Silas Seymour (June 20, 1817 – July 15, 1890) was an American

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

and politician from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Life

He was the son of John Seymour (1792-1876) and Sarah (Montgomery) Seymour (1793-1824). He was born and educated in Stillwater following which his family moved to Fredonia. In the spring of 1835 he began work as an axman on one of the engineering parties engaged in making the first surveys for the

New York and Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake Erie ...

, soon after was promoted to rodman, and by the end of the year had become an assistant engineer. He spent one year at the

Fredonia Academy The State University of New York at Fredonia (SUNY Fredonia) is a public university in Fredonia, New York, United States. It is the westernmost member of the State University of New York. Founded in 1826, it is the sixty-sixth-oldest institute of ...

when in 1837, construction stopped on the NY & Erie RR due to lack of funds. In 1838, he was made Division Engineer, and later became Chief Engineer of the Dunkirk and State Line Railroad. On December 23, 1840, he married Delia S. French (1821-1884) and they had six children: Florence (Mrs. Theodore W. Bayaud), George French, Hanson Risley (died as an infant), James Montgomery ("Mont"), Jeanie (Mrs. Jean G. P. Blanchet), and Silas Jr. About 1851 he became Chief Engineer and was for some time General Superintendent of the

Buffalo and New York City Railroad Buffalo most commonly refers to: * Bubalina, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York Buffalo or buffaloes may also refer to: Animals * Bubalina, a subtribe of the tr ...

, extending from Hornellsville to

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, and he designed and constructed the bridge across the

Genesee River The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides h ...

Portage, New York Portage is a town in the southwest corner of Livingston County, New York, United States. The town is at the south end of Letchworth State Park. The name of the town stems from the need to portage (carry) canoes around the falls of the Genesee R ...

. He was

New York State Engineer and Surveyor New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

from 1856 to 1857, elected on the American Party ticket. In March 1856, he repudiated the nomination of former President

Millard Fillmore Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853; he was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Represen ...

as the American Party's candidate for the presidency. In 1858 he established himself as Consulting Engineer in New York City. He was appointed Chief Engineer of the Washington and Alexandria Railroad, and constructed a bridge across the Potomac. In 1860, he supported

Stephen A. Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which wa ...

for President, and expressed in a letter to Col. John W. Forney his opinion, that slavery should continue in the South, and that the South and the North should compromise or have separate governments. In 1863, he became Consulting Engineer, and later Chief Engineer, of the

Washington Aqueduct The Washington Aqueduct is an aqueduct that provides the public water supply system serving Washington, D.C., and parts of its suburbs, using water from the Potomac River. One of the first major aqueduct projects in the United States, the Aqueduc ...

. In the winter of 1863-1864, he was Consulting Engineer of the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

. He designed the high bridge over Dale Creek Cañon, near the summit of the

Black Hills The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk P ...

of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

. From 1868 to 1871, he was Consulting Engineer of the Adirondack Railroad in New York and was reappointed in 1882. From 1871 to 1878 he was Consulting and Acting Chief Engineer of the North Shore Railway in Canada. The North Shore railway was the part of the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental RR that ran through Quebec. On his return to the U.S. in 1878, he was successively President of the Massachusetts Central Railroad and Consulting Engineer of the West Shore Railroad. He was

again from 1882 to 1883, elected in 1881 on the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

ticket, but defeated for re-election in

1883 Events January–March * January 4 – ''Life'' magazine is founded in Los Angeles, California, United States. * January 10 – A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, kills 73 people. * Ja ...

by Democrat Elnathan Sweet. He retired to Danville, NY and died at the residence of his son, Silas Seymour Jr. (b. 1860), at 458 West 22nd Street in New York City. At the time of his death, he was Consulting Engineer of the Cape Cod Ship Canal and interested in railroads in Florida. He is buried at

Mount Hermon Cemetery Mount Hermon Cemetery is a garden (or rural) cemetery and National Historic Site of Canada. It is located in the Sillery district (french: quartier) of the Sainte-Foy–Sillery–Cap-Rouge borough (french: arrondissement) of Quebec City, Quebec, ...

in Sillery,

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

References

External links

The Rep. candidate, in NYT on November 20, 1881

The Rep. ticket, in NYT on September 20, 1883Google Books ''The New York Civil List'' compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 37f; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seymour, Silas 1817 births 1890 deaths New York State Engineers and Surveyors People from Stillwater, New York 19th-century American railroad executives American civil engineers New York (state) Know Nothings 19th-century American politicians New York (state) Republicans Burials at Mount Hermon Cemetery