Background
James Theodore Harahan was born on January 12, 1841, in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Patrick and Rose (McCurn) Harahan.
James Theodore Harahan was born on January 12, 1841, in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Patrick and Rose (McCurn) Harahan.
James attended the public schools of Lowell until he was seventeen.
James Harahan began his railroad career as clerk for the Boston & Providence Railroad Company at Boston. His work was interrupted by his enlistment in Company G of the 16t Massachusetts Infantry. He was in the army for three years, was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, and was mustered out on May 25, 1864. He then returned to railroad service and began at the very bottom of the ladder as a switchman on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad in Virginia. During the years 1865 to 1870 he worked in various capacities, for a time in the employ of the Nashville & Decatur Railroad at Nashville, Tennessee, and for a time in that of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Rising from clerk to section boss and finally railway executive, he went through every grade of railroad service, and his demonstrated capacity led to frequent calls from one company to another.
From 1870 to 1872 Harahan was in charge of the Shelby Railroad (eighteen miles long) in Kentucky, for seven years he was roadmaster of the Nashville & Decatur, for two years superintendent of the Memphis line of the Louisville & Nashville, and for the next two years superintendent of the New Orleans division of the same road. In 1883 he was made general superintendent of the road south of Decatur, and the following year general manager of the entire road. In 1885 he was off to the Baltimore & Ohio as general manager of the Pittsburgh division, but after three months he returned to the Louisville & Nashville, serving as assistant general manager and general manager. The period between October 1, 1888, and November 1890, was again one of trial and promotion: he was successively assistant general manager of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, general manager of the Chesapeake & Ohio, and general manager of the Louisville, New Orleans, & Texas railroads. On the last date he became second vice-president of the Illinois Central Railroad, in charge of operation and traffic. One of his signal services in this position was his handling of the suburban traffic during the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, when millions of passengers between the city and the fair grounds were adequately cared for by his road.
In 1906, Harahan was elected president of the Illinois Central in place of Stuyvesant Fish who had been deposed from the presidency. He retired from active service in 1911, at the age of seventy, and started work of a consulting character. He was killed in a railroad wreck in January 1912 while still in vigorous possession of his faculties and well qualified to carry on important work for a number of years.
Harahan was a successful railroad executive and seemed to have a peculiar faculty which fitted him to handle the railroad problems as they were constituted during the time he was engaged in railroad work.
Harahan believed in contact with the public so that they might appreciate the problems and difficulties of the railroads, and was a pioneer in developing that sort of railroad management. He was extremely industrious and very conscientious in the performance of his work. He was solicitous for the welfare of the employees, and was esteemed by them for his interest and justice in dealing with them.
In 1866 Harahan was married to Mary Kehoe, who died in March 1897, and on April 19, 1899, he was married to Mary N. Mallory, daughter of Captain W. B. Mallory of Memphis, Tennessee.
