Jesse Lynch Williams

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/williams-jesse-lynch

Jesse Lynch Williams, civil engineer, was born at Westfield, in Stokes County, the youngest child of Jesse and Sarah Terrell Williams, both of prominent families of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in the Guilford County area. He was the first cousin of three other men of note: on his father's side, of Levi Coffin, a leader in the Underground Railroad movement, and Elkanah Williams, a pioneer in the science of ophthalmology, and on his mother's side, of Charles Lynch, governor of Mississippi during 1835–37. The Williams family was also renowned for a major part of the Battle of Guilford Court House having been fought on the farm of Richard Williams, the grandfather of young Jesse.

In 1814 Williams and his family were among the people who left North Carolina during its "Rip Van Winkle" period, moving first to Cincinnati, then to Warren County, Ohio, and finally, by 1820, to a place near Richmond in Wayne County, Ind. He received an education in the small local schools where he lived as well as, for a time, at Lancastrian Seminary in Cincinnati.

Even though he had no formal training in civil engineering, it came to be his greatest interest, especially after the idea of a canal to connect the Great Lakes with the Ohio River was aired in the internal improvements boom of the 1820s. In about 1824 he signed on as a rodman with the first survey of the feasibility of such a project, and when the state of Ohio decided to undertake it in the form of the Miami and Erie Canal in 1828, Williams was hired as an engineer. While on this project he made a name for himself by developing such things as the feeding of the canal by a system of reservoirs instead of long feeder streams and designing an aqueduct for the canal across the Scotio River. Largely as a result of his work on the Miami canal, he was chosen by the Indiana legislature in 1832 to be chief engineer of the Wabash and Erie Canal, a position he held until 1876. In 1835 he was appointed chief surveyor of all canals in Indiana and in 1836, the state's chief engineer of canals. In 1837 he was also named to oversee all railroads and turnpikes. With his career now encompassing railroads, Williams became the chief engineer of the Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, a corporation for which he was instrumental in many mergers until it became one of the largest railroads in the Midwest. He was its director from 1856 to 1873. In working with this railway through Indiana and Illinois he came to know and become a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, a friendship that brought him an appointment as government director of the Union Pacific Railway in 1864. He was annually reappointed to this post for five years by presidents Lincoln, Johnson, and Grant. In this job he directed the survey of the most easily traversable path over the Rocky Mountains that the rail was to take; it was said to be one of the greatest engineering feats in railroad building to that time. Further, his report to the secretary of the interior about the overcharges of contractors led to the famed Credit Mobilier investigation.

He resigned his position with the Union Pacific in order to accept the receivership of the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway. Williams directed the completion of this floundering project acting as both receiver and engineer. Afterwards he took on a similar post with the Cincinnati, Richmond, and Fort Wayne Railroad.

Williams had left the Quaker church in 1830 to join the Presbyterians, and on his settling in the then small town of Fort Wayne in 1832 he joined the First Presbyterian Church. The next year he was named a ruling elder, a position he held for the remainder of his life. Active in the workings of the church, he frequently served as a commissioner at the meetings of the Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly and was one of the original directors of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the Northwest, which later became the McCormick Theological Seminary.

On 15 Nov. 1831 he married Susan Creighton, the daughter of William Creighton, the first secretary of state of Ohio. They had three sons who lived to adulthood: Edward Peet, Henry Martyn, and Meade Creighton. Meade became an influential leader in the Presbyterian church and was the father of Jesse Lynch Williams (1871–1929), the author and playwright.

Williams died in Fort Wayne, where he was buried.

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Jesse Lynch Williams was the chief engineer in the building of both the canal system and the railroad system in Northern Indiana. He was a business partner of Allen Hamilton. His wife was Susan Creighton from Ohio.

From Allen Hamilton: The evolution of a Frontier Capitalist by Allyn Wetmore, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana dissertation August 1974 , pgs, 263-269 :

"Early in 1842 Allen initiated a partnership with Jesse Williams which would engage in retailing and the building and operating of a flour mill. Williams, who was thirty-four years old, had been the chief engineer for the Wabash and Erie Canal in 1832 and was chosen in 1836 to occupy the same position in regard to the entire internal improvements system in Indiana. Although he was quite young, he was a responsible individual with much of the aggressiveness of Cyrus Taber (Allen's other business partner).

