William Johnson Harahan

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William Johnson Harahan (born December 22, 1867 in Nashville , Tennessee , † December 14, 1937 in Clifton Forge , Virginia ) was an American railroad manager, the president of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad , the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway , the Nickel Plate Road and the Pere Marquette Railway was.

Life

William Johnson Harahan was born in Nashville in 1867 to James Theodore Harahan and his first wife, Mary Bertha Kehoe. He was the oldest of four siblings and attended school in New Orleans after the family moved . His father was a superintendent of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and William got his first railroad experience during the summer vacation. After school, he took a position with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1885 and followed his father to the Illinois Central Railroad in 1892 . James Theodore Harahan made his career as vice president of the railway company from 1890 and rose to president in 1906, a position he held until his retirement in 1911. His son William Johnson Harahan stayed with the Illinois Central Railroad until 1907 and rose from simple Roadmaster to 4th Vice President (1905).

In 1907 he ended the 20-year relationship with his father and went to the Erie Railroad , where he was appointed vice president in 1911. A year later he became president of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and ran it until 1920. He then went back to the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway , where he had his first experience and has now been appointed president. Due to health reasons he had to give up his post in 1929, but returned to the head of the railway company in 1935 after the death of his successor and was also president of the Nickel Plate Road and the Pere Marquette Railway .

William Johnson Harahan married Susannah Smith of Nashville in 1890, with whom he had twelve children. After the death of his first wife in 1934, he married Elizabeth Martha Smith (née Todd) from Cleveland the following year , with whom he spent the last years of his life. He died on December 14, 1937 in a hospital in Clifton Forge , Virginia.

literature

  • Jan Onofrio: Tennessee Biographical Dictionary. Volume 22 of the United States Biographical Dictionary , Somerset Publishers, 2000, ISBN 978-0403097005 , pp. 355-358.
  • Ned Hémard: Harahan History. New Orleans Nostalgia, New Orleans Bar Association 2009.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Jan Onofrio: Tennessee Biographical Dictionary. Volume 22 of the United States Biographical Dictionary , Somerset Publishers, 2000, ISBN 978-0403097005 , pp. 355-358.
  2. ^ Edward H. Miller: The Hocking Valley Railway. Ohio University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0821416587 , p. 148.
personal data
SURNAME Harahan, William Johnson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American railroad manager
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Nashville
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1937
Place of death Clifton Forge, Virginia