Career

My first business venture was securing my companions' services for a season as an employer, the compensation being that the young rabbits, when…

The arrival at New York was bewildering. I had been taken to see the Queen at Edinburgh, but that was the extent of my travels before emigrating.…

The great question now was, what could be found for me to do. I had just completed my thirteenth year, and I fairly panted to get to work that I…

Anything low, mean, deceitful, shifty, coarse, underhand, or gossipy was foreign to that heroic soul. Tom and I could not help growing up respectable…

Soon after this Mr. John Hay, a fellow-Scotch manufacturer of bobbins in Allegheny City, needed a boy, and asked whether I would not go into his…

One evening, early in 1850, when I returned home from work, I was told that Mr. David Brooks, manager of the telegraph office, had asked my Uncle…

The interview was successful. I took care to explain that I did not know Pittsburgh, that perhaps I would not do, would not be strong enough; but all…

I had only one fear, and that was that I could not learn quickly enough the addresses of the various business houses to which messages had to be…

The great event of the day in Pittsburgh at that time was the arrival and departure of the steam packet to and from Cincinnati, for daily…

There were at that time not half a dozen "carriage" people in the town; and not for many years after was the attempt made to introduce livery, even…

My position as messenger boy soon made me acquainted with the few leading men of the city. The bar of Pittsburgh was distinguished. Judge Wilkins was…

One great excitement of this life was the extra charge of ten cents which we were permitted to collect for messages delivered beyond a certain limit.…

With all their pleasures the messenger boys were hard worked. Every other evening they were required to be on duty until the office closed, and on…

Colonel James Anderson--I bless his name as I write--announced that he would open his library of four hundred volumes to boys, so that any young…

To Colonel James Anderson, Founder of Free Libraries in Western Pennsylvania. He opened his Library to working boys and upon Saturday afternoons…

In this way I became acquainted with the world that lay behind the green curtain. The plays, generally, were of the spectacular order; without much…

She encouraged her boys to attend church and Sunday school; but there was no difficulty in seeing that the writings of Swedenborg, and much of the…

This was a trying position for a boy to fill, and at that time I was not popular with the other boys, who resented my exemption from part of my…

On Sunday morning with father, mother, and Tom at breakfast, I produced the extra two dollars and a quarter. The surprise was great and it took…

Having to sweep out the operating-room in the mornings, the boys had an opportunity of practicing upon the telegraph instruments before the operators…

The operating-room of a telegraph office is an excellent school for a young man. He there has to do with pencil and paper, with composition and…

The lines in those days worked poorly, and during a storm much had to be guessed at. My guessing powers were said to be phenomenal, and it was my…

The Pittsburgh newspapers had each been in the habit of sending a reporter to the office to transcribe the press dispatches. Later on one man was…

Another step which exercised a decided influence over me was joining the "Webster Literary Society" along with my companions, the trusty five already…

I finally became an operator by sound, discarding printing entirely. The accomplishment was then so rare that people visited the office to be…

The result was I was engaged February 1, 1853, at a salary of thirty-five dollars a month as Mr. Scott's clerk and operator. A raise in wages from…

I do not wish to suggest that the men of whom I have spoken were really degraded or bad characters. The habit of swearing, with coarse talk,…

This formed the subject of our Sunday afternoon conferences for many a week. Was that true or not, and what was to be the consequence of Tom's…

Once introduced, of course, the subject remained with us, and one after the other the dogmas were voted down as the mistaken ideas of men of a less…

My mother took the steamer the next morning for East Liverpool, arriving at night, and through her brother there the money was secured. He was a…

This was my first investment. In those good old days monthly dividends were more plentiful than now and Adams Express paid a monthly dividend. One…

It was the custom of our party to spend Sunday afternoons in the woods. I kept the first check and showed it as we sat under the trees in a…

Mr. Scott was promoted to be the general superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1856, taking Mr. Lombaert's place; and he took me, then in my…

The strike became more and more threatening. I remember being wakened one night and told that the freight-train men had left their trains at Mifflin;…

"I must not be seen with you, but you did me a favor once and I then resolved if ever I could serve you I would do it. I called at the office in…

And here I made my first note, and actually got a banker to take it. A proud moment that in a young man's career! The sleeping-cars were a great…

"Well," he said, "Mr. Potts" (who was then superintendent of the Pittsburgh Division) "is to be promoted to the transportation department in…

The first regiments of Union troops passing through Baltimore had been attacked, and the railway line cut between Baltimore and Annapolis Junction,…

Soon after this I returned to Washington and made my headquarters in the War Building with Colonel Scott. As I had charge of the telegraph department…

"Yes, I know that," he said, "but I know the men and Thomas will be the first to say that Sherman is the man for the work. There will be no trouble…

When I was called to Washington in 1861, it was supposed that the war would soon be over; but it was seen shortly afterwards that it was to be a…

I remember being deeply affected by the reception I met with when I returned to my division. The men of the eastern end had gathered together with…

During the Civil War the price of iron went up to something like $130 per ton. Even at that figure it was not so much a question of money as of…

In like manner the demand for locomotives was very great, and with Mr. Thomas N. Miller[24] I organized in 1866 the Pittsburgh Locomotive Works,…

In this way was organized in 1862 the firm of Piper and Schiffler which was merged into the Keystone Bridge Company in 1863--a name which I…

The Judge, however, lived to believe differently. The bridge remained until recently, though strengthened to carry heavier traffic. We expected to…

When the work was finished, I had the Colonel with me in St. Louis for some days protecting the bridge against a threatened attempt on the part of…

He put his finger there upon one of the secrets of success. They did belong to somebody. The president of an important manufacturing work once…

"Ah, gentlemen," I said, "there is the point. A little more money and you could have had the indestructible wrought-iron and your bridge would…

There was a pause; then the president of the bridge company, Mr. Allison, the great Senator, asked if I would excuse them for a few moments. I…

Mr. Garrett promptly replied that when the interests of his company were at stake it was the best always that won. His engineers had reported that…

The negotiation was still unsatisfactory to me, because we were to get all the difficult part of the work--the great spans of which the risk was then…

This was the arrangement which gave us what were then the gigantic contracts of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. It is needless to say that I never…

The Keystone Works have always been my pet as being the parent of all the other works. But they had not been long in existence before the advantage…

Andrew Kloman had a small steel-hammer in Allegheny City. As a superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad I had found that he made the best axles.…

"It is all very well for you, gentlemen, who work one day in the week and are masters of your time the other six during which you can view the…

As I became acquainted with the manufacture of iron I was greatly surprised to find that the cost of each of the various processes was unknown.…

The Siemens Gas Furnace had been used to some extent in Great Britain for heating steel and iron, but it was supposed to be too expensive. I well…

Our strict system of accounting enabled us to detect the great waste possible in heating large masses of iron. This improvement revealed to us a…

It was in 1862 that the great oil wells of Pennsylvania attracted attention. My friend Mr. William Coleman, whose daughter became, at a later date,…