USA > Pennsylvania > The Book of Prominent Pennsylvanians; a standard reference > Part 15
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For four years Mr. Rodd was a student in the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis. He acquitted himself there with credit and served from 1862 to 1865 as an officer in the United States navy. Life on board ship under the command of an officer trained in the naval service is a hard but bene- ficial training for a young man, and through faithful attention to duty Mr. Rodd reaped full benefit from the serv- ice. A few years after Mr. Rodd left the navy he secured a position in the city engineer's office in Philadelphia. He stayed there for three years, leav- ing in 1872 to enter the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. He started humbly as a rodman for a corps of surveyors, but his rise was rapid and steady. Within less than a year he became assistant engineer. In 1877 he was appointed principal assistant engineer.
Skill in his profession, sterling honesty and steadfast devotion to the interests of the company won for Mr. Rodd the supreme confidence of his superiors, and in 1889 he was appointed chief engineer of all Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburgh.
Few men possess a greater reputation in the engineering profession than Mr. Rodd, and from 1890 to 1905, in addition to his work for the Pennsylvania Company, Mr. Rodd was engaged in the private practice of his profession. He constructed many large plants for manufacturing and other purposes.
Usually a man interested in scientific problems cares little for business, but Mr. Rodd is an exception to this rule. He is active in many business enterprises, and his shrewd advice and wise direction has increased the prosperity and prestige of every company with which he is connected. Mr. Rodd is a director in the Commonwealth Trust Company, the People's Natural Gas and Pipeage Company and in many railroad companies.
Mr. Rodd delights to mingle with other members of the engineering profession for the study of engineering problems, and he belongs to the American Society of Civil Engi- neers, the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association, and to the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania.
Few men get more pleasure than Mr. Rodd from social life, and he is a member of the Pittsburgh Club, the Duquesne Club, the Allegheny Country Club, the Pittsburgh Golf Club, the University Club of Pittsburgh, the Metropolitan Club of New York and the Chicago Club. Mr. Rodd lives in a beautiful and tastefully furnished home at 5407 Ellsworth avenue, Pittsburgh. He was married December 23, 1879, to Mary Watson.
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Among the best known railroad men of Pitts- burgh is Edward H. Utley, vice-president and general
EDWARD
manager of the Bessemer and Lake Erie
H. UTLEY. Railroad. He is a native of Wadsworth, Ohio, but has resided in Pennsylvania
since 1869. Mr. Utley's first railway employment was in 1867 as station agent with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad at Granville, Wisconsin. Then with the Allegheny Valley R. R., from 1875 to 1889, during which time he was general freight and passen- ger agent. In 1889 he went with the Carnegie Steel Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., as general freight agent. Then with the Sales Department of the same company until 1897, and finally in that same year under the or- ganization of the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, as general freight and passenger agent. In 1901 he be- came general manager, and is now also vice-president and a director. He is a member of the Duquesne Club.
Horace F. Baker, prominent attorney and business man, was born April 15, 1878, in Mayville, Chautauqua county, New York. He is the son of
HORACE F.
George A. Baker and Julia B. Baker, of
BAKER. Youngstown, Ohio. He was educated in the grammar and high schools of Youngstown, O. He graduated from Harvard College in 1901 and from the Harvard law school in 1903. He was admitted to the bar January 2, 1904, in Allegheny county. He practiced law in Pittsburgh for one and one-half years, then was ap- pointed assistant to the general counsel of the Wabash railroad lines east of Toledo, O. Upon the appointment of receivers for the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal and West Side Belt railroads in May and June, 1908, he was retained by the receivers as their counsel. December 18, 1912, he became receiver of both railroad lines. He is at- torney and director for the Pittsburgh Terminal Railroad and Coal Company. He belongs to the Duquesne Club.
Frederick Clinton Baird, Freight Traffic Manager of the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad Company was born
FREDERICK in Erie County, Pa. His parents were George W. Baird and Helen (nee Powell)
CLINTON BAIRD. Baird. Mr. Baird was educated in the public schools of Erie county. In 1888 he went to work for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company as a telegraph operator; in 1890 with the Northern Pacific Railroad Company; in 1895 with the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad Company, with whom he has advanced to his present position. He is a member of the Duquesne Club, the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, the Union Club, the Traffic Club, of Pitts- burgh, B. P. O. Elks, Scottish and York Rites in Mason- ry, Shriner Is married and has two sons.
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JAMES DAWSON CALLERY.
