William Thaw Sr. was an American capitalist and philanthropist.
Background
He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 12, 1818. His parents, John and Elizabeth (Thomas) Thaw, were natives of Philadelphia and his father was of Scotch-English and Quaker ancestry. John Thaw had removed to Pittsburgh in 1804 to take a position as chief clerk in the Pittsburgh branch of the Bank of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia.
Education
William attended the local schools and the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh).
Career
At sixteen he traveled through the Ohio Valley on horseback making collections for the Bank of the United States, and thereafter the improvement of transportation facilities was a dominant interest in his career.
In 1835 he was employed in the forwarding and commission house of McKee, Clarke & Company and in 1840 he went into partnership with Thomas S. Clarke, his brother-in-law. The firm of Clarke & Thaw took over the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal Line and did a large business in receiving and forwarding merchandise by river and canal. Between 1840 and 1859 Thaw had interests in over 150 steamboats operating on various lines, the most famous of which was the Pittsburgh & Cincinnati Packet Line. Realizing the futility of attempting to compete with transportation by rail, he and his partner disposed of the canal line in 1855. The following year he joined the firm of Leech & Company, freight agents of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and in 1857 he and Clarke formed the firm of Clarke & Company to take charge of the freight business west of Pittsburgh. He had a large share in promoting the rapid extension of the railroad to St. Louis, which proved a definite advantage to Northern interests during the Civil War.
Having helped to devise the first system of through freight transportation over different lines, he took charge in 1864 of the resultant Union Line, later the Star Union Line, and managed it until 1873, when he turned his attention to the internal and financial affairs of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, of which he served as director from 1881 to 1889. In 1871 he was elected vice-president of the Pennsylvania Company, a corporation chartered in 1870 to manage the lines controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company north and west of Pittsburgh, and of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railway Company; in 1884 he was made a vice-president of the Chicago, St. Louis & Pittsburgh Railroad Company. He also served as director of the Atlantic & Pacific Ship-Railway Company and of the International Navigation Company, in connection with which he furthered the establishment of the Red Star Line. His fortune, estimated at between eight and twelve million dollars, was invested largely in railroad holdings and transportation companies and in coal lands in Westmoreland and Fayette counties, Pennsylvania.
Thaw's wide interests and philanthropic activities made him a force in his community. He avoided publicity and ostentation, but he gave largely to charity organizations, churches, and individuals, and to schools in various parts of the country. One of his chief concerns was to make Pittsburgh an educational center; to further this end he devoted time and money to the Western University of Pennsylvania. Motivated by a desire to advance the frontiers of knowledge, he substantially supported Samuel Pierpont Langley in his work at the Allegheny Observatory, his scientific expedition to California in 1881, and his study of the laws governing flight. He also gave financial aid to John A. Brashear.
Survived by ten children – five by each marriage – he died in Paris, France, of a heart attack.
Achievements
Personality
He was over the average in height and had an unusual combination of mental and physical powers and great force of character.
Connections
In 1841 he married Eliza Burd Blair of Washington, Pa. , who died in 1863, and in 1867 he married Mary Sibbet Copley of Pittsburgh.