Frederick Pearson

Frederick Stark Pearson, around 1895

Frederick Stark Pearson (born July 3, 1861 in Lowell , Massachusetts , † May 7, 1915 in the Atlantic Ocean ) was an American engineer and entrepreneur .

Family and personal life

Dr. Frederick Pearson was the son of civil engineer Ambrose Pearson and his wife Hannah Amelia (née Edgerly). On January 5, 1887, he married in his hometown Lowell Mabel Ward (born January 16, 1863 in Boston ); the marriage resulted in three children: Ward Edgerly Pearson (born November 8, 1887) (later treasurer of the Pearson Engineering Company), Natalie Stark Pearson (born December 19, 1889) and Frederick Ambrose Pearson (born November 27, 1891). The family's primary residence was Great Barrington, Massachusetts; However, the Pearsons also had other properties such as Coombe House, Kingston Hill, Surrey , England or the house at Carrer Mallorca 271 in Barcelona , Spain .

Professional career

Pearson left Tufts University in 1883 and developed an electronic transportation system in Boston over the next few years. In 1894, Pearson was named head of the Metropolitan Street Railways in New York City. Gradually he built a reputation for innovation and integrity in the United States and was quickly contracted by businessmen, corporations, and even the government as a consultant. As a forward-looking, tech-savvy, and financially astute thinker, he carried out many large projects in North and South America. He was also a manager of the Somerville Electric Light Company .

In Montreal , Canada , he built a friendship with the young lawyer and stockbroker James Dunn . Pearson was able to persuade him to move to London , the largest and most important stock market in the world at the time. With the help of Dunn's skyrocketing profits on the stock market, Pearson managed to build a vast business empire that included the São Paulo Tramway, Light and Power Company in Brazil , the Mexican North Western Railway , the Mexican Tramway Company , and the Mexican Light and Power Company in Mexico and the British American Nickel Company in Canada.

Unstable governments and corruption in public authorities in Mexico troubled Pearson. The government of President Venustiano Carranza nationalized his Mexican Tramway Company and ultimately he lost everything he had invested in Mexico. In 1912 he organized a syndicate in Hale County , Texas . While working there, he founded the city of Natalia , which is named after his daughter Natalie.

In 1913 Pearson negotiated an agreement with the Spanish government to build a hydraulic system and a dam on the Rio Ebro and founded the Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company , which was to plan, organize and carry out the construction. The construction work lasted until 1915.

Death on the Lusitania

On May 1, 1915, Frederick and Mabel Pearson went with their secretary David Walker in New York as first-class passengers on board the British ocean liner Lusitania to visit their now married daughter in England. The ship was scheduled to enter Liverpool on May 8th . Pearson's colleague Major F. Warren Pearl and his good friend George Kessler , the "Champagne King of New York", were also on board. The voyage was calm, the couple strolled on deck and Pearson himself often played cards with the Irish art collector Sir Hugh Lane and Lady Marguerite Allan, the wife of Montagu Allan . On the evening of May 6, the couple were guests at George Kessler's party in his luxury suite, where many prominent passengers met. On May 7th, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U20 without warning . Frederick Pearson and his wife were killed in the disaster. Both bodies were recovered and identified, Dr. Pearson was corpse # 16, Mabel Pearson was corpse # 216.

The Texan town of Pearson was named after him.