Henry Coddington Meyer

Background

Henry Coddington Meyer was born on April 14, 1844, in Hamburg, Germany, where his father, Meyer Henry Meyer, a New York merchant, and his mother, Ann Maria (Price) Meyer, were living at the time.

Education

Meyer attended several private schools in the vicinity of New York.

Career

Meyer entered the office of his uncle T. B. Coddington, a manufacturer of that city. Henry's business career was soon interrupted, however, by the Civil War. Enlisting in the 2nd New York Cavalry in 1862, he took part in a number of important engagements and rose to the rank of captain. On June 17, 1864, he was severely wounded while saving the life of a fellow officer, for which "distinguished gallantry" he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Soon thereafter he was retired for disability and later brevetted major. He returned to his former position with his uncle, who was proprietor of the New York Shot & Lead Company, but four years later formed a company of his own to deal in plumbing, gas, and steam fixtures, first called the Henry C. Meyer Company, and later the Meyer-Sniffen Company. After 1883 his only connection with the firm was as a stockholder and director. In 1877 he and other members of his household contracted diphtheria, their illness being attributed to defects in plumbing. This experience incited him to inaugurate measures for the improvement of sanitary conditions. He devised a system of plumbing to remedy the defects which were supposed to have caused his own illness. He founded in 1877 the Plumber and Sanitary Engineer, the first issue of which appeared in December of that year, with Charles Wingate as editor. Its purpose was to publish information on sanitary matters and to serve as a forum for discussion. Under Meyer's management it gradually widened its field, and with this expansion its title altered. In 1881 it became the Sanitary Engineer; in 1887, Engineering and Building Record; and in 1890, Engineering Record. Meyer assumed editorial charge in 1881 and continued to exercise it for many years. Public interest in improving tenement-house design was stimulated by a competition for architects fostered by Meyer through his publication, and aided in securing the passage of the New York State Tenement Act of 1879, which restricted the area of the standard lot to be occupied by a building. His influence was potent, also, in securing the enactment of the New York State plumbing laws of 1881, said to have been the first of their kind in the United States. In the campaign against the "deadly railway car stove" Meyer demonstrated that heating of railway cars by steam from the locomotives was both possible and practicable. In 1885 he published Water-waste Prevention, which did much to overcome the prejudice encountered by water companies in their attempt to convince the public that conservation of water is necessary. His words and presence carried great weight with the legislature, for he never appeared before a committee without first being equipped with practical, scientific knowledge of the subject under discussion, based on his own investigation and experience and on his study, during repeated visits to Europe, of similar reforms already introduced abroad. The Engineering Record was under his supervisory editorship until 1902, when it was sold to James H. McGraw. In 1917 it was combined with the Engineering News to form the Engineering News-Record. Meyer was the author of two books Civil War Experiences (1911) and The Story of the Sanitary Engineer (1928). His death occurred, after a short illness, at his home in Montclair, New Jersey.

Achievements

• Meyer's Medal was awarded to him on March 29, 1899, 35 years after his brave act. After the war he became editor and proprietor the publication the “Engineering Record”, and started a sanitation engineering firm in New York City, New York. He became an advocate for public health and safety through improved sanitation, plumbing and waste management reforms through the city, and helped bring about improved sanitation in New York’s tenement buildings and public bathhouses. He published several works on engineering, and in 1911 he published “Civil War Experiences under Bayard, Gregg, Kilpatrick, Custer, Raulston, and Newberry, 1862, 1863, 1864”, a memoir of his experiences during his service in the Union Army.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Civil War Experiences: Under Bayard, Gregg, Kilpatrick, Custer, Raulston, and Newberry, 1862, 1863, 1864 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Civil War Experiences: Under Bayard, Gregg, ...)

  • Steam Power Plants: Their Design and Construction

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Views

Quotations: "During an assault and in the face of a heavy fire rendered heroic assistance to a wounded and helpless officer, thereby saving his life and in the performance of this gallant act sustained a severe wound. "

Connections

Meyer was twice married: first, to Charlotte English Seaman, who died in 1915; second, to her cousin, Gertrude (Seaman) Merrill. He had two sons, Henry Coddington and Francis Thurber.

Father:

Meyer Henry Meyer

Mother:

Ann Maria (Price) Meyer

Wife:

Charlotte English Meyer

1849 - 1915

Son:

Henry Coddington Meyer, Jr

January 1870 - 1957