Central Vermont Railway

The Central Vermont Railway was a railroad that operated in the U.S. states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont, as well as the Canadian province of Quebec.
It connected Montreal, Quebec, with New London, Connecticut, using a route along the shores of Lake Champlain, through the Green Mountains and along the Connecticut River valley, as well as Montreal to Boston, Massachusetts, through a connection with the Boston and Maine Railroad at White River Junction, Vermont.
History.
The Vermont Central Railroad was chartered October 31, 1843, to build a line across the center of Vermont, running from Burlington on Lake Champlain east to Montpelier, and then southeast and south to Windsor on the Connecticut River. Initial plans had the main line running through Montpelier. However, due to the difficulty of building through the Williamstown Gulf, a narrow valley south of Barre, Vermont, and to land interests of Charles Paine in Northfield, Vermont, a course to the west was selected, leaving the state capital to be served by a short branch line. Construction began on December 15, 1845, and the first section, from White River Junction west to Bethel, opened on June 26, 1848. Subsequent sections opened to Roxbury on September 17, 1848, Northfield on October 10, 1848, Montpelier (including the branch from Montpelier Junction) on June 20, 1849, Middlesex on August 30, 1849, Waterbury on September 29, 1849, and the full distance to Burlington on December 31, 1849. The part along the Connecticut River from Hartford south to Windsor opened on February 13, 1849.
The Vermont and Canada Railroad was chartered October 31, 1845, as a continuation of the Vermont Central north and west to Rouses Point, New York, splitting at Essex Junction, Vermont (east of Burlington) and running north via St. Albans and Swanton. A branch split at Swanton and ran north to the border with Canada. On August 24, 1849, the Vermont Central leased the Vermont and Canada, and it was completed in 1851. However, the Vermont Central defaulted on rental payments, and the Vermont and Canada returned to its original owners on June 28, 1852. The lease was later reinstated.
The Montreal and Vermont Junction Railway was chartered in 1860 and opened in the 1860s, extending the Vermont and Canada's branch from the international border north to St. Johns, Quebec, on the Grand Trunk Railway's Montreal and Champlain Railroad. From opening it was operated as an extension of the Vermont and Canada.
The Sullivan County Railroad continued south from Windsor to Bellows Falls, Vermont, where it met the Cheshire Railroad towards Boston. At first it was operated by the Central Vermont, but later the Boston and Maine Railroad gained control of it, giving trackage rights to the Central Vermont. Similarly, the Vermont Valley Railroad, running south from Bellows Falls to the New London Northern Railroad in Brattleboro, was originally owned by the Rutland Railroad and later by the B&M.
In 1867 the Vermont Central leased the Stanstead, Shefford and Chambly Railroad, running east from St. Johns to Waterloo, Quebec. The Waterloo and Magog Railway was later built as an extension from Waterloo south to Magog.
The Vermont Central leased the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad on March 1, 1870, extending its line from Rouses Point west to Ogdensburg, New York. On January 1, 1871, the Vermont Central leased the Rutland Railroad system, giving it routes from Burlington to Bellows Falls, Vermont, and Chatham, New York. The New London Northern Railroad was leased on December 1, 1871. On November 2, 1872, the name was changed to the Central Vermont Railroad.
Though chartered as an independent entity in 1867, control of the Missisquoi Railroad was gained shortly thereafter, and it was formally leased in July 1873, providing a branch from St. Albans northeast to Richford, Vermont. It was operated until November 15, 1877, when the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad took it over. The company was reorganized in December 1886 as the Missisquoi Valley Railway, and was once again leased to the Central Vermont.
The Montpelier and White River Railroad opened in 1876 and was leased to the Central Vermont, running from the end of the Montpelier Branch south to and beyond Barre.
The Consolidated Railway was formed on June 30, 1884, to consolidate the Central Vermont and Vermont and Canada and to settle litigation between the two companies. A new Central Vermont Railroad was formed on July 1, 1884 to take over from the Consolidated Railway.
In 1889 the Burlington and Lamoille Railroad was reorganized as the Burlington and Lamoille Valley Railroad and leased by the Central Vermont. This provided a branch from Essex Junction to the Lamoille Valley Railroad at Cambridge Junction in Cambridge, Vermont, and a quickly-abandoned redundant line from Essex Junction west to Burlington. This second connection crossed the Winooski River near Essex Junction and connected to the Rutland Railroad at the south end of Burlington near the present-day terminus of I-189.
The Montreal and Province Line Railway was formed in 1896 as a reorganization of the Montreal, Portland and Boston Railroad. Originally planned as a branch of the Portland and Ogdensburg Railroad to Montreal, and operated by the Connecticut and Passumpsic Rivers Railroad, it was taken over by the Central Vermont upon reorganization. The main line ran from the Grand Trunk Railway's Montreal and Champlain Railroad at Saint-Lambert, across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal, southeast to Farnham on the Stanstead, Shefford and Chambly Railroad, with an extension continuing southeast to Frelighsburg. A branch went east from Mariesville to St. Cesarie.
In 1896 the Central Vermont entered receivership, and the Rutland Railroad was separated. The Grand Trunk Railway bought the bankrupt company on March 20. The Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad lease ended in 1898, and that company was leased by the Rutland in 1901. The Central Vermont Railroad was sold at foreclosure on March 21, 1899, and was reorganized as the Central Vermont Railway on May 1. During this process, on April 15, 1899, it purchased the Missisquoi Valley Railroad outright.
On July 12, 1920, the entire Grand Trunk system was placed under the control of a "Board of Management" by the federal Department of Railways and Canals in Canada after several years of financial difficulties. After several years of legal battles by Grand Trunk shareholders, intent on preventing the federal government from nationalizing the company, the company was nationalized on January 20, 1923, and fully merged into the Crown corporation Canadian National Railway.
CN and NECR: 1923-present.
On December 12, 1927, the Central Vermont Railway entered receivership again, and was reorganized January 31, 1930, to form a new company of the same name.
While the Central Vermont was no longer independent, it did keep much of its corporate identity and was run as a separate railroad from the rest of the CN system. As the grip of the Great Depression eased, the railroad became a relatively successful arm of the CN network until the postwar period. It moved a wide range of freight from general merchandise and furniture to milk and agricultural products.
During the 1950s, diesels from CN began to appear on the Central and Vermont, with the last steam locomotive ending service in 1957. The 1960s were an especially rough period due to declining traffic, rising costs, and falling revenues.
Under the Grand Trunk and later the Canadian National, the Central Vermont system saw many of its unprofitable branch lines abandoned. The CN continued to operate the CV as a modestly successful system; however, in the process leading up to the privatization of the CN, which took place on November 28, 1995, several non-core routes were identified for sale – one of these being the CV.
On February 3, 1995, the CN sold the CV mainline from New London, Connecticut, to East Alburg, Vermont, to shortline operating company RailTex, which renamed the property the New England Central Railroad. RailTex was merged into RailAmerica in 2000. Genesee & Wyoming acquired RailAmerica at the end of 2012. Operations have continued to the present as before.
Divisions and branches.
Richford Branch.
This line was formed as the Missisquoi Railroad, then became the Missisquoi Valley Railroad, and then the Missisquoi Valley Division, before gaining its final name. Operations continued on the entire length until 1984, when a derailment on the bridge spanning the Missisquoi River near Sheldon, Vermont, forced the dismantlement of one of three spans. Operations continued on the east end, while the Lamoille Valley Railroad operated on the isolated west end of the line to Richford occasionally after 1989. In 1990 the tracks from St. Albans to the bridge were pulled up.
The following stops were made on the branch from west to east:


Austin Western Railroad

The Austin Western Railroad is a short-line railroad headquartered in Round Rock, Texas.
AWRR operates a 103 mile (166 km) line from Fairland, Texas, to an interchange with Union Pacific Railroad at Elgin, Texas. AWRR has rights to operate on 28 more miles (45 km) of track from Fairland to Llano, Texas, from Elgin to an interchange with UPRR at Giddings, Texas, and a 6.4 mile (10.3 km) branch from Fairland, to Marble Falls, Texas, but these tracks have not seen revenue service in decades, and the roadbed has been washed out approximately four miles from Llano. There is an additional interchange with the UPRR at McNeil, Texas. The line was originally part of the Houston and Texas Central Railway, and later part of the Texas and New Orleans Railroad followed by the Southern Pacific Railroad. It is now owned by Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with whom AWRR has had the contract to operate freight service on the railroad from September 2007. AWRR traffic includes aggregates, crushed limestone, calcium bicarbonate, lumber, beer, chemicals, plastics, and paper.
AWRR is a subsidiary of the Watco Companies.
In addition, the Austin Steam Train Association operates an excursion train between Austin, Texas, Cedar Park, Texas, and Burnet, Texas.


Brielle Draw

Brielle Draw is a railroad bascule bridge over Manasquan River in Brielle and Point Pleasant Beach, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States west of the Manasquan Inlet to the Atlantic Ocean. It carries a single track of the New Jersey Transit Rail Operations (NJT) North Jersey Coast Line (MP 36.38) between
Manasquan and Point Pleasant Beach stations. It had once been part of Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), New York & Long Branch Railroad (NYLB) and Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) operations. The line is also served by the River Draw over the Raritan River, the Morgan Draw over Cheesequake Creek, the Oceanport Draw over Oceanport Creek and the Shark River Draw.


Alliance Terminal Railroad

The Alliance Terminal Railroad is a Class III terminal railroad in Haslet, Texas, responsible for the switching and operations of the Alliance Intermodal Facility. It is owned by OmniTRAX and subleases the terminal yard from Quality Terminal Services, also owned by OmniTRAX. It connects with the BNSF Railway at Haslet, and operates on approximately of BNSF's track through incidental trackage rights.


