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The Early Business History of Four Massachusetts Railroads—II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Charles J. Kennedy
Charles J. Kennedy
Affiliation:
The University of Nebraska
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Extract

The builders of the railroads in the 'thirties included not only inventors and engineers but also businessmen. It is the latter, usually neglected by historians, who solved business problems as significant as the problems of the engineers. At least, that was true of the roads in this study—the Boston & Lowell, the Boston & Worcester, the Eastern, and the Western. Although the formal structure of a business is not very important for small business firms, these four railroads represented at least two or three times the capitalization of the larger factories of that time. The early railroads, except for small branch lines like the Andover & Wilmington, were sufficiently large to demand careful business organizations if the enterprises were to be successful.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 1951 , pp. 84 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1951

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References

25 The term agent had been used in England as early as 1600 to designate one who acts or exerts power, doing the actual work for an employer. The term superintendent also appeared on the first railroads. Its origin was fully as ancient as the term agent but implied the superintendent of workmen. For the construction of the railroads the terms were used somewhat loosely, with agent being the more common. For example, P. T. Jackson was an agent and Nathan Hale was a superintendent, and yet, because of their specific duties, each man should have held the other's title.

26 Directors' Minutes of the Boston & Lowell R. R., March 19, 1831. The records of the Boston & Lowell, Eastern, and Andover & Wilmington railroads are deposited at the headquarters of the Boston & Maine Railroad in Boston. The records of the Western and of the Boston & Worcester are deposited in Baker Library, Harvard University.

27 Annual Report of the Directors of the Boston and Providence Rail Road Corporation with that of the Agent and Engineer, January 2, 1833 (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, Exchange Street, 1833), p. 6.Google Scholar

28 Directors' Minutes of Boston & Worcester R. R., July 27, 1831.

29 Directors' Minutes of Boston & Worcester R. R., May 1, 1832, December 15, 1832, June 10 and 27, 1834, August 4, 1834.

30 Directors' Minutes of Eastern R. R., June 1, 1836.

31 See the resolution in document number 24, dated March 11, 1836, in the Western Rail Road file located in Baker Library, Harvard University. William Jackson's name was written in the report as the man for the job but subsequently his name has been carefully erased.

32 Ibid., documents number 23, 24, 25 (1836).

33 Ibid., document number 27, 1836; Directors' Minutes of Western R. R., March 11 and 15, 1836.

34 Directors' Minutes of Western R. R., March 16 and 17, 1836.

35 Directors' Minutes of Western R. R., May 5, 1836, March 22, 1837.

36 Report by Charles Hudson and Amasa Walker, Committee of the Board of Directors of the Western R. R., dated July 24, 1838, file numbers 27 and 28.

37 Idem.

38 Directors' Minutes of Boston & Lowell R. R., February 12, 1840.

39 Ibid., January 2, 1832.

40 Western R. R., documents number 27 and 28, July 24, 1838.

41 Directors' Minutes of Boston & Worcester R. R., October 15, 22, 23, 1832.

42 Directors' Minutes of Boston & Lowell R. R., January 2, 1833.

43 Directors' Minutes of Boston & Lowell R. R., January 2, 1832, October 19, 1835; Stockholders' Minutes of Boston & Lowell R. R., January 2, 1833.

44 Directors' Minutes of Boston & Lowell R. R., October 5, 1831, Jan. 19, 1833.

45 Directors' Minutes of Boston & Worcester R. R., March 8, 1833.

46 Hidy, Ralph W., The House of Baring in American Trade and Finance (Cambridge, 1949), p. 173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

47 Directors' Minutes of Western R. R., June 15, 1838; Directors' Minutes of Eastern R. R., December 27, 1840.

48 Directors' Minutes of Eastern R. R., December 22, 1840.