Background
Overton, Richard Cleghorn was born on November 9, 1907 in Montclair, New Jersey, United States. Son of Frank Carlton and Ruth (Bynner) Overton.
(Burlington Route served a large area, including the state...)
Burlington Route served a large area, including the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Wyoming, and New Mexico and Texas via subsidiary railroads. Its primary connections included Chicago, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, St. Louis, Kansas City and Denver. Because of this extensive trackage in the midwestern and mountain states, the railroad used the advertising slogans "Everywhere West", "Way of the Zephyrs", and "The Way West". It merged with the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1970
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006BM5AG/?tag=2022091-20
( Gulf to Rockies is a chapter in the business and econom...)
Gulf to Rockies is a chapter in the business and economic history of the American West and the story of two of the most colorful railroad builders of the nineteenth century. Throughout the 1860s the mineral treasures of Colorado were virtually inaccessible for lack of railroads. Even after a hectic decade of building in the 1870s, the state faced a new sort of isolation: every railroad crossing her borders was controlled by the Union Pacific or the Santa Fe. As a result, the Rocky Mountain region could not hope to compete with the Midwest for the business of the Atlantic seaboard. To remedy this situation, John Evans, former governor of Colorado, organized in 1881 a railroad to run southward from Denver as the first link in a cheap rail-water route via the Gulf of Mexico to the East. Meanwhile ambitious Fort Worth citizens had incorporated the Fort Worth and Denver City in 1873. Not a rail was laid on either road, however, until General Grenville M. Dodge, famed builder of the Union Pacific and the Texas Pacific, took up the Texas project and joined forces with Evans to create the Gulf-to-Rockies route. It took seven years for these men and their associates to mobilize funds and complete the Fort Worth–Denver line, and another decade to establish the system’s independence and solve its financial problems in the face of drought, depression, and intense competition. Gulf to Rockies was written under special agreements with Northwestern University and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, whereby the university relieved Mr. Overton of a part of his duties in order that he might have time for research and writing and the railroad undertook to bear the cost of the research. The Burlington also permitted him free access to all company records and granted him unrestricted freedom to publish his findings.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0292727127/?tag=2022091-20
railways consultant writer history educator
Overton, Richard Cleghorn was born on November 9, 1907 in Montclair, New Jersey, United States. Son of Frank Carlton and Ruth (Bynner) Overton.
Bachelor of Arts, Williams College, 1929; Doctor of Philosophy in History, Harvard University, 1944.
With, Chatham-Phenix National Bank & Trust Company. New York City, 1930-1932;
instructor French, Hotchkiss School, 1932-1933;
assistant economics, Williams College, 1933-1934;
instructor American history, North Adams State Teachers College, 1933-1934;
instructor American history, Amherst College, 1936-1938;
counsellor American history, Harvard University, 1938-1939;
with, C.B. & Q. Railroad Company, Chicago, 1939-1945;
research consultant, C.B. & Q. Railroad Company, Chicago, 1949-1965;
professor business history, Northwestern University, 1945-1954;
instructor history and geography, Burr & Burton Seminary, Manchester, Vermont, 1955-1960;
teacher social studies, Burr & Burton Seminary, Manchester, Vermont, 1973-1982;
professor United States history, U. Western Ontario, 1961-1973;
emeritus, U. Western Ontario, 1973-1988;
director, Central Vermont Railway, 1974-1978. Professor American history Williams College Institute American Studies, 1956-1958.
Consultant Bureau Railway Economics, 1955-1958. Consultant editor Macmillan Company, 1965-1977, Canada National Rys., 1979-1982.
(Burlington Route served a large area, including the state...)
( Gulf to Rockies is a chapter in the business and econom...)
(Book by Overton, Richard C.)
(Western Railroad History)
Member Railway and Locomotive History Society, Vermont History Society, Business History Conference, Lexington Group, Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Sigma Rho, Theta Delta Chi.
Married Sylvia Lee, 1933. 1 son, Alan Doughty; married Cornelia Smythe, 1940. Children: Elisabeth (Mistress J.S. Gordon), Edward.
Married Addie Lou Roberts, 1956.