Thomas Fletcher Oakes (July 15, 1843 – March 14, 1919) was president of Northern Pacific Railway from 1888 to 1893.

Biography

Thomas Fletcher Oakes was born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

on July 15, 1843. He entered railway service June 1, 1863; to April, 1879, on

Kansas Pacific Railroad The Kansas Pacific Railway (KP) was a historic railroad company that operated in the western United States in the late 19th century. It was a federally chartered railroad, backed with government land grants. At a time when the first transcontine ...

; two years secretary to contractors, two years purchasing agent; three years purchasing agent and assistant treasurer; six years general freight agent; one year vice-president; one year five months general superintendent; April 1879, to May 1880, general superintendent Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf and Kansas City, Lawrence and Southern; May 1880, to May 1881, vice-president and general manager

Oregon Railway and Navigation Company The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (OR&N) was a railroad that operated a rail network of running east from Portland, Oregon, United States, to northeastern Oregon, northeastern Washington, and northern Idaho. It operated from 1896 as a ...

; May 1881, to November 1883, vice-president Northern Pacific Railway, and November 1883, to 1888, vice-president and general manager. Oakes was placed in charge of the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad after Charles Barstow Wright formed the Oregon Improvement Company. Harris retained Oakes as executive vice president, after Harris became president of Northern Pacific. His son, Walter Oakes, of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, a founder of the

Alaska Steamship Company The Alaska Steamship Company was formed on August 3, 1894. While it originally set out to ship passengers and fishing products, the Alaska Steamship Company began shipping mining equipment, dog sleds, and cattle at the outbreak of the Klondike G ...

, was father of the ethnologist Maud Oakes. Thomas Fletcher Oakes died at his residence at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle on March 14, 1919.

References

* Oakes, Thomas Fletcher Oakes, Thomas Fletcher Northern Pacific Railway people Businesspeople from Boston 19th-century American businesspeople {{US-rail-bio-stub