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Edward & Cornelia
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Edward Jr., William, Anna
Edward: born June 1, 1824, died December 21, 1899.
Cornelia Pratt: born January 16, 1827, died July 16, 1889
Married: June 15, 1848
Edward Jr.: born September 30, 1849, died November 2, 1933
William Williams: born March 9, 1854
Anna Williams Dreer: born July 25, 1858, died November 16, 1943
Click here for further reading on the Phinehas
Gage case.
Prof. E. H. Williams Jr. in a lengthy letter to the Springfield
Reporter, dated January 29, 1923 details the facts and points
out another reason the matter was allowed to drop, which is of
more immediate concern to this story. Dr. Williams decided to
move to Northfield, Vermont to join with his brother-in-law Dr.
Samuel W. Thayer in practice there. This was after Edward Jr.
was born on September 29th 1849. While in Northfield, in a violent
fit of coughing, the doctor raised a beech nut burr, which had
lodged in his vocal cords during his stay in Michigan some ten
years earlier. As it had been the focal point of the infection
which had produced the so-called asthma which had forced him
to the less active life of medicine, he now felt free to return
to his real love, engineering.
So in 1851 we find him assisting in the construction of the
railroad from Caughnawaga , Canada, to Plattsburgh, New York.
Because of his medical training he was the only white man allowed
by the Canadian government to remain overnight in the Caughnawaga
Indian Reservation. It is one of the evidences of the trust and
warmth of affection that he inspired all through his life, that
he was formally adopted into the Caughnawaga tribe. It is from
this period that comes the story I often heard grandfather, Edward
Jr. tell. He was probably not yet five at the time. Dr. Williams
was called to attend someone injured in an accident on the opposite
side of the St. Lawrence. The mighty river was in spring flood
with ice floes making passage hazardous. The Caughnawaga volunteered
a man (I'm not sure it wasn't the chief) to be the rear man in
a canoe for the doctor. Little Edward was to go along, but lie
flat in the bottom of the canoe, as the swiftness of the current
made the crossing dangerous. Little Edward, overcome with curiosity,
raised himself to get a view. The Indian barked, "Boy keep
head down or Indian chop off!" Needless to say there was
little need for the reinforcing admonition of his father. The
Caughnawaga era ended for the family, with Dr. Williams as chief
construction engineer, replacing his predecessor at his death
in 1854.
The few details of the succeeding years indicate a steady rise
in the importance of the positions Dr. Williams held. Until 1856
he was the assistant to the superintendent of the Michigan, Southern
and Northern Indiana Railway for two years, and then division
superintendent at Laporte Indiana. On his appointment to assistant
superintendent of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad in 1858,
the following remarks appeared in a newspaper notice headed,
"The Right Man in the Right Place - E.H.Williams Esq. has
been appointed... the M & M R.R. Co. have been fortunate
in securing such a man as Mr. Williams for that important trust.
Mr W. was formerly superintendent on the western division of
the Michigan Southern Railroad, and while there gained an enviable
reputation for good management and business capacity." This
notice may have been clipped from the paper at Janesville, Wisconsin,
as it is there that the family resided during this job, and it
was there that the daughter whom some of us knew as Aunt Anna
was born. She later became the wife of William F. Dreer, the
noted seedsman of Philadelphia. She was ten years younger than
her brother Edward, and some seven or eight years junior to the
brother William who died of TB at Barnard, Vermont while a student
at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1859 Dr. Williams left to become the Assistant Superintendent
of the Galena and Chicago Union, a pioneer road west of Chicago.
He remained with it through its absorption into the Chicago and
Northern, becoming the manager of the division from Chicago west
to the Mississippi in 1864. But the next year, at the age of
41 he was called to one of the most prestigious posts of railroading
- the Assistant Superintendency of the Pennsylvania Railroad,
succeeding shortly to be its Superintendent. An article in the
Chicago Railway Review pointed out that this company rarely brought
in outsiders, preferring to train its own management team. This
article remarked that he was noted for his "energy of purpose
and action, a versatility and facility of resource, an instinctive
genius for system and organization, and withal a mingled firmness
and kindness towards subordinates, which in their regard for
their superior, tempers respect with affection."
Dr. Williams made several practical contributions to railroading.