Benjamin W. Heineman

Benjamin W. Heineman (February 10, 1914 – August 5, 2012) was an attorney and American railroad executive. Heineman first attended the University of Michigan (1930-1933), and later attended Northwestern's school of law. He first gained attention in the railroad industry in 1954, when he orchestrated a successful proxy battle for control of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway. He became president of the Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW) in 1956, leading the railroad through a series of difficult cost-cutting measures that returned the railroad to solvency. One of the measures he instituted was to sell shares in the railroad to the railroad's own employees, prompting the "Employee Owned" inscription in the railroad's logo. This process was consummated in 1972, at which time Larry Provo succeeded Heineman as president of the company. Heineman remained in charge of the holding company Northwest Industries (owner of Fruit of the Loom, Acme Boots, and Velsicol Chemical Corporation) until 1985. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2011.
Heineman is noted in the history of Chicago, Illinois, for replacing all the steam locomotives which brought passenger trains into North Western Station with diesel locomotives, in one day in 1956, in response to a complaint by Mayor Richard J. Daley about smoke and fumes emanating from the station. Heineman also replaced the North Western's entire passenger rolling stock used for commuter services with double deck "commuter streamliners".
Heineman served in various governmental roles in World War Two and was active in politics, working as a speechwriter for Adlai Stevenson in 1952, Chairman of the White House Conference on Civil Rights during the administration of Lyndon Johnson and Chairman of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Heineman turned down several offers from President Johnson to serve in high-ranking positions including Budget Director and UN Ambassador, but remained an informal advisor.


Car 553

Car 553 is a privately owned railroad passenger car. It operates exclusively on Metra's Union Pacific / North Line in Northeastern Illinois, and is the last private commuter car remaining in the United States.
History.
Private commuter car service began on the Chicago and North Western Railway in 1929 to serve wealthy commuters in the affluent North Shore suburbs of Chicago, such as Lake Forest, Highland Park, and Winnetka. The first private car was C&NW 6700, named "The Deerpath". Eventually, the tradition of naming the car "The Deerpath" ended, and the current club car is merely known as "Car 553".
Car 553 and its sister, Car 555, were built as Chicago and North Western lounge cars #7901 and #7902 in 1949 by the American Car and Foundry Company. In 1961, these cars were removed from long distance passenger service, renumbered 553 and 555, and rebuilt to operate in commuter service out of Chicago. On November 30, 1975, cars 553 and 555 were acquired by Commuter Associates Inc. and continued to see service on the C&NW, operated by the commuter rail branch of the Regional Transportation Authority (which was reorganized into Metra in 1984). In the 1990s, the first female members purchased seats on the car. Car 553 still wore the color scheme of the pre-Metra Regional Transportation Authority's passenger equipment until late 2017 when it was restored to its original C&NW yellow and green colors and lettering.
Metra service.
, Car 553 operates twice daily on the Union Pacific / North Line between Chicago and Kenosha, Wisconsin. The car is operated as part of an agreement between club members and the Union Pacific Railroad (which operates Metra trains on the UP / North Line). While in the past, membership was exclusive to wealthy "North Shore" families, it has since become open to anyone who pays an annual fee of $900, in addition to the fees for Metra's monthly pass. The car arrives in Chicago around 8:00 am, and departs for Kenosha shortly after 5:30 pm.


St. Louis Merchants Bridge Company


EMD SD20

The SD20 is the product of a rebuilding program by the Illinois Central Gulf's Paducah Shops as a conversion from the EMD SD7, EMD SD-24, SD-24B (cabless), and EMD SD35 locomotives. The program involved rebuilding the 567 engine to 645E with 2000 horsepower rating, eliminating the turbocharger if equipped with one, upgrading the electronics to Dash 2 technology, and adding cabs to the B units. A total of 42 units were rebuilt. Original heritage of the rebuilt units was 3 Union Pacific SD7s, 4 Union Pacific SD24s, 10 Union Pacific SD24Bs, 21 Southern SD24s, and 4 Baltimore and Ohio SD35s. Many of the units to be rebuilt were purchased from Precision National. Three of the ex-Southern SD24s wore Precision reporting marks. The locomotives were rebuilt between August 1979 and December 1982. Road Numbers assigned were 2000-2041. Unit 2041 was the last Paducah rebuild.
Usage.
Many SD20s are still in use with leasing companies and regional and shortline railroads. The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad and Indiana Harbor Belt are both notable second and third owners of the SD20. On January 22, 2008, the Wisconsin Southern ran its last run using an SD20, all have now been sold.


Evansville and Eastern Electric Railway

The Evansville & Eastern Electric Railway was put into operation on 10 June 1906 was one of the very few electric lines in the United States which did
not parallel a steam railroad.
Route.
The railroad extended a distance of from Newburgh, Indiana, which had a population of about 1500 people, to Rockport, having about 3500 inhabitants, with a spur north to Richland, Indiana. However, traffic arrangements had been made with the Evansville Suburban & Newburgh Railroad, whereby railcars were operated into Evansville over the tracks of the latter company.
The railroad passed through a rich farming country. Corn was raised on the river bottom farms on one side, while the land to the north was devoted to wheat raising. Wheat, which took one of the first prizes at the Chicago World's Fair, was cultivated on land near the line in Warrick County.
Previously, farmers of the region traversed have been compelled to haul their grain distances up to to Rockport, Boonville and Newburgh. Those near the river made shipments by way of unreliable river boats. Practically all these shipments from the territory from the line were subsequently carried over it. Before the railroad was completed the farmers made such insistent demands that arrangements were made to haul car-load lots of grain by means of the construction locomotive and about two hundred car loads were hauled.
The railroad was practically a farmers' line, and the greater portion of the receipts were derived from the farmers. There was, however, considerable through passenger traffic between Evansville and Rockport. The steam-railroad route between the two cities was long as against by the electric line. The time over the steam road was not to be considered, since very unreliable connections were made at Rockport Junction. During the first month's operation of the railroad an investigation showed that only five through steam-road tickets had been sold
between Rockport and Evansville, and in three instances business along the line compelled the purchasers to take this route.
Owensboro, Kentucky, a city of about 15,000 people, located on the Ohio River, below Rockport, was also served by the line through boats which made connections with trains at Rockport. Other than the terminals the only towns on the main line were Yankeetown and Hatfield, with about 400 people each. Eureka, Indiana, with probably 600 people, lied about south of the line, and Richland, on the spur already referred to, had a population of about 800 inhabitants.
Track and roadway.
All of the route, but particularly the western portion, was very picturesque. For about after leaving Newburgh the track was laid over bluffs on the bank of the Ohio River. The railroad then crossed behind the hills and passed over Cypress Creek on truss steel construction long. The only other steel structure on the line was that over Pigeon Creek, which was in length. Both rested on concrete abutments. Near Yankeetown the tracks were carried over a ravine on a wood trestle which was planned to be displaced later by a fill.
The heaviest grading was necessary near Yankeetown where some 22-ft. cuts were made. East of Yankeetown the country is comparatively level. All cuts were made 22 ft. wide at the bottom and fills are 14 ft. at the top.
The track is laid with 70-lb/yard (35 kg/m) rails on oak ties, obtained largely from the neighboring country. The entire railroad was bonded with brazed bonds, the work being done by the Electric Railway Improvement Company, of Cleveland, Ohio.
Sidings varied in length from to and were located at about 3-mile intervals. All passing sidings were double end; others are stub end. The sidings were placed more frequently than otherwise to provide for the simultaneous operation of freight trains and passenger cars.
Throughout its length the road was ballasted with gravel taken from the bed of the Ohio River, just above Newburgh. The gravel was dug up and loaded into barges by a dredge boat, and a tug towed the barges down the river to a coalmine incline, which extended over the tracks of the electric line. The coal-mine engines were used to pull small cars of gravel up the incline, and these cars were dumped, either directly into the ballast cars or into a hopper underneath the incline. The gravel was almost entirely free from sand and makes an excellent roadbed.
As the road was built partly for freight traffic, heavy grades were eliminated wherever possible. There was, however, one short grade of 2.4 per cent near Yankeetown.
Overhead lines.
The trolley poles, which were of chestnut, and long, were spaced apart on tangents and as close as on curves. The poles were always placed on the outside of curves and are braced, either by deadmen, as shown in one of the accompanying illustrations, or by guy anchors. As no high-tension wires were carried on the poles, unnecessary height of poles was avoided by using a tubular steel bracket braced on the under side. A single trolley of No. 000 round wire was used. Telephone wires and feeders were carried on a cross-arm just below the bracket. Shaw nonarcing lightning arresters grounded to steel rods were placed three to the mile. All of the overhead material with the
exception of the lightning arresters was furnished by the Ohio Brass Company.
Power station and feeder system.
The power station was located about midway of the length of the line, at Hartfield. It was a brick structure, divided into a boiler and engine room by a transverse wall. The boiler room contained two 300 hp B. & W. boilers served by one steel stack. In the engine room are installed two 375 kW units each, consisting of a Westinghouse compound non-condensing engine and a Westinghouse 600-volt generator. The switchboard was of Western Electric Company manufacture and consisted of two generator and two feeder panels. Water for the boilers was obtained from wells sunk near the power house, and coal was hauled in the company's cars from mines at Newburgh.
A 500,000 circ. mil feeder left the power house in each direction. The feeders continued at this size to points from the station where they are reduced in size to 350,000 circ. mil. These smaller feeders were carried to within of the ends of the line.
Repair shops.
A brick repair shop adjacent to the power house at Hatfield contained three storage tracks and space along one wall for the installation of requisite machinery.
Rolling stock.
The road was equipped with five passenger cars built by the American Car Company. The cars were long over all, wide and seated forty-eight people. The inside finish was dark oak. All were built with a small baggage compartment at one end and were intended for double-end operation. They were equipped with four Westinghouse 101-J motors of 50 hp each, and these were mounted on 21 E-1 Brill trucks. K-14 controllers were used. The cars were provided with Westinghouse Traction Brake Company straight air brakes, and Peter Smith hot-water heaters. They were painted a Big Four yellow, which color has been adopted by the company as a standard and is being used wherever possible.
Package freight was hauled in an express car of practically the same dimensions as the passenger cars. For handling heavy freight a steam locomotive and twelve standard steam-railroad freight cars were employed.
Passenger cars were operated between Evansville and Rockport on an hourly schedule. The run required 1 hour and 20 minutes and three cars were employed. The express car made two round trips per day.
At Rockport an agent was employed who gave all of his time to the company. In the other towns the agent was employed on a commission basis. Tickets were sold at approximately 2 cents per mile. An extra charge of 25 cents per piece was made for baggage.
The operating offices, which were now located in Evansville, were planned to be ultimately moved to Hatfield.
The road was constructed and partially financed by the Tennis Company, of Cincinnati, with C. H. Battin as engineer in charge.
The officers of the Evansville & Eastern Traction Company were initially:
The company and the Evansville & Mt. Vernon Electric Railway were held and operated by the Evansville Railways Company.
Traffic.
Including the two terminal towns the population along the line was not more than 400 per mile (640 per km), taken 2½ miles (4 km) back on each side of the track. In the Northern portion of Indiana very few lines have been built through territories not showing a population of twice or three times as great. However, in estimating the possible earnings of the Evansville & Eastern Traction Company it must be remembered that the territory was entirely dependent on the line both for passenger and freight service, and that this exclusive territory extended back from the line in some places as great a distance as . Moreover, it must be remembered that Evansville, though not on the line proper, must, under the initial operating conditions, be regarded as a terminal.
During the first few months operation the receipts have been such as to justify the belief that in electric railway construction there has been too great a tendency to parallel already existing steam lines, rather than to push out through thickly settled farming country, remote from steam roads.
The operation of the railroad was discontinued in 1938.


