Alexander Johnston Cassatt (December 8, 1839 – December 28, 1906) was the seventh president of the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
(PRR), serving from June 9, 1899, to December 28, 1906.
Family and early life
Alexander Cassatt was born on December 8, 1839, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the eldest of seven children born to Robert Simpson Cassat (later Cassatt), and his wife Katherine Cassatt, the former Katherine Kelso Johnston.
The elder Cassatt was a successful stockbroker and land speculator. He was descended from the French
Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
Jacques Cossart, who came to
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...
in 1662. Alexander's younger sister was the impressionist painter
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar De ...
.
His mother Katherine came from a banking family. She was educated and very well read. It was said that of the seven children Alexander most resembled his mother in "appearance and temperament."
In 1856 he entered
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute () (RPI) is a private research university in Troy, New York, with an additional campus in Hartford, Connecticut. A third campus in Groton, Connecticut closed in 2018. RPI was established in 1824 by Stephen Van ...
to study
Civil Engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
where his senior thesis was entitled "Review of Pressure Turbine." After graduating in the summer of 1859, Robert Cassatt took Alexander to see a former neighbor from Lancaster Pennsylvania,
James Buchanan
James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...
,
15th President of the United States.
By the fall of 1860, Alexander had secured a position as a surveyor or rodman by the
Georgia Railroad
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
. By the time
the State of Georgia voted to
secede
Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics l ...
from the Union in January 1861, Cassatt had abandoned his work as surveyor on the Dalton-Knoxville line of the Georgia Railroad and returned to Pennsylvania without seeing any military service during the Civil War.
Career
Pennsylvania Railroad
Frequently referred to as A. J. Cassatt, the great accomplishment under his stewardship was the planning and construction of
tunnels
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...
under the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
to finally bring PRR's trunk line into New York City. His purchase of a controlling interest in the
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road , often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a commuter rail system in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk Co ...
and the construction of
tunnels
A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...
under the
East River
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...
created a PRR commuter network on Long Island. Unfortunately, Cassatt died before his grand
Pennsylvania Station
Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
was completed.
![Penn Station3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Penn_Station3.jpg)
Cassatt joined the PRR in 1861 as an engineer and rapidly rose through the ranks. He was a vice president in 1877 when the
Pittsburgh Railway Riots
The Pittsburgh railway strike occurred in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. It was one of many incidents of strikes, labor unrest and violence in cities across the United States, including several in Pennsy ...
broke out in 1877, and had become Pennsy First Vice-President by 1880.
He was disappointed to be passed over for the presidency and resigned from the company in 1882.
During his absence he devoted his time to horse raising but still was able to organize a new railroad the
New York, Philadelphia and Norfolk Railroad (NYP&N), that connected southern markets with the north. Despite no longer being an executive with PRR, he was elected to the PRR's board of directors and was recalled in 1899 to serve as president.
Cassatt more than doubled the PRR's total assets during his term, from $276 million to $594 million, while
Track
Track or Tracks may refer to:
Routes or imprints
* Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity
* Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across
* Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...
and equipment investment increased by almost 150 percent. The route from New York through
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Harrisburg
Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...
and
Altoona to
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
was made
double-tracked
Double tracking or doubling is an audio recording technique in which a performer sings or plays along with their own prerecorded performance, usually to produce a stronger or bigger sound than can be obtained with a single voice or instrument. ...
throughout; to Washington, D.C., four-tracked—Pennsy's "Broad Way." Many other lines were double-tracked; almost every part of the system was improved. New freight cutoffs avoided stations;
grade crossing
A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...
s were eliminated,
flyovers were built to streamline common paths through
junctions, terminals were redesigned, and much more. Cassatt initiated the Pennsy's program of
electrification
Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source.
The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...
which led to the road being the United States' most electrified system.
Cassatt was succeeded as
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
president by
James McCrea
James McCrea (1848–1913) was the president of the Pennsylvania Railroad from 1907 to 1913.
Biography
James was born May 1, 1848 in Philadelphia, United States, in a long line of McCreas who came to Delaware and Pennsylvania near two hundred y ...
.