James Dawson Callery, a man of national reputation in street railway circles and a manufacturer of note, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 11, 1857. He is the son of James Callery and Rose (Downing) Callery. Mr. Callery se- cured his education by first attending the old Fourth Ward (Pittsburgh) pub- lic school. He completed his education by attending Notre Dame University, in the State of Indiana.
His first business venture was with his father in the leather manufacturing business. After attaining considerable success in that employment, during which he became prominent in the busi- ness life of Pittsburgh, Mr. Callery or- ganized and operated the Pittsburgh Provision Company.
Adding further to his business suc- cess in that venture, Mr. Callery launched out into the street railways business in 1888, beginning this line of activity as president of the Second Ave- nue Passenger Railway in his native city. From that time to the present Mr. Callery has been advancing into the higher councils of street railways man- agement in Pittsburgh, as well as branching out into numerous manufac- turing fields. His interests in street railway promotion work was provoked by his serv- ice as a director of the West End Passenger Railway back in 1883. He is now the presi- dent of the Pittsburgh Railways Company and its underlying concerns. In 1889 and from that time to the present he has been extensively engaged in the project of promot- ing electric light and gas companies. In Pittsburgh and other large cities he is promi- nent in corporation and financial circles.
Aside from his high standing in the circles active in promoting street railways, Mr. Callery is president of the Allegheny County Light Company; president of the Pennsyl- vania Light Company; vice-president of the Philadelphia Company; director of the Co- lonial Trust Company of Pittsburgh; director of the Diamond National Bank of Pitts- burgh; director of the Diamond Savings Bank of Pittsburgh; director of the United Railways Investment Company; vice-president of the Excelsior Express Company; di- rector of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, and director of the Westinghouse Machine Company. He is, moreover, prominently connected with a num- ber of other industrial concerns in Pittsburgh and throughout the State of Pennsyl- vania.
Mr. Callery is a member of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Coun- try Club, the University Club and the Allegheny Country Club. He is a member of the Metropolitan Club in Washington, D. C., and the Railroad Club in New York city. Mr. Callery wields considerable power in shaping the business destinies of Pittsburgh. In the marts of his native city he has been unusually active for many years, and his name has been identified with a number of movements launched for the purpose of advancing the interests of the Smoky City. His ability has brought him recognition not alone in Pittsburgh and the Keystone State, but he is a national figure in various fields of business.
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J. R. LEONARD.
Jesse Rose Leonard, oil and gas operator, was born in Erie, Pa., Sep- tember 10, 1848, the son of William and Nancy (Prindle) Leonard. When 17 years old he left the family farm and went to work in the oil field then open- ing up on Oil Creek, in Venango county, Pa. He soon became a producer of pe- troleum, and later of natural gas; he also engaged actively in the banking business. He is now a director and president of the Devonian Oil Company, a director and vice-president of the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company; di- rector and president of the Beaver Trust Company, and director of the Co- lumbia National Bank. Mr. Leonard is affiliated with several Masonic orders; is also a member of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh. By his marriage to Mary McGee (deceased), of Clarion county, he has five children ; and by his second wife, Bertha Ault, of the same county, he has two children. He resides at Beaver, Pa.
WILLIAM A. MAGEE.
William Addison Magee, mayor of Pittsburgh, was born May 4, 1873, in Pittsburgh. He was educated in the grade schools of Pittsburgh and in the Pittsburgh High School. He was ad- mitted to the Allegheny county bar in June, 1895. Two years later he was ap- pointed assistant district attorney for Allegheny county. After serving in this capacity for one year Mr. Magee resigned and became a candidate for common council from the Twenty-third ward of Pittsburgh. He was elected and re-elected in 1900, serving in coun- cil until he was elected to the state sen- ate April 16, 1901, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his uncle, Chris- topher Lyman Magee. In 1909 Mr. Ma- gee was elected mayor of Pittsburgh. During the time that he has held this office many millions of dollars have been voted by the people to be expended for civic improvement. Many fine streets and bridges have been built, but the "Hump cut" more than any other civic improvement will become historic.
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JAMES BUCHANAN YOHE.
James Buchanan Yohe, general manager, the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company, was born June 24, 1856, near Bentleyville, Washington county, Pennsylvania. His parents were David Yohe and Eliza (nee Zook) Yohe.