One, of major importance, was his encouragement of George Westinghouse
in his experiments and efforts to devise an air brake for railroad
trains, a major breakthrough in safety equipment. A second, noted
in his obituary in the Bethlehem (PA) Times, was the fact that
he spent some time in 1860 in the Lehigh valley, studying the
properties of anthracite coal, which induced him to introduce
its use on his line west of Chicago. Beside these major innovations
he also is credited as the inventor of the modern railroad time
table.
To return to the matter of respect and affection, I have a clipping
of an Illinois paper of 1865 which chronicles a testimonial gift
of a "chickering piano valued at $650 and a parlor easy
chair costing $80." sent by the employees of the old Galena
division of the Chicago & Northwestern to the Williams' new
home in Philadelphia, or rather Altoona, where they first settled.
It is worth quoting the letters of transmittal and of acknowledgement,
as much for their flowery Victorian expression as for the contents:
"Chicago, June 10, 1865
Dear Sir:
I have the honor to request, in behalf of the employees of the
Galena division...one of Chickering's pianos as a slight testimonial
of their esteem.
While we cannot consider it any adequate expression of the sincere
regard which all who were connected with the old ëG.&C.U.RR.'
entertained for you personally, or of the high respect engendered
for you as an officer of the road... yet we trust you will look
upon it more as an earnest of the sentiments of the givers than
for any intrinsic merits of the gift - and that its melodious
chords ëwhen waked and kindled by the master's spell' may
be in some sort, a symbol of the harmonious feelings which have
marked our intercourse with you...
Jno C Gault, for committee"
The reply, equally flowery, and clearly gracious, is as follows:
"John C. Gault, Esq.
The elegant piano and comfortable chair, which you forwarded
to me on behalf of the employees of the ëGalena Division',
and for which I am indebted to their generous kindness, have
been duly received. Please extend to the donors the sincere thanks
and hearty acknowledgements from Mrs. Williams and myself, for
these flattering testimonials of their regard.
During my connection with the road, my association with the officers
and employees were of the most pleasing character, and the recollections
of which are so vividly impressed upon my memory, that it did
not require this last substantial token to entitle them to my
confidence and esteem.
I accept the gift with pride and shall ever hold the donors in
grateful remembrance.... Kindly and truly yours,
Edward H. Williams"
His tenure as a Superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad is covered in some detail in the volume which the road published earlier this century on its superintendents, a copy of which I have seen, but do not have at hand at this writing. Something of his character and wisdom during this period are reflected in a letter of condolence at his death to Mrs. Dreer:
"In a reprimand (to me) he closed his last sentence with a smile and these words, "I want sometime to see you a superintendent." It was a new thought to me. I had never expected or thought of being anything more than a Station Agent... this was in 1858. In 1870 the Doctor invited me to join his staff in the middle division of the Penn. RR. It was the proudest day of my life. In reply I told him of (an offer to join the Chicago Burlington and Quincy RR) and I asked him to tell me what to do. I knew he would tell me the best way. In three minutes he said, "The position offered is full of promise. The CB&Q RR is the finest road in the west, and its management able and honest. You are safe there. Accept their offer as you can grow there faster than here."
The letter speaks for itself.
We turn now to the third career upon which the doctor turned
railroadman now entered - that of manufacturing. On January 1,
1870, along with a few associates, including John H. Converse,
a lifelong friend from boyhood days in Woodstock, he entered
the partnership of Burnham & Parry, which became Burnham,
Parry, and Williams, the holding company which owned and operated
the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, the largest firm
of its kind in the world. The new associates were to make it
a worldwide household name, as he not only revamped its manufacturing
method, but was a travelling salesman for its products in Europe,
Asia and Latin America. Through his influence Baldwin Locomotives
found their way to Sweden, Russia, Australia, India, Japan, and
Mexico. But his first and probably most significant sale was
to the Pennsylvania Railroad, whose equipment upgrading he had
planned. He brought to his associates the largest order they
had ever received, but with a penalty clause in the contract.
The contract awarded a bonus for full delivery in advance of
the deadline, but penalized them for every day they slipped past
the delivery date. Since the order called for delivery in a few
months of more locomotives than were normally produced in a year,
his partners thought that he had taken leave of his senses. His
solution was one of the landmark events in American manufacturing.
As far as I know, it was Dr. Edward H. Williams who invented
assembly line production. He seemingly wasted precious days by
stopping production to rearrange the shops. A central track was
laid down its length, with side tracks placed at right angles.
