Daniel Willard Sr.

1. ID: I24378
2. Name: Daniel Willard
3. Sex: M
4. Birth: 28 JAN 1861 in Hartland, VT
5. Note:

   Daniel Willard has "made his mark" most effectively. The son of a farmer in moderate circumstances, he studied at the district schools till fifteen years of age, when he passed the examinati on for teachers and taught one winter; then took the course in the high school of Windsor, the adjoining town. He entered the Massachusetts Agricultural College, but a serious eye trouble compelled him to abandon the course. Then his father's offer of land could not satisfy him, but he went to work for the Central Vermont Railroad as a laborer; next a fireman on a locomotive, and in due time an engineer; going west he worked for the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern and the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie, rising in the service of the latter road to the positi on of division superintendent. In 1899 he was assistant general manager of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and after two years went to the Erie as assis tant to the president, and then as general manager. In 1904 he was second vice?president and in charge of the operating and maintenance departments of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad; and in 1910 he was called to the presidency of the Baltimore and Ohio.

   He has shown practical sense all along this course of service and promotion, ability to meet problems and sagacity in foreseeing the important things to be done. He was the representative of fifty?two railroads of the northeastern part of the United States on the arbitration board, which adjusted the differences between those roads and their locomotive engineers in the spring of 1912. He has twice been president of the American Railway Association, and was selected by his colleagues to make the presentation of their need of more liberal treatment by the National Government at the hearing in 1914. Johns Hopkins Uni versity conferred on him the degree of Doct or of Laws as " a man of affairs, the head of a great railroad system ....employing his power so wisely as not only to have demonstrated the possession of superior intellectual ability, useful learning and knowle dge of the highest order, but to have made a contribution to the proper handling of the transportation problem, equal in its beneficent results to the contributions that have won distinction for learned men in the fields of science and literature."

   Source:

   WILLARD GENEALOGY, SEQUEL TO WILLARD MEMORIAL

   MATERIALS GATHERED CHIEFLY BY JOSEPH WILLARD

   AND CHARLES WILKES WALKER

   EDITED AND COMPLETED BY CHARLES HENRY POPE

   PRINTED FOR THE WILLARD FAMILY ASSOCIATION, BOSTON, MASS., 1915*

   Digital Edition © 2001 by Richard Bingham

   Oceanport, New Jersey

   ISBN 1-930968-20-5

   Copyright, 1915

   By THE WILLARD FAMILY ASSOCIATION

   Murray and Emery Company

   Kendall Square

   Cambridge

Father: Daniel Spaulding Willard b: 16 AUG 1832 in Hartland, VT

Mother: Mary Ann Daniels

Marriage 1 Bertha Leone Elkins b: 26 NOV 1863

   * Married: 2 MAR 1885 in North Troy, VT

Children

  1. Has No Children Harold Nelson Willard b: 28 JUN 1890 in Minneapolis, MN

  2. Has No Children Daniel Willard , Jr. b: 15 FEB 1894 in Minneapolis, MN

Daniel Willard

Just 100 years ago, Jan. 28, 1861, there was born in North Hartland perhaps Hartland's most famous son, Daniel Willard. He was a product of pioneer stock as his ancestors were here at the very birth of Hartland. The Hoyt house, the Phelps house, and the Potwin house were all Willard homes. Daniel Willard, the son of another Daniel grew up on the farm now owned by William Smith.

He went to the church now standing here and taught Sunday School. He went to school in a building on the green and at fifteen taught in a one room school. He met Mrs. Samuel Taylor, who was to influence his whole life. She taught him to love books and he was ever after an ardent lover of good books.

He attended a term and a half at Windsor High School. He wanted terribly to attend Dartmouth, but couldn't afford it. He did attend the Mass State Agriculture College in Amherst for a time but had to give it up, because of poor eyesight.

Running through the family farm were the tracks of the Vermont Central railroad, and young Dan's imagination was fired by the idea of piloting one of those shining, wood-burning engines, especially the old Governor Smith which he never ceased to love.

So at eighteen, Daniel Willard got his first job on the railroad on a section gang for 90 cents a day for 10 hours on the Vermont Central. He soon went to the Connecticut and Passumpsic where he was a fireman. He weighed only 125 lbs. but he managed to feed the old engine the 10 to 12 cords of wood she consumed in a long day. At eighteen, he was an engineer on the line, respected by the men he worked with for his burning ambition and keen mind. He always had a good book in his pocket. 

Soon after this he was lured to the level track and higher pay of a western road, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway.

