WILLIAM BARSTOW STRONG


'William Barstow Strong' (May 16 1837 – August 3 1914) served as president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway from 1881 to 1889.[1][2] He is often referred to as either 'William B. Strong' or 'W. B. Strong'.

Contents
Life and career
Other uses of the name ''William Barstow Strong''
References
External links

Life and career


He was born in Brownington, Vermont on May 16 1837.2[3]
Strong graduated from Bell's Business College in Chicago, Illinois, in 1855, and soon launched his career in railroading. His first railroad job was as a station agent for the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad,[4] a position that was introduced to him by his older brother James.
He married Abbie J. Moore, October 2, 1859, in Beloit, Wisconsin. They had three children, a girl and two boys.[5]
He worked his way through several railroad jobs successively for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, McGregor Western Railway, Chicago and North Western Railway, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), and as superintendent of the Michigan Central Railroad in the 1870s. In this position, Strong was succeeded by Henry Brockholst Ledyard in 1876.[6] He returned to the CB&Q after working on the Michigan Central and then joined the management team of the Santa Fe as General Manager, and was promoted to Vice President within a month.2
On July 12 1881, he succeeded T. Jefferson Coolidge as president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF).2 Under his tenure, the ATSF expanded to about 7,000 miles (11,265 km) of right-of-way, which at the time made the ATSF the largest railroad in North America.4 He held the presidency until his retirement in 1889.2
The city of Barstow, California, where the ATSF maintained extensive shop and equipment construction and repair facilities, and the town of Strong City, Kansas, are both named in his honor.[7][8]

Other uses of the name ''William Barstow Strong''


''William Barstow Strong'' was the name of an observation car owned by the ATSF and operated in business trains in the latter part of the 20th century.[9]
''William B. Strong'' was included in a list of names that traveled aboard NASA's Stardust spacecraft which visited the comet Wild 2 in 2004.[10]

References



1.
2. Steel Trails to Santa Fe, Waters, Laurence Leslie, , , University of Kansas Press, ,
3. Infoplease.com
4. William Barstow Strong Pearson Education
5. Rootsweb - WI Rock-L Archives
6. History of Wayne County and the City of Detroit, Michigan, Vol III; Henry Brockholst Ledyard, Burton, Clarence M. and Burton, M. Agnes, , , The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1930,
7. Barstow, California - Crossroads of opportunity
8. Strong City, Kansas
9. ATSF #89, William Barstow Strong
10. Stardust Project - Microchip Names (S) NASA


External links



★ ATSF #89 - William Barstow Strong — photos and technical details of the observation car named in Strong's honor.

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