Civil engineer
In the Spring of 1861, Cassatt had been hired as part of the Engineer Corps of the Pennsylvania Railroad, again as a rodman where he worked on the
Connecting Railway
The Connecting Railway was a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad, incorporated to build a connection between the Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad and the PRR in the city of Philadelphia.
Construction and assembly Connecting Railway
The PRR c ...
.
It is unknown how Cassatt managed to avoid the Pennsylvania militia draft during the Union mobilization in this period but in 1864, Cassatt was transferred to
Renovo, Pennsylvania
Renovo is a borough in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States, northwest of Lock Haven. In 1900, 4,082 people lived there, and in 1910, 4,621 lived there, but in the 2010 census the borough population was 1,228.
The borough is located on t ...
, as a resident engineer to work on the middle division of the
Philadelphia and Erie railroad
The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania between 1861 and 1907. It was subsequently merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR).
History
The Sunbury and Erie Railroad Company (also known a ...
. In 1866, Cassatt became superintendent of motive power and machinery for the
Oil Creek and Allegheny River Railway
The Oil Creek and Allegheny River Railway was a railroad in western Pennsylvania.
Initially incorporated under a Private bill, special act of Pennsylvania on 17 April 1861 as the Warren and Tidioute Railway, it changed its name first to the Wa ...
, recently reorganized in 1864 as the Warren and Franklin Railroad which was growing rapidly due to the discovery of oil in the region and coal mining.
In 1867, Cassatt was appointed as superintendent of motive power and machinery for the Pennsylvania railroad in
Altoona with a salary of $3,000 per year ($
=) when a trainman made less than $10 a week ($
=).
Sometime during Cassatt's tenure as superintendent, he married Lois Buchanan, daughter of the Rev. Edward Y. Buchanan and Ann Eliza Foster. Lois Buchanan was a niece of
James Buchanan
James Buchanan Jr. ( ; April 23, 1791June 1, 1868) was an American lawyer, diplomat and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and repr ...
,
15th President of the United States, and through her mother, a niece of songwriter
Stephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known also as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Minstrel show, minstrel music during the Romantic music, Romantic ...
.
The couple had two sons and two daughters.
In 1872, Cassatt was elected as a member to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
.
Chesterbrook Farm
![CassattHouse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/CassattHouse.jpg)
Cassatt was a horse enthusiast and
fox hunter who owned
Chesterbrook Farm
The David Havard House, also known as the Former Quarters of Lee and Bradford, is a historic home located near Valley Forge in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. During the American Revolutionary War, it served as quarters for se ...
, outside
Berwyn, Pennsylvania
Berwyn is a census-designated place (CDP) in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The population was 3,775 at the 2020 census. The area is part of the Philadelphia Main Line suburbs.
History
At times, the village has been called Cocheltown, Reesevill ...
, where he
bred Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...
racehorses
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...
. The property is today the site of a
subdivision
Subdivision may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Subdivision (metre), in music
* ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009
* "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2)
* ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005
* "Subdivisions" (song), by Rus ...
with office buildings and homes using the Chesterbrook Farm name. The original main barn designed by Philadelphia architect
Frank Furness
Frank Heyling Furness (November 12, 1839 - June 27, 1912) was an American architect of the Victorian era. He designed more than 600 buildings, most in the Philadelphia area, and is remembered for his diverse, muscular, often unordinarily scaled b ...
has been maintained and restored. (Furness also designed Cassatt's
Rittenhouse Square
Rittenhouse Square is a neighborhood, including a public park, in Center City Philadelphia. The park is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme during the late 17th century.
The neighborho ...
townhouse.)
Cassatt initially raced under the pseudonym, Mr. Kelso, and his horses as from the Kelso Stable. He owned the 1886
Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () on ...
winner,
The Bard
A bard is a minstrel in medieval Scottish, Irish, and Welsh societies; and later re-used by romantic writers.
Bard, BARD, The Bard or Bård may also refer to:
People
* Bard (surname)
* Bård, Norwegian given name and surname
*William Shakespea ...
, and the 1889
Belmont Stakes
The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nicknamed Th ...
1889 winner,
Eric
The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization).
The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...