Levi A. Mackey

Levi Augustus Mackey (November 25, 1819 – February 8, 1889) was a United States Representative from Pennsylvania.
Mackey was born in White Deer Township, Union County, Pennsylvania. In 1837, he graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York, with Phi Beta Kappa honors and membership in The Kappa Alpha Society, before studying law at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
From 1841 until 1855, Mackey practiced law in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. He then served as the president of Lock Haven Bank and as president of the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad.
Mackey served as a delegate to the 1852 Whig National Convention and to the 1872 Democratic National Convention. He campaigned, unsuccessfully, for a seat in the 41st United States Congress in 1868 but was elected mayor of Lock Haven in 1870. From March 4, 1875 to March 3, 1879 he served as a Democratic U.S. Representative to the Forty-fourth and 45th United States Congresses, representing the 20th District of Pennsylvania.
He died in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, February 8, 1889, and was interred at Highland Cemetery in Lock Haven.


Branchville and Bowman Railroad

The Branchville and Bowman Railroad was a shortline railroad that began just after Reconstruction and survived until the mid-1920s.
The Branchville and Bowman Railroad, was a successor of sorts of the Smoak tramway, a three-foot gauge wooden-railed logging line built in 1884, which served the Smoak family mill in Branchville, South Carolina.
The Branchville and Bowman was chartered in 1890 with a goal of creating a line to the new town of Bowman, South Carolina, and construction on the 11-mile line was completed in 1893. It retained the three-foot gauge of its predecessor.
By 1925 the line was struggling. It was down to one locomotive and eight worn-out units of rolling stock. The line had been leased and operated by Earl and Walter Dukes since 1920, and the pair purchased it. They immediately ended the railroad operation and obtained in exchange an operating certificate issued by the State of South Carolina for highway motor transport. This was possible because the trucking industry was overseen by the State Board of Railroad Commissioners at this time.
Readers desiring a more detailed history of the Branchville and Bowman Railroad should consult the book "The Early History of the Communities of Bowman, South Carolina", by Linda Carter Smith (compiler), published by the Orangeburg County Historical Society, second printing by Lulu, July 2013.


George Escol Sellers

George Escol Sellers (November 26, 1808 – January 1, 1899) was an American businessman, mechanical engineer, and inventor. He owned and managed different businesses and patented several inventions. He established a company with his brother Charles where he patented his early invention of a machine that produced lead pipes from hot fluid lead continuously. While working for the Panama Railway in the 1850s, he received various patents for improvements he made on railroad locomotives, including a railroad engine which could climb steep hills.
He was interested in the field of archaeology. He wrote many articles, collected artifacts, and became a skilled arrowhead maker. Some of his arrowheads were displayed at the National Museum of the American Indian. He was interested in art, and he indulged in arts and spent time with artists throughout his life. A character name in the first edition of Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's "" (1873), "Colonel Eschol Sellers", was similar to Sellers' and had to be changed when he objected to its further use. However, the connection repeated again when the new name, "Colonel Mulberry Sellers", unintentionally referenced the neighborhood where he was born.
Early life.
George Escol Sellers was born on November 26, 1808, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Coleman Sellers and Sophonisba Angusciola Peale. His birthplace was near the Philadelphia Mint in the neighborhood of Mulberry Court. He had one elder brother Charles (b. 1806), two younger brothers, Harvey (b. 1813) and Coleman Sellers II (b. 1827), and two younger sisters, Elizabeth (b. 1810) and Anna (b. 1824).
His father and many ancestors had been engineers. His maternal grandfather was Charles Willson Peale, and his paternal grandfather Nathan Sellers was known for artwork of wire paper molds. While at school, he worked at Peale's Philadelphia Museum — he would later serve as a member of the museum's board of directors. Sellers was educated at public schools and studied for five years with tutor Anthony Bolmar at the West Chester Academy in West Chester, Pennsylvania. In 1832, he went to England to study machines used for production of paper.
Career and inventions.
Sellers returned to the United States in 1833 and started working at his father and grandfather's firm, Nathan & David Sellers; Charles was employed there as well. The company made machinery for producing wire and paper and was the first in the country to use forged frames to build locomotives. They also worked for the United States Mint. When Nathan Sellers died in 1830, the business was reorganized and Coleman Sellers and his two sons then ran the business. As a consequence of the Depression of 1837, the company became insolvent and closed. His work at the firm inspired many of his engineering writings.
After Sellers closed his business in the east he moved with his brother Charles to Cincinnati, Ohio and they established a factory for making lead pipe. Sellers invented machinery that utilized hot fluid lead for continuous production of lead pipe — he received a patent for his design, number US1908A on December 17, 1840. Their business was eventually sold and merged into a company which was a major producer of lead pipe in the country. Sellers partnered with Josiah Lawrence, a Cincinnati businessman, and organized a wire manufacturing company called Globe Rolling Mills. He incorporated machinery that he designed in their production process and it proved to be more efficient in producing lead pipe and wire.
He sold his interest in the company by 1850 and undertook manufacturing of railroad locomotives for the Panama Railway in 1851 having invented a locomotive for inclined planes. Sellers took out many patents on improvements he made on railroad locomotives while working there. He invented a railroad engine capable of climbing steep mountains and heavily inclined planes — it was defined as an engine boiler with gearing for working heavy grades and was patented as US7498A on July 9, 1850. He was engaged in the manufacturing and sales of railroad equipment for several years in the 1850s.
During the American Civil War, Sellers moved to southern Illinois near the Ohio River and became interested in their mining operations. He invented a process for making paper-stock from vegetable fiber which was patented as US41101A on January 5, 1864. He spent the remainder of his career pursuing mechanical engineering and design. In 1888, he took up residence at Chattanooga, Tennessee upon retirement and lived on Mission Ridge. Sellers died at his home in Chattanooga at the age of 90 on January 1, 1899.
Personal life.
Sellers married Rachel Brooks Parrish on March 6, 1833. They had five children and adopted an orphaned daughter of his cousin. Parrish died on September 14, 1860 in Illinois and was survived by only one son out of their five children.
He had a deep interest in archaeology. He wrote several articles on the relics of the mound builders of Illinois — one published by Smithsonian Institution was on the aborigines' method of making earthenware salt pans. He also wrote detailed articles on how the local American Indians made arrowheads and stone age tools. He personally became so skilled at making arrowheads that some specimens of his craft were on display at the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. He also had a substantial collection of pottery and implements of the prehistoric tribes of the Ohio valley.
His grandfather Charles Wilson Peale and his uncles Rembrandt Peale and Raphaelle Peale were notable artists of the time. In Sellers's opinion, Raphaelle was the most talented of Charles's artist children. Sellers also had recognized artistic talent; Thomas Sully had urged him at an early age to become a portraitist and offered to teach him, but he was more interested in pursuing a vocational career. Nonetheless, he indulged his taste for arts and the society of artists throughout his life. He patented different art inventions from time to time and coordinated one of the earliest social organizations of artists in Philadelphia.
"The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today".
The first edition of Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's 1873 novel "" had a fictional character — a satirical exploitative capitalist without redeeming social values — called "Colonel Eschol Sellers". The name "Eschol Sellers" was suggested by Warner, and the use of "Eschol" was a carefully considered decision, with apocryphal descriptions of its antecedents. Warner stated that he had interacted with an "Eschol Sellers" 20 years prior to writing this book, and decided to use the name because of its rarity. He further added that "his name has probably carried him off before this; and if it hasn't, he will never see the book anyhow."
Dr. J. H. Barton — a common friend of Sellers and Warner — discovered the depiction and urged Warner to not use his friend's name. Warner forwarded a message to Sellers through Barton clarifying that the parallels in the storyline had been unintentional. On January 1, 1874, Sellers replied, threatened to sue them if they did not change the name, and asked them to issue a disclaimer about the usage of his name. Warner agreed and said that the name would be changed in the future copies. Twain mentioned in his 1892 novel "The American Claimant" that "Beriah Sellers" was used instead of "Eschol Sellers", but it had to be changed again when someone else objected to its use. The next editions of the novel used "Colonel Mulberry Sellers" instead. "Mulberry" happened to be the name of the neighborhood where Sellers was born and raised, and this unwanted connection continued to be repeated, even unto Sellers's obituaries.


