Oliver Ames Jr. (November 5, 1807 – March 9, 1877) was president of Union Pacific Railroad when the railroad met the

Central Pacific Railroad The Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) was a rail company chartered by Pacific Railroad Acts, U.S. Congress in 1862 to build a railroad eastwards from Sacramento, California, to complete the western part of the "First transcontinental railroad" in N ...

in Utah for the completion of the

First transcontinental railroad North America's first transcontinental railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the " Overland Route") was a continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail netwo ...

in North America.

Biography

Born in

Plymouth, Massachusetts Plymouth (; historically known as Plimouth and Plimoth) is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklore, and culture, and is known as ...

, he was a son of

Oliver Ames Sr. Oliver Ames Sr., or "Old Oliver", (April 11, 1779 – September 11, 1863) was the family patriarch of the Ames family of Easton, Massachusetts. He established the family shovel business, which over generations grew to become one of the large ...

and Susannah (Angier) Ames, and a brother of

Oakes Ames Oakes Ames (January 10, 1804 – May 8, 1873) was an American businessman, investor, and politician. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. As a congressman, he is credited by many historians as being ...

.Spencer Marks (2005),
The Ames Family of North Easton, MA
''. Retrieved December 29, 2005.Union Pacific Railroad,
Union Pacific: Significant Individuals
''. Retrieved December 29, 2005. Young Oliver attended public schools for a few years, then Franklin Academy in North Andover. He briefly entered the law field, but left to help in the family shovel business. By 1844, Oliver and his brother

entered into partnership with their father, operating under the company name of Oliver Ames & Sons. It was a good time to be in the shovel business, as the nation was experiencing a dramatic expansion of canals, railroads, and other major infrastructure, all of which were built by men swinging shovels. Oliver Ames Jr. served as president of Union Pacific Railroad (UP) while the railroad was busy building the

in North America. He was its president ''

pro tem ''Pro tempore'' (), abbreviated ''pro tem'' or ''p.t.'', is a Latin phrase which best translates to "for the time being" in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a ''locum tenens'' (placeholder) in the absence of ...

'' from 1866 until 1868, and was formally elected president of the company on March 12, 1868. He continued as president until March 8, 1871. His tenure was marked by controversy since his 1866 ascent to the presidency was over

Thomas C. Durant Thomas Clark Durant (February 6, 1820 – October 5, 1885) was an American physician, businessman, and financier. He was vice-president of the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in 1869 when it met with the Central Pacific railroad at Promontory Su ...

who had tried to gain the position for himself. Durant filed lawsuits against Ames that stopped construction, and Ames retaliated by garnering support to remove Durant from the railroad's executive committee. A divided board of directors was beyond Ames' management capabilities, and he finally acquiesced to readmitting Durant in 1867, and Crédit Mobilier awarded Ames a new construction contract.PBS; The American Experience,
People & Events: Oakes Ames (1804-1873)
'. Retrieved December 29, 2005. In 1873, Ames succeeded his brother as the head of Crédit Mobilier. Oliver Ames Jr. served in the Massachusetts State Senate in 1852 and 1857. He was a Whig and later a Republican.

Personal life

Starting around 1826, Oliver became involved in the temperance movement; he was said to be the first man in Easton to sign a temperance pledge. Ames married Sarah Lothrop on June 11, 1833. Sarah was daughter of Howard Lothrop of Easton, Massachusetts. They had two children:

Frederick Lothrop Ames Frederick Lothrop Ames (June 8, 1835 – September 13, 1893) was heir to a fortune in railroads and shovel manufacturing. He was Vice President of the Old Colony Railroad and director of the Union Pacific railroad. At the time of his death, Ames ...

and Helen Angier. Like the rest of his family, Oliver Jr. was a devoted Unitarian, and attended Unitarian churches in Easton and North Easton. In 1875, Ames hired his nephew,

John Ames Mitchell John Ames Mitchell (January 17, 1845 – June 29, 1918) was an American publisher, architect, artist and novelist. He was co-founder, editor, and publisher of the original ''Life'' magazine, in which he was a contributing artist, and the au ...

, to design the Unity Church of North Easton, at a cost of $100,000, (~$ in ) and on his death he left a bequest to keep the church in repair.

Death and legacy

Ames died at North Easton on March 9, 1877. He left $50,000 in his will for the construction of a library. The will stipulated that it was to be a private institution, not owned by the town, but operated in trust for the public. The request was carried out by his children,

and Helen Angier Ames. They hired Henry Hobson Richardson to design the

Ames Free Library The Ames Free Library is a public library designed by noted American architect H. H. Richardson. It is located at 53 Main Street, Easton, Massachusetts, immediately adjacent to another Richardson building, Oakes Ames Memorial Hall. In 2016 the ...

. The final cost of the building came to at least $80,000. Medallions in the library honor Ames with his likeness. The contributions of Ames and his brother Oakes in the building of the Union Pacific are commemorated in the

Oliver and Oakes Ames Monument The Ames Monument is a large pyramid in Albany County, Wyoming, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and dedicated to brothers Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames, Jr., Union Pacific Railroad financiers. It marked the highest point on the first transconti ...

at Sherman Summit, near Laramie, Wyoming, along the railroad's original route. The pyramidal monument was designed by famous architect Henry Hobson Richardson (who designed a number of projects for the Ames family) with sculpted plaques of the Ames brothers by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. At the time of its construction, the monument was located at the highest point attained by the Union Pacific's transcontinental route. With a change in the route of the railroad, the monument today is not on any major transportation route, though is easily accessible a short distance off an exit of

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

Footnotes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ames, Oliver Jr. 1807 births 1877 deaths Butler–Ames family Union Pacific Railroad people 19th-century American railroad executives People from Plymouth, Massachusetts People from Easton, Massachusetts American Unitarians Massachusetts state senators Massachusetts Republicans Massachusetts Whigs

Biography

Personal life

Death and legacy

See also

Footnotes

References