engineer military officer Soldier
Jadwin was born on August 7, 1865, in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, the son of Cornelius Comegys and Charlotte Ellen (Wood) Jadwin. His father, a merchant, served a term in Congress (1882-1884), and the family traced ancestry back to colonial forebears in Virginia and Pennsylvania, the first of the name having been Jeremiah Jadwin who settled about 1683 on the neck between Chesapeake and Delaware bays.
After a common-school education, young Jadwin attended Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, for two years. He entered West Point in 1886 and graduated four years later with the highest honors of his class.
Jadwin was commissioned second lieutenant, Corps of Engineers, and after duty with various river and harbor improvements, 1890-1897, became an assistant to the chief of engineers, 1897-1898. The war with Spain found him promoted to major and lieutenant-colonel, 3rd United States Volunteer Engineers, with command for a time of a battalion of his regiment at Matanzas, Cuba, where he effected many sanitary reforms. His subsequent service included engineering projects on the Pacific coast and in the vicinity of Galveston, Texas, with construction of a deep-sea channel between Galveston and Houston and engineering safeguards following the great hurricane of the year 1900.
Jadwin had reached the grade of major, 1906, when he was selected by General Goethals as one of his assistants in the construction of the Panama Canal. As such, he was division engineer of the Chagres Division, 1907-1908, resident engineer, Atlantic Division, 1908-1911, and his more important accomplishments included construction of a ship's channel through Gatun Lake, and building the great Gatun Dam and Spillway, as well as a breakwater at the Atlantic terminus of the Canal. He was on important engineering work in the Tennessee District, 1911, assistant to the chief of engineers at Washington, 1911-1916, and in charge of the Pittsburgh District, 1916-1917, with membership on the Ohio River Board of Flood Control. Promotion to the grade of lieutenant-colonel had come in 1913.
With the outbreak of the World War, Jadwin was appointed commanding officer, 15th United States Engineers (Railway), on July 6, 1917, and with his regiment overseas was soon engaged in vast construction projects. He was appointed brigadier-general, National Army, December 17, 1917, and served as chief engineer of advanced lines of communication, until February 17, 1918, and as director of light railways and roads, American Expeditionary Forces, until March 19, 1918, when he became director of construction and forestry at the Service of Supply, Tours, France. With the ending of the World War, President Wilson appointed Jadwin a member of the commission investigating certain conditions in Poland, 1919-1920, during which period he reverted to the rank of colonel. He served as engineer officer, VIII Corps Area, 1920-1922, district engineer at Charleston, South Carolina, 1922-1924, and in the same year, 1924, was made chairman of the American Section, Joint Canadian-American International Board, for the development of the St. Lawrence River with respect to navigation and power, serving until 1929. His outstanding ability was recognized, June 19, 1924, by promotion to brigadier-general and assistant to the chief of engineers, with service on many important boards and commissions, including the chairmanship of the technical advisory commission to the joint congressional committee on the question of leasing Muscle Shoals (1926). He was promoted major-general and made chief of engineers, June 27, 1926. Perhaps the most notable service of his administration was the sponsoring of the Army Engineer Plan for Mississippi Flood Control, which was adopted by Congress after much controversy and involved the expenditure of $375, 000, 000 of public funds. He also served as a member of the Federal Oil Conservation Board, and of the international conference on oil pollution of navigable waters.
He was a delegate to the World's Engineering Congress at Tokyo in 1929, and in that year served as president of the American Society of Military Engineers. Retired from active service as a lieutenant-general by operation of law, August 7, 1929, he became consulting engineer of the Meadows Reclamation Commission and chairman of a board of advisory engineers to the state of New York. In 1930, Jadwin was offered by President Hoover the important post of chairman of the newly created Federal Power Commission, a nomination which was opposed by a minority group in the Senate. Declining the appointment, he was later designated as chairman of the Interoceanic Canal Board, to determine upon whether or not the government should undertake construction of a canal across Nicaragua, or an increase in the capacity of the Panama Canal. While on this duty he died suddenly of cerebral hemorrhage at Gorgas Hospital, Canal Zone. Interment was at Arlington National Cemetery, March 12, 1931, with impressive military honors.
Jadwin was President of the American Society of Military Engineers (1929).
Jadwin married Jean (Laubach) Jadwin, October 6, 1891. The couple had two children.