Stampede Pass

Stampede Pass (elevation ) is a mountain pass in the northwest United States, through the Cascade Range in Washington. Southeast of Seattle and east of Tacoma, its importance to transportation lies almost entirely with railroading, as no paved roads cross it. It is approximately south-southeast of Snoqualmie Pass, the gap for and south of Keechelus Lake.
The pass, and the tunnel to the south which takes advantage of it, the Stampede Tunnel (), just below played a significant role in the history of the Northern Pacific Railway. The tunnel opened for service in May 1888, and is currently operated by the NP's successor, BNSF Railway.
After over a decade of dormancy in the late 20th century, the Stampede Pass Line and Tunnel were reopened in 1997 by BNSF, which utilizes the route as one of two direct Northern Transcon main lines through the Cascades, between Spokane and the Seattle metropolitan area.
Discovery of the pass.
Northern Pacific Railroad had been notified by the federal government that their lack of a direct route from Yakima to the Puget Sound was considered violation of their charter. Faced with losing millions of acres in their land grant, they began earnestly exploring a route over the cascades.
The first known discovery of the pass was made by Virgil Bogue, a civil engineer for the Northern Pacific. (Bogue went on to become chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad and later the Western Pacific Railroad.)
Below is Bogue's report, written in January 1881, from the collection of Robert A. Robey, the Northern Pacific's roadmaster at Auburn, Washington, in charge of the line across Stampede Pass throughout the 1960s.
Naming of the pass.
Bogue wrote the Washington State Historical Society's William Pierce Bonney about the naming of the pass in 1916.
Bonney, who worked for the Northern Pacific on Stampede Pass, added, "When the men quit work about the middle of the afternoon, the day of the stampede, they repaired to camp where they were busy waiting for supper; when the foreman came and announced to the cook that the food in his charge belonged to the railroad company was furnished to feed men that were working for the company, that these men had severed their connection with the company, hence were not entitled to be fed; then was when the real stampede began."
When discovered some weeks earlier, it had been named Garfield Pass, in honor of recently inaugurated President Garfield, but Stampede Pass became the name generally used.
The summit switchback.
The Northern Pacific completed Stampede Tunnel under Stampede Pass in 1888 (see section below). In the meantime, however, the NP decided not to wait for completion, and built a switchback across the summit of the pass.
According to "A Brief History of the Northern Railway", a switchback with 5.6 percent grade was studied by Chief Engineer Anderson as early as 1884. The line was surveyed in spring of 1886. There were three switchbacks on each side of the Cascades, and a great double horseshoe at the summit. Construction of the switchback was plagued by snowfall, and a cut through snow deep was required at the summit. The switchback included a mile of solid log cribbing, ¾ miles of snowsheds, and 31 trestles. When the ground thawed in the spring of 1887, it shifted and settled the newly laid track, requiring more work. The Northern Pacific spent $15,000 () on laborers' protection during the switchback's construction.
To operate the line the Northern Pacific ordered the two largest steam locomotives in the world (at that time). Despite their size, the steep grades meant one locomotive was stationed at each end of their five-car trains. Trains took an hour and fifteen minutes to traverse the eight-mile (13 km)-long switchback, a brakeman riding the rooftops every two cars. The first experimental train over the switchback was on June 6, 1887. The first scheduled passenger train over the switchback arrived in Tacoma at 7:15 PM on July 3, 1887.
Even after the completion of the tunnel, the switchback was reopened for brief periods in the 1890s as maintenance was carried out below.
Stampede Tunnel.
First tunnel location made by James T. Kingsbury, Assistant Engineer, August 1882. Other tunnel lines were run by the following named engineers, but all had practically the same initial point at the west end: John A. Hulburt, John Quincy Barlow, and F.C. Tucker. Final location made by William H. Kennedy.
J.Q. Jamieson was Assistant Engineer in charge from the commencement of work until October 23, 1887, when he was succeeded by Edwin Harrison McHenry (later chief engineer of the Northern Pacific), who continued in charge until the completion of the tunnel, snowsheds and sidetracks at both ends of the tunnel.
F.M. Haines was transitman on the west end and Andrew Gibson on the east end during the entire time the tunnel was under construction. N.B. Tunder was the contractor's Superintendent on the west end and Captain Sidney J. Bennet, a brother of the contractor, was superintendent on the east end.
The Contract for driving the tunnel was awarded to Nelson Bennett January 21, 1886.
Costs
Fatalities
The Stampede Pass railroad tunnel is arched in the center; that is, daylight is not detectable at either end of the tunnel when looking through to the other end; unlike both the first (2.6 mile, 1900) and second (7.8 mile, 1929) Cascade Tunnels of the Great Northern Railway at Stevens Pass, which were "boresighted" and ran in a straight line and at a constant downward angle from northeast to southwest. Steam engines ascending in either direction within the confines of the Stampede Tunnel was the cause of many train crews and passengers being nearly choked to death by the buildup of exhaust gasses within the tunnel; this led to a forced-air ventilation equipment being added at the west end of the tunnel at a later date. The grade is 2.2 percent on the east side from the town of Easton and 2.2 percent on the west side from the town of Lester.
Andrew Gibson, born and educated in Scotland, began work for the NP on main line construction in Oregon, about west of Portland, as a clerk for Mr. O. Phil, Assistant Engineer, about July 1, 1883, and continued in the same position until the party was disbanded, about the end of October. Was leveler for Colin Mcintosh, assistant engineer on Kalama Inclines during January 1884. Went to work as a "bush hook dude" with William H. Kennedy on Cascade Division Surveys on April 27, 1884, starting at South Prairie and working east. Promoted to rodman about the beginning of June and to leveler about the middle of August, when the location of the from South Prairie to Eagle Gorge was completed. Gibson went on to work for engineers William T. Chalk, John Quincy Barlow, J.Q. Jamieson, and Herbert S. Huson, literally all over the Stampede Pass line. Gibson ran the level and took topography for the switch back, worked on the final location of the tunnel line, crossings of the Yakima River in the Yakima Canyon. Finally, he was made an assistant engineer himself, overseeing the lining of the tunnel as well as filling the numerous temporary trestles built in the haste to finish the line on time. It is primarily through his diligent work that detailed first hand accounts of the work are available. Gibson went on to oversee the NP's building on the Palouse, the giant west end tie plant at Paradise, Montana, finally becoming the Chief Engineer in charge of maintenance of way in Saint Paul. He started out very modestly, clearing brush from what would become the Main Street of the Northwest.
Double tracking.
A major revision of the line from Lester to Stampede Tunnel was undertaken between 1912 and 1915. This included a new roundhouse at Lester, double tracking the line from Lester to the west portal of Tunnel 4, a small tunnel just a mile west of Stampede Tunnel, and replacing the former loop through Weston with a large steel viaduct. At the same time the route from Martin, at the east portal of Stampede Tunnel, was double-tracked down to Easton.
In August 1984, the Burlington Northern mothballed the line as redundant. Between 1995 and 1996, BN and its successor BNSF Railway, rehabilitated the line as a response to increasing traffic pressures in the Pacific Northwest. As of 2007, BNSF and government agencies in Washington state are committed to enlarging Stampede Tunnel to accommodate larger intermodal freight cars; the current height of is insufficient for double-stacked intermodal cars.
Recreational access.
The Mountaineers have a ski area just southeast of the eastern portal of the Stampede Pass tunnel. Built in 1928, Meany Lodge with 3 rope tows, is open to all during winter weekends from early January to early March. It hosts a PSIA certified winter sports school and is one of the oldest ski areas in the nation.
The Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail is about halfway between Stampede Pass and I-90.
In 1939, the Northern Pacific opened a ski area on the eastern portal of the Stampede Tunnel called Martin Ski Dome. The resort was to compete with the Milwaukee Ski Bowl a few miles north at Hyak. The Martin Ski Dome closed in 1942 with the start of World War II and then was sold in 1946, after the end of the war, to the University of Washington students association. It re-opened as Husky Chalet and had two rope tows.
The only public access to the pass is from the east; access from the west is not open to the public, since this is a part of the Green River watershed which is managed (and partly owned by) Tacoma Water to ensure the city's water supply is pure and fresh.


Alamo Gulf Coast Railroad

The Alamo Gulf Coast Railroad is a short-line railroad headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is a subsidiary of Martin Marietta Materials, a spinoff of Lockheed Martin., and began operation in 1996.
The AGCR operates on about of trackage within the Martin Marietta Beckmann Quarry in San Antonio, Texas. The AGCR moves limestone and aggregates within the Backmann Quarry to form trains for the Union Pacific Railroad to haul out. Industrial operations are not normally considered railroads, but the AGCR is because before the closure of the northern end of the quarry and the construction of The RIM shopping center, it served two lumberyards near Camp Bullis Rd. when it previously leased the Union Pacific Camp Stanley Industrial Lead Subdivision from mile post 15 to mile post 22.54. What was the Camp Stanley Industrial lead now ends at the edge of the quarry property about from where it began, and has since had its ownership turned over to the AGCR. The tracks into the currently active quarry were built in the 1990s, then later expanded to form a loop in the mid 2000s.
The AGCR connects to the Union Pacific Kerville Subvision at mile post 15, about 25 feet from the Loop 1604 frontage road, after the bridge. The Kerrville Subdivision was originally built in 1890 by the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, and went all the way through Boerne to Kerrville. It was later owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad, who abandoned the line past Leon Springs. After that, the line past 1604 became known as the Camp Stanley Industrial Lead because the line went just far enough out to serve the warehouses at Camp Stanley.
Four locomotives are operated by the AGCR: #1 EMD SD40 (former MP 777), #2 EMD SD40-2, #3 SD40-2 converted into a yard slug (former CNW 6819), #4 EMD SW1500


Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway

The Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway (originally "Railroad") was formed in 1885 with Marcus Low, a former attorney for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, as its president. The CRI&P advanced the CK&N about twenty-five million dollars to begin construction in exchange for nearly all of the CK&N's stock. Essentially, this made the CRI&P the owner of the CK&N from the very beginning. The CK&N had put down about 1388 miles of track, mostly in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Indian Territory, but in 1889 it failed to make its interest payment to the CRI&P. The CRI&P started foreclosure proceedings on the CK&N, eventually fully taking over by June 17, 1891.


Alexandria Extension

The Alexandria Extension is a short rail line in Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County, Maryland. Its northern portion connects the Capital Subdivision to the RF&P Subdivision, allowing freight trains to avoid Downtown Washington. Its southern portion, the Shepherd Industrial Spur, extends south to Shepherds Landing, directly across the Potomac River from Alexandria, Virginia; service on this portion ended in 2001.
It is currently part of CSX Transportation's Capital Subdivision.
Route description.
The Alexandria Extension runs south 7.2 miles (11.6 km) from a junction in Hyattsville, Maryland to the beginning of the RF&P Subdivision just before the Anacostia Railroad Bridge in Southeast D.C. This busy route is used by freight trains to Virginia. This portion runs parallel to Benning Yard, the Landover Subdivision, the Washington Metro Orange Line, and the Anacostia Freeway for roughly the southern half of its length.
Its southern portion, the Shepherd Industrial Spur, continues running alongside the Anacostia Freeway until it reaches Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling. It then travels within the grounds of the Base, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. Tracks have been removed along some portions of this route.
History.
The Alexandria Extension, originally called the Alexandria Branch, was built in 1874 and ran 12.5 miles (20.1 km) to Shepherds Landing along the eastern shore of the Potomac River, to provide a connection to Virginia. The B&O had lost access to the Long Bridge across the river in 1870 due to political maneuvering by the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P) (controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR)). In order to efficiently route its trains to points south of Washington, the B&O set up a car float operation at Shepherds Landing, which carried freight cars across the river to Alexandria, Virginia.
For many years the junction at Hyattsville, called Alexandria Junction, was controlled by JD Tower. B&O built its first interlocking tower building at the site in 1894, and rebuilt the tower in 1912 and again in 1917. CSX closed this tower in 1992, and demolished it in 1994 after a fire.
The ferry operation was discontinued in 1906 when the B&O obtained trackage rights from PRR. The B&O built a connecting track from the Alexandria Extension to the B&P's Anacostia Railroad Bridge, which provided access to PRR tracks in southwest D.C. (now called the CSX RF&P Subdivision) and the Long Bridge.
During World War II, the B&O re-activated the Shepherds Landing crossing at the request of the U.S. Army. The Army had requested an additional Potomac River crossing for troop movements to supplement those on the Long Bridge, and the Corps of Engineers built a temporary bridge across the river in 1942. Both B&O and PRR trains traveled over the 3,360 foot (1,020 m) bridge. Train operations on the bridge ceased in 1945 at the end of the war, and the bridge was demolished in 1947.
The original track from the junction at Anacostia Bridge to Shepherds Landing became known as the Shepherd Branch. This spur served several industries, including Bolling Air Force Base and the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. (Shown as "Shepherd Industrial Track" on the diagram.) The Blue Plains plant was the only customer on the branch when rail service ended in 2001.
Plans were made to reuse the track as part of the Anacostia Line of the DC Streetcar, but this did not occur.


