Background
Sidney Dillon was born on May 7, 1812 in Northampton, Montgomery County, New York, United States. He was the son of Timothy Dillon, a farmer.
(This is an original 1892 magazine article carefully remov...)
This is an original 1892 magazine article carefully removed from a vintage magazine. A 6 1/2 page article, by Sidney Dillon, an American railroad executive and one the nation's premier railroad builders. The article measures approx. 6.5 X 9.25". This article will be of interest to early railroad historians as well as Utah state history students.
https://www.amazon.com/Driving-Spike-Pacific-Original-Magazine/dp/B01A4P7EPY?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B01A4P7EPY
Sidney Dillon was born on May 7, 1812 in Northampton, Montgomery County, New York, United States. He was the son of Timothy Dillon, a farmer.
The family was poor, and Sidney received only a meager education.
At the age of seven, tiring of farm life, Dillon began work as a “water boy” on the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad from Albany to Schenectady, and when this road was finished he was employed in a similar capacity on the Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad.
Later he acted as an overseer and then foreman on several other railroad construction projects in New England.
Finally he decided to enter into business for himself, and although he had but little capital he made a bid for the construction of a short section of what is now the Boston & Albany Railroad. The bid was accepted and the work was satisfactorily completed in 1840. This was the beginning of a contracting career of unusual extent and success.
Among the roads partially constructed by him were the Rutland & Burlington Railroad, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad, the Morris & Essex Railroad, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the New Orleans, Mobile & Chattanooga Railroad, and the Canada Southern Railroad. He also built for Cornelius Vanderbilt the tunnel from the Grand Central Station at Forty-second St. , New York City, to the Harlem River.
He was one of the principal contractors and the directing authority for subsidiary contractors. During the next four years he took an active part in the construction of the road, frequently traveling backward and forward along the line and aiding the builders out of his abundant experience.
He took part in the ceremony of laying the last rail in 1869, and one of the silver spikes with which the road was completed remained in his possession until his death.
On March 26, 1870, he was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
In 1892 he published an article on the opening of the Union Pacific, with the title “Historic Moments: Driving the Last Spike of the Union Pacific” (Scribner’s Magazine, August 1892).
He was a director of the Union Pacific Railroad Company for twenty-eight years (1864 - 92) and its president for nearly twelve years (from March 11, 1874, to June 19, 1884, and again from November 26, 1890, to April 27, 1892).
At the time of his death he was chairman of the board of directors, having been the first to be elected to that office. After 1870 he was chiefly known as a financier. He had by then accumulated a large fortune, principally invested in railroad securities because of the fact that he had early adopted the policy of taking as part payment shares of stock of the companies for which he did construction work. The management of these investments gradually occupied a larger part of his time and he became actively associated with Jay Gould in the management of many of the properties controlled by the latter.
He died at his home in New York City after an illness of three months.
The greatest enterprise of Dillon's life was the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, with which company he became actively associated in 1865 through stock purchase in the Credit Mobilier. He built thousands of miles of railroad in all parts of the country, either individually or in association with other contractors.
(This is an original 1892 magazine article carefully remov...)
Over six feet tall, heavily built yet active, and speaking in a direct, incisive manner, Dillon conveyed the impression of a man who knew what to do and how to do it, and was fully able to command others in carrying out his plans. He was unusually careful in negotiating and entering into contracts and obligations, but, when once undertaken, displayed great energy and perseverance in carrying them out.
In 1841 Dillon married Hannah Smith of Amherst, Massachusetts, and they had two daughters.
