Charles Henry Markham

Background

Charles Henry Markham was the son of Daniel Markham, farmer, and Mary (Reddan), of County Clare, Ireland. His parents emigrated to the United States, living first in Clarksville, Tennessee, where Charles was born on May 22, 1861.

Education

He attended the public schools until he was fourteen years old. He then left school to earn his own way.

Career

Three years later he started west, and in 1881 began his first railway work as a section laborer on the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fé at Dodge City, Kan. This was the beginning of a career which he was to follow, with a single interruption, until his death. Leaving the Santa Fé after a few months, he went to work for the Southern Pacific at Deming, N. Mex. , as a station helper, shoveling coal for locomotives. He stayed at Deming for six years, finally becoming baggage master. For the next ten years he served as agent for the Southern Pacific successively at Lordsburg, N. Mex. ; Benson, Ariz. ; Reno, Nev. ; and Fresno, Cal. At Fresno he was also in charge of the solicitation of freight and passenger traffic for a district, and worked out an effective car-loading plan which attracted the attention of Julius Kruttschnitt, then general manager of the road, who gave him other efficiency problems to solve. In 1897 he was sent to the Willamette Valley of Oregon as general freight and passenger agent of the Oregon lines of the Southern Pacific, charged particularly with promoting agricultural development. In 1901 he was transferred to San Francisco as assistant freight traffic manager, and three months later was elected vice-president of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad at Houston, in which position he was executive head of the Harriman lines in Texas. Early in 1904 he returned to San Francisco to become general manager of the Southern Pacific Company, and three months later was elected vice-president and general manager. The rapidity of this series of promotions would have satisfied most men, yet Markham, toward the end of 1904, temporarily left railroading to accept the position of vice-president of the J. M. Guffey Petroleum Company at Beaumont, Tex. , because this position offered him better opportunities than the railway business for the moment could afford. The change was one of executive responsibility only, since he had no financial interest in any oil property. In 1910 he became president of the Gulf Refining Company, the Gulf Pipe Line Company, and other properties embraced in the Mellon oil interests in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. In January 1911 he returned to railroad work as president of the Illinois Central Railroad Company; in February of the same year he was also elected president of the Central of Georgia Railway Company and the Ocean Steamship Company of Savannah, both subsidiaries of the Illinois Central; and in April 1914, he became chairman of the boards of directors of the two subsidiary companies. These positions he held until May 1918. Meanwhile, after the entrance of the United States into the World War, he entered the service of the federal Railroad Administration, and acted as regional director of the railroads comprising the Southern Region, with headquarters at Atlanta, Ga. , from January 1, 1918, to June 1, 1918, and as regional director of the railroads comprising the Allegheny Region, with headquarters at Philadelphia, from June 1, 1918, to October 1, 1919. On completion of his war service he resumed the presidency of the Illinois Central and the chairmanship of the boards of the Central of Georgia and the Ocean Steamship Company, continuing in active service until September 15, 1926, when illness compelled him to resign his office of president, accepting the less onerous position of chairman of the board of the Illinois Central. He died four years later on November 24, 1930 at his winter home, Altadena, California.

Achievements

• From 1901- 04 he was Vice President of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad at Houston and in 1904 he was Vice President and General Manager of the Southern Pacific Company at San Francisco. He has also been General Manager of the Gui fey Petroleum Company Beaumont, Texas and President of the Gulf Refining Company Pittsburgh Pa. He was also a President of the Illinois Central Railroad President of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad President of the Central of Georgia Rail way and President of the Ocean Steamship Company of Savannah. Markham, Texas, USA was named for him.

Personality

While Markham never attained great wealth, yet his rapid advance from the position of baggage master on the Southern Pacific in 1887 to that of president of the Illinois Central Railroad in 1911 is sufficient evidence that he possessed unusual executive ability. His record as president, moreover, bore out the promise of his earlier years. Upon his own system his administration was distinguished by a vigorous program of expansion and improvement, as well as by a determined effort to build up the territory in which the Illinois Central operated. The most spectacular part of this program, and perhaps that most generally associated with Markham's name, was the beginning of the electrification and modernization of his company's Chicago terminal, including the construction of a great classification and transfer yard south of Chicago and the first steps in the development of the valuable air rights over Illinois Central property in down-town Chicago. Outside of his activity in improving facilities and service upon his own system Markham was very generally known as a leader in developing improved relations between the railroad industry and the public. He devoted much time and thought to this aspect of the railroad problem, and is credited with successful pioneering work in a field now generally recognized to be important.

Connections

On February 18, 1884, he had married Anna Eliza Smith, a native of Syracuse, N. Y. His wife died on September 18, 1921. There were three children, of whom only one son survived him.

Father:

Daniel Markham

Was a farmer.

Mother:

Mary (Reddan) Markham

Wife:

Anna Eliza Smith