Abram Fitkin

Abram Edward Fitkin (September 18, 1878 – March 18, 1933) was an American minister, investment banker, businessman, public utilities operator, and philanthropist, who founded and ran dozens of companies, including A.E. Fitkin & Co.; the National Public Service Corporation; the United States Engineering Corporation; and the General Engineering and Management Corporation, which by 1926 managed 178 utility companies in 18 US states and over 1,000 local communities. As a philanthropist Fitkin donated in excess of $3,000,000 to finance the construction of the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Manzini, Swaziland; the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Institution in Scobeyville, New Jersey; the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Pavilion for Children at the New Haven Hospital in Yale; and the Jersey Shore University Medical Center (formerly Raleigh Fitkin and Paul Morgan Memorial Hospital) at Neptune Township, New Jersey.
Personal history.
Abram Edward Fitkin was born on September 18, 1878, in Brooklyn, New York, the sixth son and 11th of thirteen children of Mary E. Vought (born September 18, 1843, in Easton, Pennsylvania; died May 7, 1914) and Thomas Furlong Fitkin (born June 10, 1833, in Weston Turville, England; died March 2, 1914), a harness-manufacturer, who migrated to the USA in 1850, settling in Brooklyn. Fitkin's parents were married on December 31, 1861.
Fitkin had thirteen brothers and sisters: Thomas Ellsworth Fitkin (1862–1868); Louisa Fitkin (born 1863; died June 1879 of diphtheria); Mary E. Fitkin Raynor (born October 1865; died 1952);
 Nellie Fitkin Christy (born September 20, 1866; died 1936); Walter Raleigh Fitkin (born October 1868; died June 1935); Thomas George Fitkin (born and died in 1869); William Fitkin (born and died 1870); Robert Laurence Fitkin (born May 26, 1873; died February 20, 1938); Maude Fitkin (born and died in 1875); Sarah "Sadie" Fitkin (1876–1882); Francis "Nance" Fitkin (born March 1880; died in 1880); and Fuller Fitkin (born and died in 1881).
In June 1880 the Fitkin family lived on Second Street, Brooklyn. Fitkin was a member of the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church at 95 Richmond Street, Brooklyn.
On October 15, 1895 Fitkin met Susan W. "Susie" Norris (born March 31, 1870, in Ely, Quebec, Canada; died October 18, 1951, in Oakland, California), an ordained Canadian Quaker pastor, at a camp meeting in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Clintondale, New York, where she was entirely sanctified. In mid-June 1896 the Clintondale Pentecostal Church was organized after another revival campaign, with Hiram F. Reynolds, a Methodist minister, deciding to join at that time.
Ministry.
For the next six months Fitkin, described as a "gifted evangelist", was teamed with Susie Norris. On February 26, 1896, Fitkin, transferred his church membership from the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Brooklyn to the Marlborough Monthly meeting of the Society of Friends in Ulster County. During their six months of itinerant ministry in New York state, Fitkin loaned Susan books on holiness, and many became Christians through their ministry. According to Basil Miller: "This attraction grew into love, and at length love had its way, and they were married by William Thomas Willis (born October 1832), a Quaker minister, former pastor of the Clintondale Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends at Clintondale, New York (1885-1889), and then resident Quaker minister, at his home in Clintondale on May 14, 1896".
After their wedding, the Fitkins continued to hold revival meetings "throughout the eastern states in campaigns when hundreds were converted and many led into the experience of full salvation". In October 1896 the Fitkins rented a former blacksmith shop in Hopewell Junction, New York, where they conducted their services, with the result that "scores were converted", and on November 1, 1896, sixty of the converts were organized into a church, with Fitkin and Susan agreeing to be the pastors. At Fitkin's recommendation, the church affiliated with the newly established Association of Pentecostal Churches of America (APCA), a holiness denomination led at that time by William Howard Hoople. Soon after the Fitkins started another church in Cornwall, New York, which they also pastored. In April 1897 Fitkin was dropped from membership by the Marlborough Monthly Meeting because he has become a member of another denomination. In 1898 Fitkin was ordained as a minister in the APCA at Brooklyn.
By 1900 Fitkin and Susan were co-pastors of the APCA church in South Manchester, Connecticut, where they lived in a rented house on Main Street. On April 12, 1900, Susan Fitkin was elected president of the APCA's Women's Foreign Missionary Auxiliary at its second annual meeting, held in Saratoga, New York. During the last four months of 1900, Fitkin and his wife devoted their efforts to traveling evangelism.
As a consequence of the depressed economic circumstances caused by the Panic of 1893, Fitkin struggled financially while serving as a pastor and evangelist, with little financial support possible from the church. Basil Miller records: "those years at the turn of the century were marked with struggle. There were times when the food on the parsonage table had literally been prayed in by Abram and Susan. ... Week by week a soup-bone graced the parsonage larder, the meat of which served the first day or so, the bone at length, mixed by a skillful hand with vegetables, becoming soup to end the week.
On Thursday, May 14, 1903, Fitkin was the preacher at an all day holiness meeting at the Emanuel Pentecostal Church at 190 1/2 Main Street, Fitchburg, Massachusetts, pastored by John Norberry.
After ministry.
During 1903 Fitkin left pastoral ministry and ceased his evangelistic work to devote his attention to making sufficient income to support both his family and his future ministry. Fitkin announced: "It is better to be a good businessman than a poor minister." Fitkin admitted to his friend, Rev. E. G. Anderson, that at first he only aimed to make enough to be independent in God's work. The goal he set was a half million.
By 1904 the Fitkins moved to Everett, Massachusetts, where Susan became the pastor of the APCA church. Abram and Susan Fitkin had four children: A. Raleigh (born September 3, 1904, in Everett, Massachusetts; died September 7, 1914); Mary-Louise (born June 12, 1907, in Swampscott, Massachusetts; died August 17, 1987, in Klamath Falls, Oregon); Willis Carradine (born October 10, 1908, in Hollis, New York; died Meredith, New Hampshire); and Ralph MacFarland (born March 7, 1912; died July 16, 1962, in Dade County, Florida).
One of Fitkin's last ministry activities was as one of the preachers at the dedication of new church and parsonage for the Emmanuel Pentecostal Church at Peabody, Massachusetts, on June 3, 1906.
By the end of 1907 Fitkin and Susan, and their two children moved to Brooklyn because of Fitkin's increased business activities. In 1907 the Fitkins became members of the John Wesley Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene located at the corner of Saratoga Avenue and Sumpter Street, Brooklyn, then pastored by William Howard Hoople. Their third child, Willis Carradine, named in honor of holiness evangelist Beverly Carradine, was born on October 10, 1908, in Hollis, Queens By April 1910 the Fitkins lived in their own home on Wallis Avenue, Queens, New York. While living here, their fourth child, Ralph MacFarland was born March 7, 1912.
After a fishing trip with his father in August 1914, Raleigh Fitkin was thrown from their car after its axle broke. Miller records: "Though badly frightened, father and son seemed to be uninjured. The next day when Raleigh said that he had severe abdominal pain, the family, at first, thought it a mere recurrence of appendicitis attacks, which previously had passed off with no after effects." Despite an operation in a home in Allenhurst, New Jersey and the efforts of six physicians, on September 14, 1914, Raleigh died. Raleigh, who was "the light of the father's eye", had testified to becoming a Christian at age 6, had indicated that he wanted to be a missionary to Africa. Raleigh's funeral was held in Allenhurst, New Jersey.
By January 1920 Fitkin and his family resided at 271 Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn; by December 1926, Fitkin and his family lived at 8 Remsen Street, Brooklyn.
By June 1927, Fitkin and his wife lived at a large estate, called "Milestones", that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean at 16 and 18 Corlies Avenue (at the corner of Ocean Avenue), Allenhurst, New Jersey. After a trip to California, Fitkin relocated the original colonial house to the rear of the property, and had a 20-room, 3-story bungalow constructed in its place for the family residence. At noon on June 14, 1927 Fitkin's only daughter, Mary-Louise, married Esley Foster Salsbury (1907–1993) at "Milestones", in a ceremony conducted by her cousin, Rev. Chauncey David Norris. On October 21, 1927, Willis C. Fitkin married Helen Shubert at the St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
In July 1928 Fitkin took possession of "Memory III", which was described as "one of the outstanding yachts of her day", and was designed by Philadelphia naval architect Thomas D. Bowes and built by Defoe Boat and Motor Works of Bay City, Michigan, specifically for Fitkin in 1927–28. "Memory III" was a 306-ton steel yacht, 142 feet in length, with a beam of 23 feet and a draught of 9 feet 9 inches, and capable of a top speed of 12 knots. In August 1928, Fitkin's other yacht, "Adios II", valued at $100,000, was attacked by a former steward who been fired by Fitkin.
In October 1928, Fitkin was threatened with a loaded rifle by a US Coast Guard officer while on his way up the Shrewsbury River in a motor launch, as it was suspected he may have been involved in smuggling alcohol in violation of Prohibition laws. Angered by what he considered the officer's rude manner, Fitkin, "a lifelong Republican", vowed to vote for Democrat Al Smith in the 1928 US Presidential elections.
On February 13, 1932 Ralph M. Fitkin and Lorene Hastings eloped and married at Elkton, Maryland.
Career.
In 1900 Fitkin began his business career in Boston as a bookkeeper, before moving to New York to become a manager at Pelser, Welker & Co., a financial firm that dealt mainly in railroad securities. Fitkin formed Fitkin Securities Corp. as a holding company for all of his interests;
and in 1908 Fitkin formed a partnership with WC Harty, under the name of A.E. Fitkin & Co, which operated as an investment bank and security brokerage, specializing in public utility securities. Walter Raleigh Fitkin (1868–1935), Fitkin's oldest living brother, was employed as a cashier at A.E. Fitkin & Co. in 1909.
In December 1912 A.E. Fitkin & Co. published a stock and bond sheet listing 600 unlisted securities. Additionally, Fitkin created the United States Engineering Corp., an engineering and management subsidiary.
Eventually Fitkin accumulated $75,000 from commissions, which he used as the "seed money" for his future success. From 1912 Fitkin, later described as "a utility czar", and as "a confident, testy builder and vendor of public utility systems", focused on the acquisition, management, and sale of public utilities. The "Los Angeles Times" later described Fitkin's strategy: "A.E. Fitkin, who makes a business of buying strategically located public utility properties, building them up with new capital and expert management, and selling the revamped set-up to one of its larger competitors."
1913–1920.
After borrowing $400,000 from a friend at the Guaranty Trust Company, in 1913 Fitkin bought control of The San Angelo Water, Light & Power Co. at San Angelo, Texas. Before World War I, A.E. Fitkin & Co. drew on capital from New York, Chicago, and Saint Louis to acquire and consolidate a number of East Texas utility companies. In 1916 A.E. Fitkin & Co. purchased the H. M. Spalding Electric Light Plant in Concordia, Kansas, for $550,000 from Lemuel K. Green (died 1930).
In 1918 A.E. Fitkin & Co. purchased a site on San Jacinto Bay and established an oil refinery for the manufacture of lubricants. In May 1919 A.E. Fitkin & Co. sold most of their stock in the Mexican-Pantjo Oil Co. In an effort to sell the balance of their holdings, W. C. Harty extolled the virtues of Mexican oil: "It is true that Mexican crude is of low grade, but for fuel purposes it is unequalled".
In 1919 the Century Oil Company was incorporated by the General Engineering and Management Corporation, one of the subsidiaries of A.E. Fitkin Co. On October 30, 1924 Century Oil Company and six of its subsidiaries was put into receivership at the request of Fitkin.
By August 1919 A.E. Fitkin & Co. had its headquarters at 141 Broadway, Manhattan, and branch offices in Boston, Pittsburgh, and Chicago. On March 18, 1920, A.E. Fitkin & Co.'s partners were Fitkin, W.C. Harty, A.M. Hall II, L.L. Benedict, Jr., and M.J. O'Shaughnessy. However, by August 24, 1920, O'Shaughnessy declared bankruptcy. On September 1, 1921, Benedict and Hall both retired from A.E. Fitkin & Co., leaving Fitkin and Harty as the sole partners.
1921–1927.
On October 1, 1921, Fitkin bought the St. Petersburg Electric Light and Power Co. from Bird Malcolm Latham (born July 5, 1885, in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania; died January 12, 1961, in St. Petersburg, Florida), and renamed it the Pinellas County Power Co., which later became the Florida Power Corporation.
On April 22, 1922, A.E. Fitkin & Co. purchased The Tidewater Power Company of Wilmington, N.C., which controlled the electric light, gas, and street railway companies of Wilmington, North Carolina, from Hugh MacRae for $5,000,000. Fitkin became president and Harty became vice president.
On October 30, 1922, Fitkin took over the Clearwater Lighting Company in Clearwater, Florida, through the Tide Water Power Company, and merged its assets with those of the St. Petersburg Lighting Company on November 15, 1922, to create the original Florida Power Corporation. Fitkin was president of FPC until he appointed Bird Latham on October 25, 1925. In February 1923 Fitkin was able to announce a minimum 12% reduction in power rates for St. Petersburg customers.