"Williams had received other offers to enter into partnerships, but he chose the one with Hamilton, probably because of Hamilton's capital resources, his earlier success in the retail business, his excellent business connections, and because the increasing production of wheat in northern Indiana promised profits to those who could build a good mill. The mill would demand business skill and connections much along the lines of the Indian trade (that Allen engaged in) for not only would the supply of wheat need to be tapped efficiently (because of competition with other mills) but it also demanded good connections in New York, since a knowledge of market conditions, freight rates and marketing facilities was vital to the success of such an enterprise. Hamilton could offer most of this to the partnership, while Williams, an engineer, could be sure the mill was located and built properly. Williams also could tend to the day-to-day operations of the mill and the store. It is interesting to note that the two considered setting up a store at Logansport or Fort Wayne, which indicates that Hamilton was not entirely prepared to abandon the active running of this business. Certainly the fact that he considered and finally did set up the store at Fort Wayne indicates that his other activities demanded a large amount of his time.

"Williams had a great many ideas to offer concerning the location and construction of the mill, which was necessary in view of Hamilton's lack of knowledge in this area. By June, Williams was preparing to move his family to Fort Wayne, Shortly thereafter he let the contracts for the mill which was built on the canal at Clinton Street in Fort Wayne to take advantage of the water power it offered. The mill was constructed by the end of 1842.

"Hamilton agreed to invest ten thousand dollars in the firm (which he would receive at its dissolution) while Williams was to "give all his time to the business of the firm" , which included the erection and running of the mill and superintending the store. Hamilton charged the firm no interest on the ten thousand dollars in return for which Williams was to provide additional services to the firm, presumably traveling to New York to purchase merchandise for the store and similar tasks. Profits were to be divided equally between the partners and they could purchase goods for the use of their families from the store at twenty-five percent over their total costs. Since this was, undoubtedly, a better price than at other stores, this gives one an idea of the size of the mark-up on their goods. The partnership was to last for five years, until May 1948 but it could be dissolved on six month's notice by either of the partners.

"The size of the store can be imagined not only by its capitalization but also by its need for one or more clerks The expanding immigrant population of Fort Wayne demanded a slight adjustment if the store was to compete with others. Williams, acknowledging the valuable New York connections of Hamilton, noted that the firm could "buy as well as others" but that the store would only succeed if it could compete with other stores. Therefore, he suggested that the "right kind" of young man be employed in it, especially those who spoke German.

"By September 1842 the firm had ordered goods worth over one-fourth of its capitalization from wholesalers in New York. The following month they placed several advertisements in the Fort Wayne Sentinel offering for sale such items as shoes, "gentlemen's fine boots", slippers, batting, wicking, cotton yarn, trace chains and log chains. They had also ordered china, wool, flannel, shirting and chintz from New York.

"In order to construct a flour mill Hamilton and Williams first needed a suitable water power site. In April, 1842 Williams wrote to Hamilton concerning the urgency of purchasing a certain site near Fort in Wayne in order to be in a position to supply the city with flour in the winter. When all of the bids were in for the Fort Wayne water power site, Hamilton and Williams had submitted the successful bid of two hundred and ten dollars. A year latter the firm signed a contract to have the flour transported from Fort Wayne to New York for one dollar and twenty-five cents per barrel. In May and June of 1844 the net profits of this venture were $11,625.50. "

Main Author: Williams, J. L. (Jesse Lynch), 1807-1886. Title: Fort Wayne, the summit city / Publisher: [Fort Wayne : Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County], 1953.

Main Author: Williams J. L. (Jesse Lynch), 1807-1886. Title: Historical sketch of the First Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne, Indiana : with early reminiscences of the place : a lecture before the congregation, Oct. 16, 1881, the semi-centennial of its organization. Publisher: Fort Wayne, [Ind.] : Daily News, [1881]

Main Author: Williams, J. L. (Jesse Lynch), 1807-1886. Title: Experimental survey and report of Crooked Creek and Clifty routes to Madison, Ind. / Publisher: Indianapolis : [s.n.], 1848

• Reference: WikiTree Genealogy - SmartCopy: Oct 24 2020, 14:16:12 UTC