Background
Webster Wagner was born at Palatine Bridge, N. Y. , the son of John and Elizabeth (Strayer) Wagner, both of German descent, whose families had settled in the Mohawk Valley at an early date.
inventor manufacturer politician
Webster Wagner was born at Palatine Bridge, N. Y. , the son of John and Elizabeth (Strayer) Wagner, both of German descent, whose families had settled in the Mohawk Valley at an early date.
He obtained an ordinary education.
Working on his father's farm, Wagner learned the wagon-making trade from an older brother and engaged in that business with him. Since the venture was not successful, in 1843 Wagner became station master of the New York Central Railroad in Palatine Bridge, holding the position for upwards of fifteen years and adding to his duties those of freight agent. Struck with the possibilities in special cars for the use of the night-travelling public and being a skilled craftsman in wood, he undertook the design of a sleeping-car. By 1858, with the financial help of Commodore Vanderbilt, he had completed four sleeping-cars and put them into operation on the New York Central Railroad. These cars had a single tier of berths, and the bedding was packed away by day in a closet at the end of the car. While they were crude affairs, they immediately became popular. Wagner thereupon organized the New York Central Sleeping Car Company at Palatine Bridge to manufacture his cars, which were used exclusively on the New York Central Railroad and its various branches. By 1865 he had evolved a more comfortable coach or drawing-room car, and in that year the New York Central Sleeping Car Company was reorganized as the Wagner Palace Car Company to manufacture both sleeping and drawing-room cars. The drawing-room car, which was put into service in the late summer of 1867, became as popular as the sleeping-car; both yielded fortunes to Wagner and his associates. About 1870 Wagner contracted with George M. Pullman to use the latter's newly patented folding upper berth, and hinged back and seat cushions for the lower berth, with the distinct understanding that the Wagner Company would use cars containing the Pullman inventions only on the lines of the New York Central Railroad. In 1875, however, when the Pullman Company's contract with the Michigan Central Railroad expired, Wagner secured the contract to run his cars over that road, thus making a through connection for the Vanderbilt lines between New York and Chicago. As a result of this breach of contract, the Pullman Company brought an infringement suit against Wagner's company for a million dollars' damages; the suit was still in process at the time of Wagner's death. Wagner was also very active in New York state politics. He was elected assemblyman by the Republicans of Montgomery County in 1870, and in the following year was elected senator from the eighteenth district. Thereafter he continued in the state Senate until his death, having been reelected without opposition at the end of each two-year term. As a delegate to the Republican National Convention in Chicago in 1880, he was extremely active in securing the nomination of President Garfield, being strongly opposed to the third-term aspirations of General Grant. He was killed in a rail accident while returning from Albany to New York City when two trains of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad collided in between the Kingsbridge and Spuyten Duyvil stations in The Bronx, two weeks into his sixth Senate term, on January 13, 1882.
He was married to Susan Davis of Palatine Bridge. They had five children.