheny County, onc of the first conventions of that party. In religion Mr. Pitcairn is a Presbyterian, taking deep interest in forming and sustaining a church and Sabbath- school in his own immediate neighborhood. He has long been a member of the Masonic Order, and is Past Grand Commander of the Knight Templers of Pennsylvania. Of late his duties have prevented him from taking any active part in the Order. As has been already pointed out, Mr. Pitcairu's life has been somewhat remarkable in the fact that he set before him a definite object to be attained, and reached it. Beyond this he has had no specific
ambition, excepting perhaps, tlie desire common to the Scotch nature, of remaining in one and the same service all his life. In his success in both these directions he is to be considered singularly fortunate. Mr. Pitcairn has had no longing for great wealth, caring only to get a sufficient liveli- hood, and to live within his income and to save a little each year until he had gained a competency. He has never speculated, or bought a share of stock in speculation in his life. He has been and is naturally somewhat proud that he lias achieved these objects of his life by his own merit and industry, without the aid of powerful and influential friends or fortuitous surroundings. In his younger days his hard struggles in Pittsburgh and elsewhere were brightened by the cver-glowing hope that he might some day return to that city in the position he now occupies. Further, as he had seen the in- fancy of railroad construction and operation, he de- sired to live long enough to witness that vast interest conducted on scientific principles and extended over the whole country, and this also has been granted him. His own achievement has been to rise, step by step, from the lowest round to the top of the ladder, perfecting himself as far as possible in every position he held, before he essayed a new one ; and thus gradually conquering, and acquiring a thorough knowledge of one of the most compli- cated, difficult and arduous professions known to civilization. His life is valuable to the world in the excellent moral it conveys, showing what attention, duty and faithfulness will do, even without the aid of powerful friends. In addition to his railroad duties, Mr. Pitcairn is active and earnest in other fields of usefulness, looking to the general good of the com- munity, and is interested iu many of the leading indus- tries of the country. He has been a director of the Masonic Bank since its organization; is now a di- rector of the Citizens National Bank of Pittsburgh ; a director of the First National Bank of Greens- burg, and Resident Vice-President and director of the Western Pennsylvania Exposition, and a director of the American Surety Company. Becoming ac- quainted with Mr. George Westinghouse, Jr., years ago, when that gentleman started his world-known and celebrated air brake, Mr. Pitcairn assisted in the organization and introduction of the same, and is now Vice-President and director of the company and is also a director in the Philadel- phia Natural Gas Company, assisting in its organ- ization aud introduction, as well as other corpora- tions known as the Westinghouse plants, together with other institutions of Pittsburgh, both local and general.
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
ENOCH W. CLARK.
A GREAT power in financial circles well known to the older generation of Philadelphians (and a prom- inent character as well in general ways), was Enoch W. Clark, who died as long ago as 1856. He was one of several prominent men given to Pennsylvania (and noticed in this work) by the " Old Bay State," and was born in East Hampton in 1802, being a de- scendant of one of the oldest Massachusetts families, and, in fact, a direct descendant from Capt. William Clark, who settled near the town of our subject's birth in 1639. The old banking house of S. & M. Allen, which had its main offices in Philadelphia and New York, with branches in some of the lesser cities-one of the most prominent financial institu- tions of the country during its cra-was the business Alma Mater in which Mr. Clark, while still a boy, received the rudiments of that sound and thorough education which in later life led to his great success, and made his name one of the most honored in Quaker City fiscal circles. When he arrived at his majority, in 1823, Clark, through the influence of Solomon Allen, head of the firm (and whose especial protégé he was), became the manager of a Provi- dence (R. I.) branch of the house, which was opened by him. He there met with marked success, so far as the banking house was concerned, but was somewhat unfortunate in another line of business, which he took up later-(severing the connection with Allen). In 1833, after varied experiences, he removed to Boston, and resumed the banking busi- ness, only to be carried down to almost absolute failure in what is commonly called the panic of 1837, although its dispossessing effect began to be severely felt in 1836. It thus came about that after thirteen years experience, with the possession of genuine ability and application, which had been really extraordinary, he found himself in a position which would have discouraged many less steadfast men ; but he began anew, and though under consid- erable disadvantage, entered upon a career which, in the true sense of the term, was one of great suc- cess, though for long years not one which resulted in the amassing of such a great fortune as is com- monly understood as being synonymous with that abused word success. He returned to Philadelphia. In January, 1837, he opened a banking business with his brother-in-law, Edward Dodge, on Third street, where he erected, in 1852, a building which has been the home of his own and succeeding firms to the present time-and the ability and application which he invested resulted in returns which for the times were reasonably large, but which during seven years amounted only to enough to pay the
debts with which he had in prior years been over- come. And herein lay, in a large degree, the success achieved by E. W. Clark. He paid the debts which "hard times," a period of general financial depres- sion, and in fact as wide spread failure as the coun- try ever knew, had burdened him with, and he lived long enough not only to demonstrate his honesty but his ability. In the years intervening between 1844 and his death in 1856, he amassed a consider- able fortune. Jay Cooke becanic a partner in the house after being for some time a clerk-about 1844 -and Mr. Clark's son, Edward W., was admitted in 1849. It was in 1854, when Clarence H. was ad- mitted to the firm, that E. W. Clark withdrew from the really active management of the house, and only a year later that his well earned ease was dispelled by the attack of a painful ailment-having its ori- gin in nicotine poisoning-which finally destroyed his life in 1856, while he was in his fifty-fourth year. Mr. Clark's achievements in banking were made during a period of which the younger generation of financiers have little actual knowledge, and they were made in a comparatively few years, and that after many more resulting in failure, of which he did not seek to escape the burdensome consequences; and he thus not only formed a house, which has been a successful one, and left a fortune, but handed down a legacy consisting of the honored name of an honest man, worth even more than riches.
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