This proved temporary and he went to the Minneapolis and Sault St. Marie which was being built. Here he became trainmaster, and in fourteen years was superintendent.

From here he went to the Baltimore and Ohio, then to the Erie, then operating VP of the Burlington and Quincy then back to the B&O as president, a job he kept from then on.

He had grown up with the railroads and knew every problem. He threw himself wholeheartedly into the job of building tracks and bridges, straightening lines, bucking the constant politics, both among the railroads themselves and government.

He understood the problems of the workers and fought for their interests. Against the desires of many another President he helped to get the 8 hour day. He remembered only too well the times he had fallen asleep and bumped a train in front of him when he had been forced to operate a train beyond the limit of human endurance.

Besides President of the B&O, he became Chairman of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense in WW I. It was made up of distinguished men such as Bernard Baruch and others well known, and the War Industries Board.

He fought off a serious strike and organized the RR Presidents to try to fight off government ownerships which worked for a while. President Wilson did not take over while Willard continued his war job.

At the end of the War, the B&O had to be built up again from near bankruptcy and later fought through the great depression. He was no longer a young man, but took on such jobs as member of the Board of Trustees of John Hopkins University and this self educated man finally became president of the board.

In 1937, the B&O held the Fair of the Iron Horse, a great entertainment and show of railroading past and present. That kept Willard from accepting an invitation to speak at the Hartland celebration of the Sesquicentennial of Vermont but he had not forgotten Hartland. In his last years, he visited the Smiths at his old home, and asked to see the old steep back stairs he had remembered from early boyhood.

He died, and rests in Hartland soil.

He left his library to the three Hartland libraries and the quality of those books reflect the great intelligence and keen mind of this son of Hartland.

Found in our archives - author unknown, but I suspect it was a speech. C.Y.M.

Reprinted from The Hartland Historical Society Newsletter, Spring 2003.

Related Links:

Central Vermont Railway Historical Society

The 2003 Glory Days of the Railroad Festival, dedicated in Memory of Daniel Willard (1861 to 1942)

B&O Railroad Museum

City of Willard, Ohio History named in honor of Daniel Willard

Time Magazine Cover Story on Daniel Willard.

HISTORY OF WILLARD, OHIO

TIME LINE

1874 Town founded – Named Chicago Junction. or Chicago, OH

1880 First school was built.

1882 Chicago Junction incorporated with a population of 800. First mayor was Samuel Snyder.

1917 Name changed to Willard in honor of Daniel Willard, the President of the B&O Railroad.

1960 Willard became a City

DETAILS

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company in the development of its properties and desiring to enter the competitive fields of commerce with the Pennsylvania, the New York Central and other lines, conceived the plan of connecting the iron, steel and coal industries of Pittsburgh and the East, with the great grain fields of the West.

The management of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was then in the hands of that “Master of Finance”, John W. Garrett, the President, assisted by John King, Jr., as first Vice President, and William Keyser, as second Vice President, men of great financial ability and energy. John K. Cowen was the General Counsel and James Randolph the Chief Engineer.

The company having obtained a controlling interest in the Central Ohio Railroad, and having leased the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad, and organized and built the Newark, Somerset and Straitsville Railroad into the coal fields of southern Ohio, proposed to make these lines feed into the lines between Pittsburgh and Chicago.

It was the purpose of the President and his advisors to construct the line from the Sandusky, Mansfield and Newark Railroad first, and later to connect the two lines, but owing to financial difficulties the completion of the last link was deferred.

In pursuance of this plan, in the fall of 1871 the Chief Engineer was directed to organize a corp. of engineers and begin a preliminary survey. On the eleventh day of October an engineering corp., consisting of Beverly Randolph, Assistant Engineer, T. J. Frazier, Transit Man, and Robert Henderson, Levelman, with the other employees, began the survey.

Work was begun on the Clinton Air Line, a railroad, which had been partially constructed between New London, in Huron County, and Republic, in Seneca County. This was abandoned and a survey was made through the Village of Havana and on west to Republic, to connect with the Mad River and Lake Erie Railway, a line, which had been abandoned. The line was surveyed from Republic to Tiffin and then to Fostoria, but on account of weather conditions further work was suspended until spring.

On the 25th of March, surveys were commenced, with Defiance as the objective point, through a country covered with heavy timber for 40 miles and with water a foot deep. This survey was commenced May 3rd, with all of the men sick with malaria, chills and fevers, except the transit man and the axman, who were residents of the county. The transit man was instructed to organize a force of natives and make the final location.

The survey was completed in June, and, the sick men having returned to the field of action, at once began the preparation of maps and profiles preparatory to securing the right of way and the starting of the preliminary work incident to beginning construction.