. As well, he bred the winner of the 1875, 1876, 1878, and 1880 Preakness Stakes and
Foxford
Foxford () is a village 16 km south of Ballina in County Mayo, Ireland. It stands on the N26 national primary route from Swinford to Ballina and has a railway station served by trains between Manulla Junction and Ballina.
Foxford lies o ...
, who won the 1891 Belmont.
In addition to
flat-racing his Thoroughbreds, in 1895 Cassatt helped found the
National Steeplechase Association
The National Steeplechase Association is the official sanctioning body of American steeplechase horse racing.
The National Steeplechase Association was founded on February 15, 1895 by August Belmont Jr., the first president of The Jockey Club an ...
to organize competitive
steeplechase racing. He was also responsible for the introduction of the
Hackney pony
The Hackney pony is a breed of pony closely related to the Hackney horse. Originally bred to pull carriages, they are used today primarily as show ponies. The breed does not have its own stud book, but shares one with the Hackney horse in a ...
to the United States. In 1878 he acquired 239 Stella in Britain and brought her to
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. In 1891, Cassatt and several fellow Hackney enthusiasts founded the
American Hackney Horse Society
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
. The organization and registry continues to this day, with its headquarters now in
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...
.
Death
Cassatt died in 1906 at his Rittenhouse Square townhouse in Philadelphia, after a six-month illness.
He was interred in the Church of the Redeemer Cemetery in
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Bryn Mawr, pronounced ,
from Welsh for big hill, is a census-designated place (CDP) located across three townships: Radnor Township and Haverford Township in Delaware County, and Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It i ...
. His widow died in 1920.
Legacy
Gramercy Mansion
Gramercy Mansion is a historic mansion in Stevenson, Maryland, United States, located on Greenspring Valley Road near Stevenson University. It was built in 1902 by Alexander J. Cassatt, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and brother of th ...
in Baltimore, Maryland, was built by Alexander Cassatt in 1902.
In 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad erected a statue of Cassatt, by
Adolph Alexander Weinman
Adolph Alexander Weinman (December 11, 1870 – August 8, 1952) was a Germany-born American sculptor and architectural sculptor.
Early life and education
Adolph Alexander Weinman was born December 11, 1870 at Durmersheim, near Karlsruhe, Germ ...
, in a niche at New York City's new Pennsylvania Station. An inscription below the niche read:
The statue is currently located at the
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is a railroad museum in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The museum is located on the east side of Strasburg along Pennsylvania Route 741. It is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museu ...
in
Strasburg, Pennsylvania
Strasburg is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It developed as a linear village stretching about along the Great Conestoga Road, later known as the Strasburg Road.Susan M. Zacher, NRHP Nomination Form Strasburg/ref> The population w ...
.
See also
*
Pennsylvania Station
Pennsylvania Station (often abbreviated Penn Station) is a name applied by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to several of its grand passenger terminals. Several are still in active use by Amtrak and other transportation services; others have been ...
– Original station, demolished in 1963
*
List of railroad executives
This is a list of railroad executives, defined as those who are presidents and chief executive officers of railroad and railway systems worldwide.
A
* Abbot, Edwin H. (1834–1927), WC −1890
* Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. (1835–1915), ...
References
Further reading
*
*
* Jacobs, Timothy. ''The History Of The Pennsylvania Railroad''; Bison Books Group 1988; , p. 78–88 ''The Cassatt years''.
* Jonnes, Jill. ''Conquering Gotham: a Gilded Age epic: the construction of Penn Station and its tunnels''; Penguin Books 2007; .
*
* Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2005),
RPI: Alumni hall of fame: Alexander J. Cassatt.' Retrieved February 22, 2005.
* White, John H., Jr. America's most noteworthy railroaders, ''Railroad History'', Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, Spring 1986, 154, p. 9–15.
* Schmidt, David
Lower Merion Historical Society, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.
American Hackney Horse Society.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassatt, Alexander
1839 births
1906 deaths
Businesspeople from Pittsburgh
Businesspeople from Philadelphia
People from Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania
American civil engineers
20th-century American railroad executives
American racehorse owners and breeders
Owners of Preakness Stakes winners
Pennsylvania Railroad people
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni
American people in rail transportation
Members of the Philadelphia Club
People associated with the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Engineers from Pennsylvania
19th-century American businesspeople