William Pancoast Clyde (October 11, 1839 – November 18, 1923) was an American businessman who was the owner and president of the

Clyde Steamship Company Clyde Steamship Company was a steamship transportation company connecting New York City to Florida as well as routes to Boston and Providence, Cuba, New Orleans, and various Keys. William P. Clyde organized the company in 1874 and acquired various ...

, a steamship and canal boat mercantile and passenger transportation business founded by his father Thomas Clyde in 1844.

Early life and education

Clyde was born on October 11, 1839 in

Claymont, Delaware Claymont is a census-designated place (CDP) in New Castle County, Delaware. The estimated 2017 population of the 19703 ZIP code, which Claymont encompasses, was 15,292. History The community now known as Claymont started on the banks of Naamans ...

. He attended

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

in Hartford, Connecticut but after the outbreak of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, he left his studies to join the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

as part of the Philadelphia Grey Reserves. He eventually graduated from Trinity College in 1862 with a Masters of Arts degree.

Career

He took over control of his father's shipping business in 1861. In 1865 he became president of the

Pacific Mail Steamship Company The Pacific Mail Steamship Company was founded April 18, 1848, as a joint stock company under the laws of the State of New York by a group of New York City merchants. Incorporators included William H. Aspinwall, Edwin Bartlett (American consul ...

and dominated American shipping on the Pacific coast as well as transportation on the

Panama Canal Railway The Panama Canal Railway ( es, Ferrocarril de Panamá) is a railway line linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in Central America. The route stretches across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón (Atlantic) to Balboa (Pacific, near P ...

in Central America. He was active in the development of railroad in the southern United States and was the owner of the

Richmond and Danville Railroad The Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) Company was a railroad that operated independently from 1847 until 1894, first in the U.S. state of Virginia, and later on of track in nine states. Chartered on March 9, 1847, the railroad completed its ...

. In 1878, Clyde established the West India Line to Caribbean ports. By 1882 he had shipping routes along the west coast of Florida, to New Orleans, down to Key West and Havana. William Clyde verticalized the shipping operations to include their own

drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

company and coal mining operations which supplied the fuel for their vessels. In 1888, when civil war in Haiti broke out, Clyde sold weapons to

Florvil Hyppolite Louis Mondestin Florvil Hyppolite (26 May 1828 – 24 March 1896) was a Haitian general and politician who served as the President of Haiti from 17 October 1889 to 24 March 1896. Early life and career Hyppolite was born in 1827 at Cap-Haïtien ...

under the protection of Rear Admiral

Bancroft Gherardi Bancroft Gherardi (November 10, 1832 – December 10, 1903) was a rear admiral of the United States Navy, who served during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. Even though his family hailed from French Corsica, because of his I ...

, the commander of the U.S. North Atlantic Squadron. The election of President

Benjamin Harrison Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833March 13, 1901) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 23rd president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia–a grandson of the ninth pr ...

gave Clyde additional influence over shipping routes to the Caribbean. Benjamin Franklin Tracy, the legal counsel for Clyde, became the

Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...

which allowed Clyde to influence Harrison's decisions about the Caribbean. The Haitian civil war ended with Hyppolite as president of Haiti. President Harrison appointed

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...

as minister resident and consult general to Haiti. Clyde was to receive a Clyde Line shipping contract to Haiti as a reward for supporting Hyppolite during the civil war. Douglass supported the shipping contract but was offended by the pressure he received to support the interests of one industrialist. Clyde tried to have him removed from the post because Douglass refused to renounce all other American interests in Haiti if the Clyde contract was not granted. U.S. government officials tried to use the Clyde contract to allow the U.S. to build a naval base at the Haitian deep water port of

Môle-Saint-Nicolas Môle-Saint-Nicolas (; ht, Mòlsennikola or ) is a commune in the north-western coast of Haiti. It is the chief town of the Môle-Saint-Nicolas Arrondissement in the department of Nord-Ouest. History Christopher Columbus' first voyage to ...

but the deal failed in part due to the strict terms set by Clyde. Douglass quit his post in 1891 and published his side of the story about why negotiations for a U.S. naval base in Haiti failed. In 1890, Clyde purchased 9,000 acres on

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina Hilton Head Island, sometimes referred to as simply Hilton Head, is a Lowcountry resort town and barrier island in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. It is northeast of Savannah, Georgia, and southwest of Charleston. The island is n ...

for use as a private hunting preserve. By 1899 the company had lines from New York to Wilmington, Brunswick, New York to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Norfolk, New York to the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

, from Boston, Providence, and New York to Jacksonville, Florida as well as a St. John River Line. The steamships connected to rail lines in Florida. The company was sold to Charles W. Morse in 1906. He was a charter member of the

Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) is a global professional society that provides a forum for the advancement of the engineering profession as applied to the marine field. Although it particularly names the naval archi ...

He died on November 18, 1923 and was interred at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

in Philadelphia.Pennsylvania and New Jersey, U.S., Church and Town Records, 1669-2013
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clyde, William P. 1839 births 1923 deaths 19th-century American railroad executives American chief executives American businesspeople in shipping Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) People from Claymont, Delaware People of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War Trinity College (Connecticut) alumni