After the completion of the preliminary work in November, 1872, the Chief Engineer thought it desirable to change the location of the terminus from Havana to a point more desirable in the proposed extension to Pittsburgh, and to this end the engineers in the early part of December 1872, relocated the line from Republic through the present site of Chicago Junction. This established the final location of the village of Chicago Junction.

In October, 1872, the work was let to contactors and preparations made for beginning active operations. Construction began about May 1, 1873, but work was delayed on account of continuous rains. Col. S.R. Johnson, an experienced engineer, was placed in general charge of construction, with T.J. Frazier, E.A. Jones and Robert Henderson, resident engineers: Frazier in charge from Defiance to Bascom: Henderson from Bascom to Republic, and Jones from republic to Chicago Junction. The construction of the line from Defiance to Chicago was I the hands of Charles Archenheit and George Crooker.

Grading began May 1, 1873, at Fostoria. Track laying and ballasting were begun at Fostoria under David Lee, Master of Road, July 1, 1873, on the division of T.J. Frazier, and the work was rushed with vigor. Track lying was continued east and west at the same time, and by December 15th, the rails were all laid between Chicago Junction and Deshler. The “Col. I.B. Riley” was the first engine used on construction. It was brought here from the Straitsville Division and delivered at Fostoria from Mansfield by the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was soon returned to Newark and replaced by Engine 902, with Billy Armstrong as Engineer.

The first mixed train handling passengers and freight was put in service, January 1, 1874 – Wm. Land (Conductor) – was run over the line between Chicago Junction and Defiance, July 4, 1874: and over the entire line from Chicago Junction to Chicago, November 23, 1874, with O. L. Gurney as conductor.

The first building erected at Chicago Junction for use of the company was a small frame structure located on the south end of the platform at the foot of Myrtle Avenue, and was used for passenger, freight and telegraph.

Near the present Main Street subway, in December, 1874, temporary shops were constructed consisting of an engine house building and two small buildings used as blacksmith and machine shops. About 60 men were employed in the shops.

Early in the spring of 1875, Daughtery and Furguson, contractors, laid the foundation for the Brick Depot and hotel building, which was opened to the public in September. During the summer they laid the foundation for the Brick Round House and machine shop. The bricks used were made on the grounds. In April, 1876, the machinery and tools were moved into the new buildings. About the same time were built a new turntable, coal tipple, water station, blacksmith shop and other frame buildings. Engineer T.J. Frazier was in charge of construction, he having been appointed the engineer in charge in the fall of 1875.

The stone used for the buildings was brought from Sandusky. The rails used in the construction of this road were of iron and made at the company’s rolling mill at Cumberland, Md., and weighed 64 pounds per yard. Freight yard tracks were constructed in the fall of 1874 and the spring and summer of 1875.

This railroad was organized and incorporated in 1872 under the name of Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Chicago Railway Company, with Ohio, Indiana and Illinois Divisions, and in 1878 was reorganized as the Baltimore and Ohio and Chicago Railroad Company.

The extension of this line was completed to Pittsburgh in 1891, under the name of the Akron and Chicago Junction Railroad Company. The first revenue train on this line was made up of eighteen freight cars which left Chicago Junction August 15, 1891, with James Lehan as conductor. The shops, yards and other businesses were under the supervision of the Newark Division until 1902, and were then taken over by the Chicago Division.

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The 2003 Glory Days of the Railroad Festival was dedicated

in Memory of Daniel Willard (1861 to 1942)

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1861 Born in Hartland, Vermont

January 15, 1910 Daniel Willard becomes B&O's fourteenth president

October 1916 President Wilson appoints Daniel Willard to Council of National Defense Advisory Commission

March 1917 Daniel Willard elected chairman of the Council of National Defense Advisory Commission

April 11, 1917 Daniel Willard meets with top railroad leaders to coordinate the nation's rail network for the war

1917 Chicago Junction, Ohio changes name to Willard, Ohio in honor of Daniel Willard, President of the B&O Railroad

January 11, 1932 Daniel Willard makes the cover of Time Magazine. "He has a conscience in dealing with labor," said Time magazine. AFL-CIO President William Green called Willard "deserving of honor and tribute."

