Background
Oliver Ames was born on November 5, 1807 at Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Oliver Ames and Susannah (Angier) Ames.
manufacturer railroad official
Oliver Ames was born on November 5, 1807 at Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States, the son of Oliver Ames and Susannah (Angier) Ames.
Ames was educated in the local school of North Easton, whither the family removed during his childhood, and in the Franklin Academy of North Andover. His first intention was to enter the law, but illness forced him to abandon legal study. He then went into his father's shovel factory as an apprentice, learning the business from the ground.
About 1844 the management of his father's company was assigned to Ames and his brother Oakes Ames. Business was booming. Irish immigrants afforded cheap labor and an enlarged production, though in turn this was not great enough to meet the increased demand for shovels on the construction work widely undertaken throughout the country. The opening of the California gold diggings brought heavier orders and profits so huge that the shovel manufacturers easily pocketed a loss of a million dollars through the failure of coast merchants.
For a short time (1854-1871), Oliver Ames & Sons manufactured hinges, nails, and even shoes in a string of separate plants, but meanwhile they never slackened in manufacturing and improving shovels. Luck, cheap but well-treated labor, and managerial genius enabled the concern to increase its business to a virtual monopoly. In 1852 and 1857 Oliver Ames was elected to the state Senate as a Whig and Republican, but sought no further political career, preferring to give undivided attention to business and money-making.
In 1855 he joined Oakes in building the Easton Branch Railroad, which turned the brothers toward railroad development. The Civil War brought heavy government contracts for swords and shovels, possibly greater because Oakes served in Governor Andrew's executive council and later in Congress. The wealth of the concern jumped from four to eight million dollars during this period when shrewd business men easily accumulated fortunes.
Their auspicious prosperity turned Oakes and Oliver toward bigger things, for under the capable management of their sons its own momentum enabled their business to expand. They were caught by the vision of a Union Pacific road connecting the East with the coast and enmeshed in the Crédit Mobilier company which, along with others, they incorporated to build and finance the transcontinental railway. Oliver was not involved in the subsequent congressional investigation, as he was not personally concerned with the alleged corruption of congressmen or the unlawful means of obtaining legislative favors and aid. He was acting president of the Union Pacific 1866-1868, president, succeeding General John A. Dix, 1868-1871 during the period of construction and trials, and a director until his death.
In 1870 he saw Oliver Ames & Sons facing bankruptcy, though the shovel works had assets of fully fifteen million dollars and liabilities of only eight million. Building the Union Pacific had been a desperate business. Oliver obtained an extension of time from his creditors and as head of the concern on the death of Oakes (1873) brought about order with the aid of his nephew, also an Oliver Ames. Few men were better known in the industrial world: his business acumen was at the service of the Atlantic and Pacific, Kansas Pacific, Denver Pacific, Colorado Central, Old Colony, and other railroads in which he was a director. Finance he knew quite as well as railroading, through his promotion schemes and close supervision, if not ownership, of the Easton and Bristol National Banks.
He also had other interests. Together with Oakes, he donated the site of the first Catholic church in North Easton (1850) and gave small amounts to a number of small colleges and schools in Massachusetts or in the new West. He left a fund for a town library, for the schools of North Easton, and for the improvement of local roads.
He was beloved by his townsmen whose prosperity was so largely dependent upon his factories and the employment which they afforded. The town was silent when he died, March 9, 1877. The shops and schools were closed. A special train from Boston brought about forty business and railroad men of national importance, but it was to the employees of twenty-five to fifty years' standing that his remains were confided to be carried to the grave.
Ames was a Unitarian in belief. He erected a church and parsonage for the society of which his father was a charter member, but this did not prevent him from donating a meeting house to the Methodists of his neighborhood.
Ames was long vice-president of the Massachusetts Total Abstinence Society and for twenty years a trustee of the Taunton Insane Asylum.
Ames married Sarah, a daughter of Howard Lothrop of Easton, by whom he had two children, Helen Angier and Frederick Lothrop Ames.