In 1923 A.E. Fitkin & Co. had established the National Public Service Corporation (incorporated in Virginia in 1923), with Fitkin as president, to be a holding company for their utilities in eight US states, including its Jersey Central Power and Light Company.
In February 1924 A.E. Fitkin & Co. negotiated the purchase of the Miami Municipal street railway from Carl G. Fisher, after having already purchased the electric light and power plant at Miami Beach and the Miami Beach Electric Railway for $1,500,000.
On March 16, 1924 A.E. Fitkin & Co. announced that they had acquired the Tri-County Electric Co. of Pompton Lakes, and the Consolidated Gas Company of New Jersey, which they would merge with their Jersey Central Power and Light Corporation.
By 1925 Fitkin had formed the Fitkin Realty and Improvement Company of Delaware, with one of its first projects the sale for $80,000 of a property at 5th Street and 1st Avenue South in St. Petersburg, Florida, to the Pinellas County Power Co. for the construction of the Florida Power Building, the headquarters of the Florida Power Corporation.
In March 1925 the National Public Service Corporation acquired an additional seven utility companies in three states. By December 1925 Fitkin's utility companies served more than 700 communities in fifteen US states.
In January 1926 Fitkin Utilities acquired the Newport News Hamilton Railway, Gas and Electric Company of Virginia.
By the end of February 1926, A.E. Fitkin's companies were operating in 18 states, and had increased its capital from $30,000,000 to $171,000,000 in the previous four years. At that time, Bird Latham retired from his role in Fitkin's companies, proclaiming Fitkin, "one of the greatest men in America today, a big man who has really put sentiment into business".
By March 1, 1926, Fitkin Utilities had acquired The Southside Virginia Power Co., and merged with its previous acquisitions in Virginia to form the Virginia Public Service Corporation, a subsidiary of National Public Service Corporation.
In April 1926 Fitkin gave 10,000 shares of General Engineering and Management Corporation, which at that time managed the 178 companies in the Fitkin Utility group, to the company's 35 executives and department heads, in recognition of their efforts, saying: "those who devote their energies to upbuilding a concern are entitled to participate in benefits which their help creates". Later in April 1926 two of A.E. Fitkin & Co.'s subsidiaries, Fitkin Utilities, Inc. and the General Engineering and Management Corporation purchased for $3,000,000 a fifteen-year-old sixteen-story building at 84 William Street, New York, where they planned to relocate to after May, 1927.
On June 1, 1926, North Carolina governor Angus Wilton McLean opened the one-mile long concrete Wrightsville Beach causeway to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, financed and constructed by A.E. Fitkin & Co. for $126,000, through a subsidiary, Wilmington-Wrightsville Beach Causeway Company., which charged users 10 cents to cross. The Tide Water Power Company sold lots to develop Shore Acres.
Fitkin boosted Florida's economic opportunities, and was a dominant force during and but especially after the Florida land boom of the 1920s, purchasing undeveloped tracts of land, building and enlarging power plants due to anticipated and actual population increases, and then connecting the new communities to his various utilities, including the Georgia Power & Light Co. (later Georgia-Florida Power Co.), and selling the land with substantial profits.
In June 1926, A.E. Fitkin & Co. merged 24 public utility companies held by Commonwealth Light and Power and by the Interstate Electric Corporation into a new Inland Power & Light Corporation. In October 1927 Fitkin sold Inland Power & Light Co. to Samuel Insull and his interests, for $30,000,000. By October 1926 Fitkin's utility companies served more than 1,000 communities in the USA.
In November 1926 Fitkin merged four of his utilities companies in Florida into a new Florida Power Corporation, which had been organized and incorporated by the National Public Service Corporation in February 1925 to take over the physical properties of the old Florida Power Corporation (incorporated in 1922). On 1 March 1927 the organization of the new Florida Power Corporation, to be under the control of the National Public Service Corporation, was completed with the merger of the old Florida Power Corporation (1922), the Pinellas County Power Co., and the Central Florida Power & Light Co., valued at $20,000,000, and making it the largest electric power organization in Florida.
In late 1926 Fitkin group purchased from Lemuel Green the West Missouri Power Company, which was to be merged with the Missouri Public Service Company (MPS). By February 1927 Fitkin's companies provided utilities to 1,146 communities in 16 US states.
In 1927 Fitkin sold his interests in the "Shore Acres" real estate development on Harbor Island, South Carolina, to Oliver T. Wallace and Richard L. Player.
Fitkin was optimistic about Florida's economic recovery after the collapse of the Florida Boom in 1925, and invested heavily in Florida, indicating in March 1927: "We have invested many millions in Florida and the investment has been profitable. We have abundant faith in Florida's future and we are planning to extend our investment and our service to Florida by the expenditure of many more millions of dollars in permanent construction". In July 1926 Fitkin & Co. indicated it would spend $12,000,000 to construct underground conduit in St. Petersburg, Florida, and power lines from there to other cities on Florida's west coast, and 88 communities on the east coast.
On March 1, 1927 Fitkin sold its interest in the National Public Service Corporation to Day & Zimmermann for $250,000,000. On March 25, 1927 A. E. Fitkin & Co. sold control Western United Corporation to Day & Zimmerman. On October 27, 1927 A.E. Fitkin & Co. sold its interests in Commonwealth Light & Power Co. to Insull Son & Co.,
and in late 1927 Insull also acquired the Florida Power Corporation from the A.E. Fitkin & Co.
1927–1933.
In October 1927 Fitkin announced his retirement from the public utilities field to engage in Stock Exchange and investment activities. A few days later Fitkin purchased a seat on the New York Stock Exchange for $255,000 from Walter L. Ross, but the Admissions Committee rejected Fitkin's admission at that time. On October 26, 1927 Fitkin left New York to establish branches in Europe for his stockbroking business.
In June 1928 Fitkin's personal fortune was estimated at $30,000,000. In January 1928 Fitkin formed A.E. Fitkin Co., Inc., with offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. and later opened branches in San Francisco and Seattle. Also in 1928 Fitkin formed A.E. Fitkin & Sons, Inc.
In the summer of 1929 Fitkin formed the United American Utilities, Inc. as an investment trust,
which later created the Pacific Freight Lines Corporation, Ltd as its subsidiary.
In early October 1929, just weeks before the Wall Street Crash, A.E. Fitkin & Co sold control of Pacific Public Service Co.
to Standard Oil of California for $26,801,327, which through subsidiaries operated the largest bottled spring and distilled water business in the world, supplied electric light, power and natural gas to 80 California communities in two areas, including the industrial region in Contra Costa County, and the city of Santa Cruz; owned 21 plants for the production of butane gas, including one at El Centro, then largest in the U.S.; and owned ice and cold storage plants, a 12-mile refrigeration pipeline that ran through the business district of Los Angeles, serving office buildings, markets and theatres, to Standard Oil Company of California for $26,801,327. By late 1929 A.E. Fitkin Limited had opened branches in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but had closed its branch in Boston.
On January 2, 1930 Fitkin announced the reorganization of A.E. Fitkin & Co., which included the formation of Fitkin & Co., Ltd., an investment and securities corporation, that would succeed A.E. Fitkin & Co. David A. Pepp of Los Angeles was appointed president of A. E Fitkin & Co., Ltd.
In 1930 Fitkin became board chairman of American Gas & Power Co.
In 1930 Fitkin gained control of Atlantic Public Utilities, Inc., which controlled the water supply of 200 communities on the Atlantic seaboard, but which had been placed in receivership after a drought. In June 1931 Fitkin sold the utility assets of Atlantic Public Utilities, Inc., to Samuel Insull, giving him a foothold in every Atlantic State except Rhode Island, and an additional 10 million customers. Fitkin retained the water and ice properties and the Cleveland Southwestern railroad system.
In January 1932 Fitkin re-entered the market and acquired control of the American Gas and Power Company, which was in receivership. After Fitkin's death, control of American Gas and Power was acquired by F.W. Seymour through his purchase of its holding company, Community Gas & Power Co., in September 1934.
In June 1932 Fitkin created A.E. Fitkin & Sons, a new securities brokerage, which succeeded A.E. Fitkin & Co., which admitted his two sons, W.C. Fitkin and Ralph F. Fitkin, as partners.
Philanthropy.
The death of Fitkin's oldest son, Raleigh (born September 3, 1904), "the light of the father's eye", on September 7, 1914, was the primary factor in Fitkin's philanthropic enterprises. According to Basil Miller: "The lad Raleigh was to play an important role in the family's missionary future. ... [T]he boy's interest in missions prompted his father Abram to build at a cost of thousands of dollars the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Africa". Fitkin's ability to make money financed his wife's ministry,into which her husband's generosity in the span of his life poured a fortune. For during the days of her active service, she was to cover the foreign world more extensively than any church sire or leader among the Nazarenes. All of this was made possible by Abram's midas' touch. Traveling more than a half-million missionary miles, she did so without cost to the church she loved so deeply. Likewise she contributed through Mr. Fitkin's successes the expenses of her companion on home and foreign trips, as well as making liberal missionary donations. In the dim backdrop of this was Raleigh, whose missionary zeal and interest so touched his father's heartstrings that he could but be generous with God's work and philanthropic causes.
While his wife dedicated her energies to promoting the missionary program of the Church of the Nazarene (in partnership with Hiram F. Reynolds) in her capacity as the unpaid founding president of the Nazarene Women's Missionary Society for almost 33 years from September 30, 1915, "her husband poured into the cause of philanthropy and missions millions in memory of their beloved son Raleigh. That thread of interest wove in and out of A. E. Fitkin's career until he died. The dream of perpetuating Raleigh's memory was not one that came early and then vanished. But the father did good deed after good deed until his end". According to Basil Miller: "Throughout the years of Mrs. Fitkin's missionary travels as president of the W.F.M.S., he financed liberally all her expenses as well as those of her companions en route. In addition there were large gifts directly to missionary causes, these amounts going far over the ten thousand mark in some years".
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Church of the Nazarene, Swaziland (1916).
Early in 1916, Susan Fitkin began dreaming of building a missionary chapel in Africa in memory of Raleigh. Abram Fitkin provided the funds to construct the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial church, "the first tangible memorial to that would-be child missionary, Raleigh", at Piggs Peak, Swaziland.
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, Piggs Peak, Swaziland (1919–1925).
In October 1916 the Fitkins advised Hiram F. Reynolds, a general superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene and head of its foreign missionary program, that they would "provide the money for the erection of a memorial hospital in Africa." The Fitkins donated funds to build the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, a small 18-bed facility built on the Nazarene mission compound at Piggs Peak, Swaziland from April 1919, and opened in 1920. By 1919 the Nazarene mission station at Piggs Peak, formerly known as the Camp Station, was renamed the Fitkin Memorial Station.
In 1925 the Swaziland government granted 35 acres of land fifty miles further south at Bremersdorp to the Church of the Nazarene for a hospital closer to the population centre of the country. After the opening of the new Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in 1927, the old hospital building was used to house a portion of the Piggs Peak Nazarene Primary School.
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital, Bremersdorp, Swaziland (1927).
Excluding the $10,000 contributed by members of the Church of the Nazarene from 1926, the Fitkins and Mrs. Ada E. Bresee were the principal donors of the substantial amount given to build the replacement 80-bed Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital (RFMH) for the Church of the Nazarene in Bremersdorp, Swaziland. By June 1925 the first stage was dedicated, and on July 16, 1927, RFMH hospital was dedicated by Susan Norris Fitkin.
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Institution, New Jersey (1927).
By July 1927 Fitkin bought a 160-acre farm on the south side of the county road between Colt's Neck and Scobeyville, New Jersey, for $26,000, which included an apple and peach orchards, crops, livestock, farm machinery, outbuildings and a century-old fifteen room house, which Fitkin intended to have enlarged and remodeled in order to use as an orphanage.
Later in 1927 Fitkin donated $1,000,000 to build and endow the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Institution, a hospital and home for crippled children on the state highway, between Eatontown and Freehold in Shrewsbury Township, New Jersey. The plans included the purchase of 200 acres to establish a self-supporting farm to fund the Institute.
Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Pavilion for Children, Connecticut (1928–1930).
