Nathaniel Sherman Bouton

Nathaniel Sherman Bouton

• Find A Grave Memorial ID # 122336694
• Union Car & Bridge Works

Nathaniel Sherman Bouton was born at Concord, New Hampshire. Though short of formal education, he apparently learned much from his minister father. At the age of 14, he went to work on a nearby farm. At 16, he began teaching school. A few years later (1846), he went to work for E. & T. Fairbanks selling scales throughout Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Illinois.

In 1852, Bouton went to work for George W. Sizer & Company, a foundry firm that had sizeable works in Cleveland and Cincinnati, and was looking to establish itself in Chicago. He became manager of the Chicago operation, and a year later became a partner in the firm.

The Sizer & Company foundry, at Clark near 15th Street, manufactured primarily car wheels and castings for other for the developing Chicago railroad trade. Among the firms supported in this way was the Union Car Works.

Following the September 1855 fire that destroyed the Union Car Works, Bouton purchased the plant of the American Bridge Company and soon afterwards entered into partnership with Boomer and Stone, forming the partnership of Stone, Boomer & Bouton, which did business as the Union Car & Bridge Works. This firm built almost all the railway bridges in what was then known as “the West” (meaning more-or-less everything west of Pennsylvania), including the bridge at Rock Island that was the first to cross the Mississippi River. They also built railway cars. This company was sold to the Illinois Central Railroad in 1857.

In 1857, Bouton was appointed superintendent of public works of Chicago, a position he filled for three years. He was one of the three men who established the present grade of Chicago, and it was during his administration that the first streets were paved. In 1862 he became quartermaster of the 88th Illinois Infantry, a position he held until after the battle of Chickamauga [Sep 18-20, 1863], when he resigned and returned home to attend to his burgeoning business.

In 1858, Bouton bought out the interests of Stone and Boomer in the old Union Car Works, which he rebuilt and operated until 1863. In that year he organized the firm of N.S. Bouton & Company, the “company” being Christopher B. Bouton and Edward F. Hurlburt. This firm did business until 1871, when it was incorporated under the name of Union Foundry Works with Bouton as President, Hurlburt as Vice President and Superintendant, and Christopher Bouton as Secretary and Treasurer. This firm specialized in architectural iron work. Among their contracts were many of the finest business blocks of the city, the custom house in Chicago, and that in St. Louis, the statehouse of Illinois and of Iowa, and most of the Chicago grain elevators.

In 1881, the Western Indiana Railway Company acquired for a right-of-way the premises occupied by the Union Foundry Works. A new company was organized called the Union Foundry & Pullman Car Wheel Works. It was located on 11 acres in the newly-founded south suburban town of Pullman, where George Pullman was building his great works. It carried on a general foundry and machine shop business in addition to producing car wheels and other castings for the Pullmans Palace Car Company. Some 600 men melted about 150 tons of iron daily.

In 1886, Bouton disposed of his interests in the “Pullman Palace Car Company.” [Did the writer really mean to say the Union Foundry & Pullman Car Wheel Works? Or did Bouton actually own an interest in Pullmans Palace Car Company?] He then organized the Bouton Foundry Company in Chicago, from which he gradually retired, leaving the business in the hands of several of the younger men who had been his employees and business associates.

Name: Nathaniel Sherman Bouten
Rank: Quartermaster
Military Age: 34
Service Entry Age: 35
Muster In Age: 35
Birth Date: abt 1827
War Years: 1861-1865
War: Civil War
Company: Headquarters
Unit: 88th Illinois Infantry
Period: 3 Yrs
Service Entry Date: 4 Sep 1862
Service Entry Place: Chicago, Illinois
Joined By Whom: Governor of Illinois
Muster In Date: 27 Aug 1862
Muster In Place: Chicago, Illinois
Remarks: Resigned Oct 6, 1863
Occupation: Manufacturer
Record Source: Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls
URL: https://www.ilsos.gov/departments/archives/databases/datcivil.html