An education such as high school and college offers is of great advantage to the young man who would succeed in business or in a profession, but often a man handicapped by lack of these ad- vantages will rise to the very top in the struggle of life. The man whose boy- hood days were spent in the country or in a village where pure air and plenty of healthful outdoor work caused him to develop a hardy constitution and strong powers of endurance, succeeds oftener than does the boy reared in the city. James Buchanan Yohe received only a common school education, but he pos- sessed the alert mind and the hardy, en- during physique of the country lad, which has enabled him to rise high in the business world, acquiring a practical education in the school of experience as he struggled to earn a living for himself and those dependent upon him.
When but fourteen years of age, he entered the railway service as a tele- graph operator in the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, Pittsburgh Di- vision. This was on February 4, 1871, and ever since he has been engaged continuously in the transportation business. Few men have stuck as close to one line of work as has Mr. Yohe, and few men have been as amply rewarded for their endeavors, not only finan- cially, but in the esteem and respect of their associates. From the very start, Mr. Yohe has enjoyed the confidence of his superiors. The efficient and honest service which he renders has been rewarded with rapid and steady promotions until now he is general manager of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Company and leased lines, with head- quarters at Pittsburgh.
Notwithstanding Mr. Yohe's faithful service with various railroad companies, he has found time to become actively associated with other business enterprises. He is a di- rector of the Pension Mutual Life Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, and of the First National Bank of Mckees Rocks. Both these institutions have been greatly benefited by the shrewd business sense and practical wisdom of the veteran railroader. He is also an active member of the Old Time Telegraphers' Association.
Mr. Yohe is interested in all projects for civic betterment, and is a member of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Yohe is a member and trustee of Christ Meth- odist Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh, and is an enthusiastic worker in the Railroad De- partment of the Young Men's Christian Association, being a member of the Executive Committee of the New York Central Lines' Federation of Railroad Associations. He is a member of the Duquesne Club and the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, and stands high in the Masonic fraternity. Mr. Yohe makes friends readily and wins the regard of every one with whom he comes in contact, whether it be an humble employe or the president of the company.
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E. A. WOODS.
Edward Augustus Woods was born January 1, 1865, at Pittsburgh, the son of Dr. George Woods and Mrs. Ellen Crane Woods. He was graduated from the Western University of Pennsyl- vania. He entered the insurance busi- ness as an office boy. He became as- sociated with the Equitable Life As- surance Society in November, 1880, and 10 years later was appointed manager for the district of Pittsburgh. January 1, 1911, he incorporated the Edward A. Woods agency of that company, of which he is president and manager. He is also a director of the Union Savings Bank of Pittsburgh, a director in the National Union Fire Insurance Com- pany, and a director in the Western Na- tional Bank. He is a member of the Duquesne Club, Union Club, Pittsburgh Country Club, Pittsburgh Athletic As- sociation, Edgeworth Club of Sewickley and the Lawyers' Club of New York. Mr. Woods is an international authority on insurance and is a prolific writer on academic as well as practical issues.
W. L. CLARK.
William Lewis Clark is president of the W. L. Clark Company, Fire Insur- ance Brokers, with a suite of offices in the Peoples Bank building, Fourth ave- nue and Wood street, Pittsburgh, Pa. He is a Pittsburgher, the son of David G. Clark and Mary J. Clark, and was born March 19, 1872. His early educa- tion was received in the public schools and high school of Pittsburgh, after which he entered the fire insurance business. He organized the W. L. Clark Company, which occupies a prominent place in the insurance field. The com- pany is a member of the Board of Fire Underwriters of Allegheny County, Pa. In the Club world, Mr. Clark is a mem- ber of the Union Club, Country Club and Pittsburgh Athletic Association.
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HENRY WARD McMASTERS
Following a lifetime spent in railroad service, Henry Ward McMasters is recognized as one of the leading figures in the transportation world. Having worked his way through all the departments of the rail- road business, Mr. McMasters is what is termed a self-made man who has won exceptional success by force of merit.
Mr. McMasters was born at George- town, near Kingston, Ontario, Canada, September 29, 1860. His father was William Henry and his mother Martha (Hough) McMasters. On both sides of the family he is of Scotch extraction.
In 1868 the family moved to the United States, and young McMasters was brought up as an American. He received his education in the public schools of Pontiac and Grand Ledge, Mich., and as this was a period of rail- road building, he turned to that field of endeavor. He was only 14 years old when he went to work as a telegraph operator, in 1874, on the Detroit, Lans- ing & Northern Railroad, now a part of the Marquette system. In December, 1878, he went with the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad as a telegraph opera- tor, and from 1880 to 1882 was a train dispatcher on the same road.