On June 15, 1928 Fitkin donated $1,000,000 to Yale University for the care and treatment of children in memory of his oldest son, Raleigh, with $500,000 for the study of children's diseases, and another $500,000 for the construction of a 125-bed hospital at the New Haven Hospital at 789 Howard Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut, to be designed by Henry Colden Pelton (born October 18, 1868, in New York; died on August 28, 1935, in New York City), who had previously designed Christodora House (1928), the Babies and Children's Hospital of New York at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (1928), and the Riverside Church (1930).
Escalating construction costs resulted in Fitkin donating an additional $100,000 in June 1929 to build the now larger six-story 136-bed Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Pavilion for Children. Fitkin's donation allowed the expansion and consolidation of pediatric inpatient facilities in a single building, close to the departmental offices and clinic facilities. Fitkin dedicated the hospital on February 8, 1930, however at that time only two of five floors of the Fitkin buildings were assigned to pediatrics. According to Howard Pearson, "Fifty inpatient beds were on Fitkin 3 and Fitkin 4, and included two air-conditioned rooms for premature infants. The outpatient clinic had 20 examining rooms on the third floor of the Clinic Building. There were two pediatric infectious disease wards on the second floor of the Isolation Building. This set-up remained essentially the same for the next 25 years". The Fitkin wards remained the inpatient pediatric service at the hospital until the 1980s.
Also in 1928 $1,000,000 was given to create the Ralph Fitkin Ward Unit in honor of Fitkin's youngest son for the "study and treatment of diseases of childhood".
Raleigh Fitkin-Paul Morgan Memorial Hospital, New Jersey (1930).
In order to honor his deceased son, and also A.E. Fitkin & Co. Vice-President Paul L. Morgan (born about 1896; died March 1929), who died of pneumonia at the age of 32, by May 1930 Fitkin contributed $500,000 to the Spring Lake Hospital Society to build the Fitkin-Morgan Memorial Hospital at Corlies Avenue in Neptune Township, New Jersey. On November 19, 1930 Fitkin laid one of the cornerstones for the hospital, which was opened on Thursday, November 19, 1931. The hospital was founded as "a voluntary non-profit, general hospital "with the aim of providing "medical and surgical care and nursing service to the sick and injured who need the services of the hospital, regardless of their ability to pay".
In 1966 the hospital's corporate name was changed to Jersey Shore University Medical Center - Fitkin Hospital.
Church of the Nazarene.
Fitkin also paid off the $50,000 mortgage of the John Wesley Church of the Nazarene, where he held his church membership since 1907. In 1927 Fitkin and his wife gave $14,000 for Nazarene missions.
DeWint Home (1932).
Fitkin was affiliated with several fraternal organizations, including the Corson Commandery, No. 15, of the Knights Templar, in Asbury Park, New Jersey. By 1928 Fitkin was a member of the Altair Lodge No. 601 of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in Brooklyn, and served on its Board of Trustees Masonic Hall and Asylum Fund. In May 1932 Fitkin was one of the four primary benefactors who purchased the historic Johannes de Wint home at Tappan, New York, where George Washington had made his temporary headquarters on four separate occasions during the American Revolutionary War, and then gave it to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York to convert into a museum.
Death.
After a lengthy illness, Fitkin died of chronic myocarditis and interstitial neuritis in the morning of Saturday, March 18, 1933, in his apartment at the Savoy-Plaza Hotel Fitkin left an estate estimated at $250,000,000. at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street in Manhattan, New York. After a funeral on Monday, March 20, 1933, at his Allenhurst, New Jersey, home, he was buried in Brooklyn near his son, Raleigh.
According to Fitkin's friend, Rev. Elmer G. Anderson: "While he had left the ministry, and lived during these years without God, still there was a tenderness in his heart concerning the work of the Kingdom. He was a man that literally lived under conviction. I have seen him close his door, refuse all appointments that might have meant thousands of dollars, and say to me, 'Elmer, read the Bible and pray with me.' Nor did he dispose of his early holiness and ministerial books." Fitkin's wife believed that on his death bed, when he was only fifty-four, he had returned to God. According to Miller: "She and the ministers who were his personal friends, E.G. Anderson and W.B. Riley, prayed for hours with him, until God gave Mrs. Fitkin the assurance that he had come back to the Father's home."
Legacy.
The Fitkin Memorial Church of the Nazarene (recently Fitkin's Memorial Church of the Nazarene), established at 1110 38th Avenue, Meridian, Mississippi, by January 1948, was one of the oldest African-American congregations in the Church of the Nazarene.
Upon the occasion of the retirement in June 1948 of Susan Norris Fitkin after almost 33 years as its unpaid general president, the Nazarene Women's Foreign Missionary Society decided to honor her by raising $50,000 to establish the Fitkin Memorial Training School on the new Nazarene mission field in Ji'an, Jiangxi, China. Eventually, almost $75,000 was raised by members of the Church of the Nazarene for this project. The Fitkin Memorial Bible School was opened on October 12, 1948, with 26 students.
However, after the departure of Nazarene missionaries from China in May 1949, the balance of funds given for the Fitkin Memorial School in Daming were reallocated to educational projects in other countries, including $9,000 sent to British Honduras, where the Fitkin Memorial Nazarene Bible College of British Honduras was opened in Benque Viejo del Carmen on June 8, 1950, but closed in 1965; Japan, where $25,000 was allocated to construct the building that housed the new Nippon Nazarene Seminary in Tokyo, which was christened the Susan N. Fitkin Memorial Building, and dedicated on April 13, 1952; and $9,000 to the Philippines, where it was used to fund the construction of the Fitkin Memorial Bible Training School (now Luzon Nazarene Bible College) in La Trinidad, Benguet in July 1952, with an initial enrolment of 35 students, which was named in honor of Susan Norris Fitkin, who had died in 1951; and Lebanon, where land was purchased in the suburb of Sioufi, in the Achrafieh district of east Beirut, and a five-story building constructed in 1953 that housed a church and the Fitkin Memorial Nazarene Bible School, which operated from October 1954 until 1969.
Family.
Abram and Susan Fitkin had four children.
Abram Raleigh Fitkin.
Abram Raleigh Fitkin (born September 3, 1904, in Everett, Massachusetts; died September 7, 1914);
Mary-Louise Hooper.
Mary-Louise Fitkin Hooper (born June 12, 1907, in Swampscott, Massachusetts), was a member of the Church of the Nazarene from childhood, attended Adelphi Academy at Lafayette Avenue, St. James Place and Clifton Place, Brooklyn, New York, and studied at Stanford University for one year until June 1928.
Esley Foster Salsbury (1928–1938).
Mary-Louise married Esley Foster Salsbury (born August 28, 1907, in Canada; died June 13, 1993, in Los Angeles, California) on June 14, 1928, at "Milestones", the Fitkin home in Allenhurst, New Jersey; In April 1930 the Salsburys lived with Susan Norris Fitkin in Oakland, California. They had one child, Suzanne Mary Salsbury (born December 7, 1933, in Berkeley, California), who attended the California College of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley, California, and in December 1950 married artist Lloyd David Cogley (born March 5, 1917, in San Francisco; died February 2, 1992, in Klamath Falls), and they subsequently had five sons.
Karl Josef Deissler (1938–1946).
By August 1938 Mary-Louise had married Dr. Karl Josef Deissler (born June 29, 1906, in Heidelberg, Germany; died August 15, 1998, in Bern, Switzerland), a German physician, who had fled Germany for the USA in 1931 because of his liberal ideas and fears of Nazi persecution, and had been a fellow of the Mayo Clinic from 1931 to 1935, who was excluded from the US western defense area on September 4, 1942, until November 17, 1943, as an enemy alien, During their period of separation, Mary-Louise and her daughter lived in Illinois. The Deisslers divorced in 1946, and Mary-Louise and Suzanne moved to Carmel, California.
Clifford Hooper (1947–1949).
In late 1947 Mary-Louise married Clifford Hooper, an African American whom she had met while campaigning for the NAACP, in Seattle, Washington, as the laws of California did not allow inter-racial marriages. After living in Vancouver, British Columbia, for a year, the Hoopers separated, and were divorced in 1949. By June 1950 Mary Louise had become a Quaker. Hooper returned to Stanford University in 1953 to complete her degree, majoring in German, graduating with honors in June 1955. Mary-Louise Hooper, who had been "long active in volunteer work to better inter-racial relations", was also "an active supporter of African struggles against colonialism and apartheid". After a three-month tour of South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, with a group of Quakers in 1955, Hooper migrated to South Africa later that year, buying a home in Durban, South Africa. Hooper supported the African National Congress, described at one time as "the only white person to ever work inside the African National Congress", campaigned for the abolition of apartheid, and worked as a volunteer aide and secretary to ANC president Chief Albert Luthuli. Hooper was active in supporting those tried during the Treason Trial. Hooper, who had moved to Hillbrow, a suburb of Johannesburg, was arrested on March 10, 1957, and imprisoned for five days in what she described as "degrading and humiliating" conditions in the Fort Prison in Johannesburg, and was ordered to be deported from South Africa after being accused of assisting South African "negroes". Hooper was freed by the Rand Supreme Court on a writ of "habeas corpus", and later awarded damages. On May 14, 1957 Eben Dönges, the Interior Minister, ordered her deportation as he believed her presence in South Africa was not in the public interest. After leaving South Africa voluntarily at the end of May 1957, she was excluded by the South African government, but continued to be active in her opposition to apartheid, including giving interviews on radio, and television; raising funds for the South African Defense Fund; serving as one of the three ANC delegates to the first All-African Peoples' Conference in December 1958 in Accra, Ghana; and one of only two American observers at the Third All-African Peoples' Conference in Cairo in March 1961; organizing boycotts of South African goods and preventing the unloading of South African ships in January 1963; spoke to churches, and civic organizations; and writing articles. Hooper worked for the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), helped initiate and organize the 1965 Declaration of American Artists Against Apartheid, which sought to prevent cultural contacts with the apartheid regime; testified before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in May 1967, and invited Martin Luther King Jr. to speak at the 1965 South Africa Benefit, where he called for economic sanctions against South Africa. Hooper also supported the "Front de Libération Nationale" (FLN), in its efforts to gain independence for Algeria from France, writing "Refugee Algerian Students" in 1960.
Mary-Louise died in Klamath Falls, Oregon, on August 14, 1987.
Willis Carradine Fitkin.
Willis Carradine "Bud" Fitkin (born October 10, 1908, in Hollis, New York; died November 8, 1980, in Meredith, New Hampshire); attended Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn; In July 1924 Willis, then aged 15, was the driver of a car that was involved in a collision in New Jersey with a truck loaded with eggs, that damaged both vehicles severely but left both drivers uninjured. On October 22, 1927, at the St Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, W.C. Fitkin married Helen E. Shubert (born August 12, 1906, in Minnesota; died May 29, 1993, in Mahopac, New York) They had four children: Abraham Edward Fitkin (born 13 June 13, 1929, in Long Branch, Monmouth County, New Jersey; died March 17, 1992, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), Willis C. Fitkin, III (born about 1931), Joyce Fitkin Pietri (born about 1933), and Karen E. Fitkin Draper.
Fitkin was a vice-president, director and stockholder in A.E. Fitkin & Co. and A.E. Fitkin & Sons since 1932; president and chairman of Michigan Gas Utilities Co since April 1953; a member of the board of directors of Tampa Electric Co. until 1979; and was a member of the board of trustees of the Fitkin Memorial Hospital in Neptune, New Jersey, from its opening in November 1931. He resided in Naples, Florida, since 1955.
Ralph MacFarland Fitkin.
Ralph MacFarland Fitkin (March 7, 1912 - July 16, 1962), attended Adelphi Academy in Brooklyn until 1930, attended Yale University in 1931–1932, married Lorene Billie Hastings (born November 6, 1911; died 1987) on February 13, 1932, in Elkton, Maryland, with no family members present; and had three sons: Reed Keawaiki Fitkin (born September 22, 1939), Thomas Hastings Fitkin (born 1943; died 1945), and Scott Norris Fitkin (born August 8, 1945, in Hawaii). Ralph Fitkin was a vice-president, director and stockholder in A.E. Fitkin & Co. and A.E. Fitkin & Sons since 1932; served as a lieutenant in the US Navy during World War II, working in the cable censor's office in Hawaii, before retiring from the US Navy as a lieutenant commander; and was the owner of KHON in Honolulu, Hawaii, (which was part of the Aloha Broadcasting Company, which also included KTOH Lihue Kauai, KMVI Wailuku Maui, and KIPA Hilo), from its founding in 1946 until at least 1952. Fitkin, who resided at Greenwich, Connecticut, died on July 16, 1962, in Dade County, Florida.
Susan Norris Fitkin.
Susan Norris Fitkin died on October 18, 1951, aged 81, in Oakland, California.