The component parts of the locomotives were assembled on the
side tracks and added to the mainframe rolling down the center.
It worked, and the contract was fulfilled eighteen days ahead
of schedule. This was years before Henry Ford, credited as originator
of the assembly line, made his first automobile.
In dealing with foreign nations he often dealt not only with
diplomats but even with royalty, and a number of honors came
his way. For his contributions to upgrading the equipment of
the Swedish railways, King Oscar knighted him making him a member
of the Order of the Polar Star. Through his acquaintance with
a boyhood Vermont friend, Admiral Dewey, he was introduced to
the Emperor of Japan, and at the Emperor's insistence built the
first railroad in Japan - not a very long one, but, as the old
railroad joke goes, "as wide as any other." And of
course it had a Baldwin locomotive. The Emperor made him a member
of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, entitled to wear the flower
emblem with one less petal displayed than that of the Emperor
himself. At home, he received an academic honor which meant much
to him when he was made an honorary alumnus of the University
of Vermont, since his father had been a graduate of its first
class.
In 1879 the United States made him its Commissioner to the Sydney
Exposition in Australia. I remember as a boy poring over his
scrap book of this trip. In it were complimentary memberships
in clubs in Cairo, Bombay, Calcutta, Darwin, Adelaide, and Sydney,
and passes for use on literally dozens of railroads in Europe,
Africa, Asia, and Australia. There were pictures of the Pyramids,
of elephants with chair howdahs, and countless locomotive and
railway scenes, many of them taken by himself. I believe it was
on this trip that his habit of carrying his doctor's case with
him proved a godsend, as there was a railway collision in Egypt,
and he was able to minister to the wounded as first doctor on
the scene.
There is an amusing story his oldest granddaughter Olive B. W.
Parke tells of an incident in these world travels. He and Mrs.
Williams were on a return trip to Japan, and a cigar ash fell
on a pongee suit he had bought for tropical weather. His wife
did an adroit job of mending the hole while they steamed across
the Pacific. When they put in at Yokohama, he found a tailor
who had similar material, and ordered two suits to be made just
like the one he had brought to the shop. Shortly before re-embarking
they collected the two new suits, and on opening the package
in their stateroom, found the two new suits precisely like the
original, even to having an exactly matching darning mend at
the same spot as the original.
Our mention of Mrs. Williams brings us to point out how deeply
devoted the Dr. and his wife were to each other. She was often
his companion on travels, and at her death in Rosemont, Pennsylvania,
where they made their final home, on July 16, 1889, he was deeply
affected. A longtime associate, in a letter to their daughter
says, "Their devotion to each other was grandly beautiful,
and oh so rare." The Doctor gave, in her memory, to UVM,
Williams Science Hall, which now houses the Arts Department.
Dr. Williams was not only devoted as a husband but had an abiding
feeling for his native town. After retiring from the Pennsylvania
RR. in 1870 his wider travels may have inspired a deepening of
this feeling. In any case he bought a place on the back road
to Taftsville, long known as Sunnyside. The old home in which
he had grown up he had torn down to make room for the memorial
building for his father and mother - The Norman Williams Public
Library. He and his wife came to the opening, but according to
Dana's History of Woodstock seemed to be happier in seeing old
friends and neighbors than anything else.
It is true that Dr. Williams became quite wealthy, and had homes
in Rosemont, PA. and Santa Barbara CA. He had built a remarkably
fine collection of Japanese art, half of which his daughter Anne
Williams Dreer gave to the children of Woodstock as a memorial
to him and his wife. But at his death in 1899, just four days
before Christmas, only a small gathering of family and close
friends attended a service conducted at his son-in-laws home
by Archdeacon Ramsey of Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara.
Later he was reburied in the family lot in the River Street Cemetery
in Woodstock.
In a commencement address at UVM on June 18th, 1928, Alba B.
Johnson made Dr. Williams and his lifelong friend and associate
John H. Converse the subjects of what he had to say. In summing
up he remarked, "These men both loved their native state
of Vermont, and though living elsewhere their ties of affection
for it were never weakened. Both were successful from the material
standpoint by which most men measure success, but in a larger
and better sense they both achieved a success which has no relation
to material wealth. They realized the higher happiness which
comes from service and from the life of the spirit."
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