In 1882 he became a train dispatcher on the Peninsular division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, remaining there for two years. Then, from 1884 to 1889, he was chief dispatcher and train master on the Oregon Short Line of the Union Pacific sys- tem. From 1889 to 1893, Mr. McMasters was chief dispatcher on the Idaho division of the Northern Pacific Railroad, with headquarters at Spokane, Wash., and from 1893 to 1900 was train master on the same road.
May 1, 1900, he was appointed superintendent of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Rail- road, with headquarters at Massillon, and afterward moved to Toledo, serving until June, 1905. Then, until September, 1905, he was superintendent of the consolidated lines, comprising the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad, the Wabash-Pittsburgh Railroad and the West Side Belt Railroad, at Canton, O. He then became general superintendent of these lines, with headquarters at Pittsburgh.
From May, 1908, Mr. McMasters served as receiver and general manager of the Wabash Pittsburgh Terminal Railroad and the West Side Belt Railroad, his office con- tinuing in Pittsburgh.
Higher honors were yet in store for Mr. McMasters, and on January 1, 1913, he be- came general manager of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad Company, with offices in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mr. McMasters is a member of the Duquesne, Country and Pittsburgh Athletic Clubs, of Pittsburgh, and of the Toledo Club, of Toledo, O.
Mr. McMasters has been married twice. His first wife was Miss Belle Cobbs, of Cadillac, Mich., who died in 1895. In 1901 he married Miss May Thoma, of Toledo.
Mr. McMasters is known as a thoroughly practical railroader of a high order of ability.
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John Criswell Hill, banker, lumber and insurance man, of Pittsburgh, was born March 8, 1873, in Pitts-
JOHN burgh. He is a son of James B. Hill and Elizabeth M. Criswell Hill. From 1896 CRISWELL to 1900 Mr. Hill was engaged in the lumber business with the firm of J. B.
HILL.
Hill & Sons, at Wilkinsburg, and from 1900 to 1908 was the head of the John C. Hill Company, dealers in builders' supplies, lumber and mill supplies. In 1908 Mr. Hill began the active work of organizing the Standard Life Insurance Company. This effort met with success, and the company was established under the name of the Standard Life Insurance Com- pany of America, with home offices in Pittsburgh, and with Mr. Hill as treasurer. He also is a director in the Homewood Peoples Bank of Pittsburgh. Mr. Hill is a Mason.
S. Jarvis Adams, Jr., general agent in Pittsburgh of the Union Central Life Insurance Company, of Cin- cinnati, was born January 9, 1880, in S. JARVIS ADAMS, JR. Pittsburgh. His parents were S. Jarvis Adams and Emma Virginia (nee An-
shutz) Adams. Mr. Adams was educated in Kiski- minetas Springs school, Saltsburg, Pa., and at the Shadyside Academy, Pittsburgh. He started in the in- surance business as solicitor and rose rapidly until he became general agent. Recently Mr. Adams has been active in politics. In 1912 he helped organize the Pro- gressive Republican League of Allegheny county and was made treasurer. He also was elected a delegate to the Republican State Convention, and aided in or- ganizing the Progressive party, in which he has held important offices. Mr. Adams belongs to the Pitts- burgh Athletic Association, and takes an especial in- terest in lawn tennis.
Louis Volz, president and incorporator of the Ger- man Beneficial union, was born in Germany, March 17,
LOUIS VOLZ. 1848. He was educated in the grade and high schools of Germany, where he learned the trade of printing. At the age of 21 he joined the German army as required by law and served with credit during the Franco-Prussian war. After this he came to Pittsburgh and was for two years with the Volksblatt Publishing Company. In 1874 he started a printing es- tablishment of his own, and he was well recognized as the German-English printer in Pittsburgh. Mr. Volz was one of the organizers of the German Beneficial Union, and he became its first president in 1892. At present he holds the same office, and devotes his entire time and at- tention to the interests of the Union. Its headquarters are at 1505-7 Carson Street, Pittsburgh.
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R. L. O'DONNEL.
R. L. O'Donnel, general superintendent of the West- ern Pennsylvania Division of the Pennsylvania Rail- road, entered the service of the Pennsylvania Company in 1883 as a rodman. He is a member of the Pitts- burgh Industrial Develop- ment Commission and is a director of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Pitts- burgh Club, the Duquesne Club and other clubs in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Honest, effi- cient service, attention to detail, skillful organization and handling of men are acknowledged achieve- ments of Mr. O'Donnel.
