Background
John Work Garrett was born on July 31, 1820, in Baltimore, the second son of Elizabeth Stouffer and Robert Garrett.
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John Work Garrett was born on July 31, 1820, in Baltimore, the second son of Elizabeth Stouffer and Robert Garrett.
After two years at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, Garrett became associated at the age of nineteen with his father and brother in the former’s commission house. His seventeen years of training in the diversified operations of the firm proved a valuable preparation for his subsequent career.
During the fifties, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, in which Garrett was a stockholder, was involved in serious difficulties. The necessity of raising more money than the initial three millions led to contentions concerning the representation on the board of directors for Maryland, for Baltimore City, and for the individual stockholders, who, though owning a majority of the stock, constituted a minority on the board.
Young Garrett prepared such a challenging report on the finances for a subcommittee of which he was chairman, that on November 17, 1858, on the motion of Johns Hopkins, the largest individual stockholder, he was elected president of the railroad.
The importance of his adherence to the Northern cause cannot be overestimated, for the leading Maryland Confederates always held him responsible for their inability to seize Washington.
He was sometimes able to give the government the first intimation of hostile movements and received the warmest appreciation of his services from Lincoln, yet the benefits were not all onesided, for his loyalty and ability saved his railroad from government seizure.
Stretching as it did along the theatre of war, twice crossing Confederate territory, the Baltimore & Ohio became a main objective for the Southern attack. Only the extraordinary skill and energy of its president prevented its abandonment.
Night and day the young official worked, now in a cabinet meeting, now with a reconstruction gang, occasionally escaping capture only because of his rough work clothes. The first military rail-transport movement of history, that of the transfer of 20, 000 men from the Potomac to Chattanooga in 1863, was a monumental triumph for Garrett and early railroad management.
Meanwhile, his efficient management raised profits to a huge figure. With the return of peace, Garrett first replaced the war damages and then resumed his plans for extending and perfecting the system, securing ultimately direct routes to Pittsburgh and Chicago, and arranging for an independent line into New York.
To restore Baltimore as a seaport huge wharves were built at Locust Point to accommodate the ocean liners of the North German Lloyd, with which company he had entered into an alliance, and a system of elevators was erected.
The Baltimore & Ohio Company became a self-contained unit by building its own sleeping and dining cars, setting up large hotels in the Alleghanies, creating its own express company, and fostering a separate telegraph company.
Garrett’s active mind had envisaged a line to New Orleans, extending even across the Southwest to California. In 1880, he was at the height of his success, ruling the railroad and politicians with an iron hand, but such control was not attained without a battle.
The desperate rate-war with the other trunk lines, lasting until they began to form pools in self-defense, was followed by a bitter and costly rivalry with Pennsylvania over the Eastern route. Next, the charge of discrimination against local shippers had to be met. Then, the necessity, as Garrett conceived it, of controlling the state legislature required constant care and watchfulness.
Finally, in 1877, when wages were cut to reduce expense, there came the first great railroad strike. Garrett was already succumbing to the drain upon his energy of twenty-five years of unremitting toil, when the accident which cost the life of his wife, Rachel Harrison, completed his surrender.
In 1855, Garrett was named to the board of the B&O, and in 1858, became its president, a position he held until the year he died. His tenure was marked by his support for the Union cause during the Civil War, the expansion of the railroad to reach Chicago, Illinois, and his struggles with the Pennsylvania Railroad over access to New York City. Under his direction, the B&O was instrumental in supporting the Federal government, as it was the main rail connection between Washington, DC and the northern states. Garrett is particularly remembered for his part in the Battle of Monocacy. In 1884, Garrett was instrumental in negotiating the loans which allowed the B&O to extend its main line to Philadelphia and through the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad to reach New York City. Garrett, a trustee of the Peabody Institute, asked its founder, George Peabody, to persuade Johns Hopkins to make the bequest that would make possible the Johns Hopkins University and Medical Institutions. Garrett became one of the most active trustees of the university. Garrett, Indiana; Garrett County, Maryland, the last of the state's 23 counties to be established, in 1872; Garrett Island in the (Susquehanna River); Garrett Park, (Montgomery County); Garrett, Pennsylvania. The Garrett Park recreation area in Baltimore City's Brooklyn neighborhood, on East Patapsco Avenue, between Second and Third Streets, was donated and named for John Work Garrett's grandson Robert Garrett, a member of the 1896 Olympics American team in Athens, Greece and a long-time recreation and parks leader in Baltimore City.
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Garrett inaugurated new policies, in which economy was strongly stressed, and despite the general financial crisis, his first annual report showed a gain in net earnings. The second year the results were even more remarkable.
Supported by this ample vindication of his views, he pressed the reorganization of the board which partially freed the road from political control. Although sympathetic with his Southern friends, Garrett from the beginning of the Civil War supported the Union.
His loyalty was apparently a matter of the head as well as the heart, for he calculated the inevitability of Confederate defeat by superior Northern resources.
Though Garrett was a large man physically, always giving the impression of determination and vigor, his intimate letters reveal him as kindly and affectionate.
Garrett's wife was Rachel Harrison.
2 May 1783 - 4 February 1857
18 September 1791 - 17 July 1877
6 March 1818 - 10 October 1867
25 July 1827 - 13 November 1917
17 January 1823 - 15 November 1883
5 March 1854 - 3 April 1915
9 April 1847 - 29 July 1896
11 February 1849 - 7 June 1888