Henderson Bridge (Ohio River)

The Henderson Bridge is a railroad bridge spanning the Ohio River between Henderson, Kentucky and Vanderburgh County, Indiana. The bridge is owned by the CSX Transportation.
The original bridge was constructed in 1884 to 1885 by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad at a cost of $2,000,000. The single-tracked bridge was approximately long, and its longest span, at , was reputed to be the longest trestle span in the world at that time. The bridge ran from the northern edge of Main Street in Henderson to the low water mark on the Indiana side, resting on 15 stone piers. It was designed to carry two engines followed by coal tenders, and its maximum uniform load capacity was . A crowd of 8,000 watched the first train cross the bridge on July 13, 1885.
Prior to the opening of the bridge, railroad passengers and freight had to be transferred to a ferry for the river crossing. The bridge reduced the travel time by several hours.
By 1930 the volume and weight of train traffic were taxing the capabilities of the original bridge. Construction of a new bridge just upstream of the old one began in May 1931. The new bridge, costing over $3,000,000, opened on December 31, 1932. Including its approaches, It is long, and its span over the main channel is long. The demolition of the old bridge, using dynamite, was completed on December 11, 1933.


Fast Mail (Amtrak train)

The Fast Mail was a train operated by Amtrak from Washington, D.C. to Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts, numbered #12 (northbound) and 13 (southbound). Train 12 carried both passengers and mail while train 13 carried mail and freight only.
At New Haven a separate train ran to and from Springfield (412/413). Train 12 departed Washington daily at 3:00am while 13 departed Springfield/Boston in the early morning. In 2002, train 13 was canceled and 12 became 190, without mail and express service.


Atlantic, Greenville and Western Railway

The Atlantic, Greenville and Western Railway was a railroad company chartered by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1885.
The Atlantic, Greenville and Western was the new name given in December 1885 when the Greenville and Port Royal Railroad had its charter amended by the S.C. General Assembly. The Greenville and Port Royal Railroad was chartered by the General Assembly in 1882.
The Atlantic, Greenville and Western was consolidated with the Carolina, Knoxville and Western Railway and the Pennsylvania and Haywood Railroad, under the Carolina, Knoxville and Western Railway moniker in 1887.