James C. McKalip, Auditor of the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad Company is a native of Parnassus, Pa. He is the son of James T. McKalip and Mary J. C. M'KALIP. Elizabeth McKalip; was educated in Par- nassus Public Schools and at the age of seventeen obtained a position in Accounting Department of the Allegheny Valley Railroad Company. When that company was absorbed by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Mr. McKalip accepted service with the latter organization and located in Philadelphia, later entering employ of the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad Company and subsequently was appointed Auditor ; is a member of the Duquesne Club, Pittsburgh Athletic Association, Young Men's Republican Tariff Club. Traffic Club of Pittsburgh, German Club of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Lodge No. 484. Free and Accepted Masons. Mr. McKalip is the type of strong, self-reliant man who owes his ad- vancement in life entirely to his own efforts.
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John Alfred Brashear, distinguished manufacturer of the North Side, Pittsburgh, was born in Brownsville in
JOHN 1840, the son of B. Brashear and Julia Brashear. He is a graduate of Western
ALFRED
BRASHEAR. University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, Wooster and Washington and Jefferson College. He married Miss Phoebe Stewart, of Pittsburgh, September 25, 1862. He learned the machinist trade and later became a mechanical engineer. Then en- tered his present business as manufacturer of astronom- ical and physical instruments. He was acting director of the Allegheny Observatory, acting chancellor of the West- ern University of Pennsylvania, past president Western Pennsylvania Engineers' Society and Pittsburgh Acade- my Arts and Sciences. He is a member of many distin- guished scientific societies both in England, the continent and America.
Peter W. Hepburn was born at Stratford, Ontario, Canada, a son of Alexander and Jessie Wood Hepburn. He received his education in the common
PETER W. and high schools, and studied book-keep- HEPBURN. ing and penmanship in a business college; five years later for over a year was tutored by an expert mechanical engineer. He served a practical apprentice- ship as a machinist, and then worked at the trade for 18 years, making a specialty along the line of water works, pumping engines and all kinds of power engines. During seven years of that time he was an erecting engineer. In March, 1908, Mr. Hepburn went to the Carnegie Institute of Technology as a member of the faculty, and was placed in charge of the machine department. Since that time he has added several features to the department, including instruction in automobile construction. He is married, has three children and is a member of the Masonic order.
John Wesley Beatty is Director of Fine Arts Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, and is a native of that city. He is the son of Richard Beatty and received
JOHN his early education in Pittsburgh. He was WESLEY a student at the Academy of Fine Arts and BEATTY. received the honorary degree of A. M. in the Western University of Pennsylvania 1900. He married Miss Cora B. Hamnett of Pittsburgh in 1883. He executed the etching "Return to Labor" now in the Evans collection, Washington. He has served fre- quently as a member of juries on paintings, advisory boards and art commissions. He is a member of well- known art societies and is an author on art subjects.
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WICKLIFFE CAMPBELL LYNE.
Wickliffe Campbell Lyne, Pittsburgh manager of the Union Central and senior ex-president of the Pittsburgh Life Underwriters' Association, is a Virginian by birth, a Pennsylvanian by residence and busi- ness interests for more than forty years.
He belongs to one of the oldest and best families of Virginia, represented with distinction by Colonial and Revolu- tionary officers and by members of the House of Virginia Burgesses, Congress and President's Cabinet. The family came originally from Bristol, England- the resident town of William Penn-and brought with them the family's coat-of- arms, honored by the character and achievement of ancient Scotch and Eng- lish ancestry.
William Lyne, his great grand- father, was an ardent patriot in the American Revolution, serving on Com- mittee of Safety, 1775, and Colonel of Minute-men, 1776, and before and dur- ing the Revolution as a prominent mem- ber of the House of Burgesses, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Peyton Randolph and Edmund Pendleton being actively associated with him as fellow members. Prominent also in family connection were Colonel George Baylor, of Washington's staff; General Thomas Dunbar (descendant of Earl of Dunbar), of the French and Indian War, the Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in North America after Braddock's defeat; Sir Richard Waller, "the Hero of Agincourt," whose capture of the French Prince of Orleans added the Ducal Crest to his arms, is in the direct line of descent on Mr. Lyne's mother's side-Mary Dunbar Edwards. The con- gressional tariff leader, William Lyne Wilson, author of the "Wilson Bill" and Postmas- ter General in Cleveland's Cabinet, was nephew of Dr. Robert Baylor Lyne, father of Wickliffe C. Lyne.
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