June 1, 1941 Board of Directors elects Daniel Willard Chairman of the Board

July 6, 1942 Daniel Willard dies at the age of 81

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TIME MAGAZINE COVER STORY:

Dan Willard

"Uncle Dan" Willard was born on a farm near North Hartland, Vt. during the first year of the Civil War. The first locomotive he saw ran by the farm on the old Central Vermont. Aged 16, he taught school for a spell. Aged 17, hi was sent to Massachusetts Agricultural College. Bad eyesight compelled him to give up his studies, get a job in a track gang. Three years later he was an engineer on the Connecticut & Passumpsic River, now a part of the Boston & Maine. Then he went West. When next seen he was "hogging" (driving a locomotive), on the Lake Shore & Michigan with a pair of red mittens on his hands and a book or two under the cab seat. There is good reason for "Uncle Dan" to sympathize with the 500,000 men laid off railroads in the last two years. The business depression of 1883 took him out of his cab, put him to work as a conductor on the Soo. From conductor he started up the long grind of a railroad operating man's career: trainmaster, assistant superintendent, superintendent.

When a railroad official gets a chance for a better position on another line, not infrequently he takes a subordinate or so along with him. When Frederick Douglass Underwood left the Soo to become general manager of the B & O. he took Superintendent Willard along as his assistant. That was in 1899. Two years later Mr. Underwood became president of the Erie, asked Mr. Willard to accompany him. "Uncle Dan" went along as general manager In 1910 he returned East to become president of the road he had left nine years before.

In 1910 the B.& O. was a great, rusty T-shaped giant. The top of the T ran from Philadelphia to Washington. The stem split, one line reaching out in Chicago, the other ending just over the Mississippi River at St. Louis. Corporate headquarters were at the top of the stem in Baltimore.

When he took charge, one of the first things President Willard did was cancel all advertising. "We'll start again when we have something to advertise," he said. Having spent nearly half a billion on his railroad in the past 20 years, "Uncle Dan" now has something to advertise. He has authorized copy written this way: "70,000 of us invite you to travel on the B. & 0."

A tangible improvement of the Willard administration was the acquisition of than any other man for the Eastern four-system unification plan. (sic) Under him Chicago & Alton was taken over as a western B. & O. link. Last week B. & O. began operating the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh as a division of its system.

The atmosphere of "we're-all-B. & O.-men-together" is one President Willard likes to get into his bulletins. Sample: "No matter how hard we try, we cannot make the B..& O. the greatest, straightest or richest railroad, but we can, if we try hard enough, create for it the reputation of being the best railroad in the world from the point of service." A prime Willard maxim: "Be a good neighbor." Farmer boys and girls up and down his line get settings of eggs. Officials are sent to make friends with local shippers. And in 1927 "Uncle Dan" put on a 23-day pageant ("The Fair of the Iron Horse") outside Baltimore to show what his road had accomplished in its century of existence.

It is generally agreed throughout the system that no one works harder on the B. & O. than President Willard. He gets up early, works late. Once he told Jim, porter of his office car, No. 99, to wake him at 5 a.m. As the dawn was breaking, the blackamoor felt a tug at his covers, looked up into "Uncle Dan's" smiling face. "Wake up, Jim," said President Willard. "It's 5 o'clock."

There is a good deal of confusion as to who has ridden on No. 99. The fact is that no one except President Willard and his officers ride on it. If they are important enough, celebrities traveling over the B. & O. are given the Maryland.

Just as no one rides on No. 99, few get inside "Uncle Dan's" white stucco house, which hides behind trees in Baltimore's smart Roland Park. There he lives with his wife and his two orphaned grandchildren, whose parents died in the influenza epidemic of 1918. He plays his violin occasionally, is a wretched golfer. Like many a railroad man, he goes to the office on Sundays. Like many railroad children, his grandsons like to go along, too. He owns the farm where he was born, farms it. He belongs to the Unitarian Church, drinks a little, smokes a little.

When he was on the Wartime Council of National Defense he saw a good deal of Walter Sherman Gifford. After the War, Mr. Gifford saw that Mr. Willard was made a director of American Telephone & Telegraph Co. Mr. Willard saw that Mr. Gifford was made a fellow trustee of Johns Hopkins University.

The typical railroad president is not always the typical railroad man. Often they come by their positions through the legal department. This month "Uncle Dan" completes the 71st year of his life, the 22nd of his presidency. This week he will be a principal figure in discussions involving the welfare of more than half the trackage on earth. He has health, the respect of his associates, a comfortable share of the world's goods. More important to 1,250,000 rail employees who are also involved, is the fact that he is not just a railroad president. He is a railroad man.

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Daniel Willard

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Birth: Jan. 28, 1861

Hartland

Windsor County

Vermont, USA

Death: Jul. 6, 1942

President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 1910-1941.

Burial:

Hartland Village Cemetery

Hartland

Windsor County

Vermont, USA