William Sproule

Background

William was born on November 25, 1858 in County Mayo, Ireland.

Education

His father, who was a schoolmaster, acted as the boy's tutor.

Career

William emigrated to New York when about eighteen years of age, was employed there about six months in a bookstore, and then went to California. Before entering upon his career in railroading in 1882, as a freight clerk for the Southern Pacific (Pacific system), he had had some business experience as a clerk in a department store in Sacramento. He soon won promotion and in 1887 was appointed assistant general freight agent. Ten years later he was advanced to the position of general freight agent, and in 1898 he became freight traffic manager.

In 1906 he left railroad work to be director, member of the executive committee, and traffic manager of the American Smelting and Refining Company in New York. He severed his connection with that concern in 1910 and for nearly two years was president of Wells Fargo Company, operating the most important of the railway express services in the West. In 1911, shortly after the death of Edward H. Harriman, the railroads comprising what were known as the Harriman Lines were reorganized, and Sproule was recalled to railroad service as president of the Southern Pacific Company. During the First World War he served first (1917) as chairman of the Western department of the Railroads' War Board, an organization through which the railroads collectively effected a voluntary unification.

The board went out of existence when the railroads were taken over by the government on January 1, 1918, and operation by the United States Railroad Administration began. Shortly thereafter, when regional and district directors were appointed by the director general of railroads, Sproule was drafted as director of the Western district of the Central Western region and in that capacity had general jurisdiction not only over the railroad with which he had been connected but also over all other railroads west of Ogden and Salt Lake City, Utah; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and El Paso, Texas, and south of Ashland, Oregon. He continued in that capacity until shortly after the armistice and on January 1, 1920, resumed the presidency of the Southern Pacific, remaining in that position until his retirement from active service on December 31, 1928.

Thereafter he remained a member of the board of directors of the Southern Pacific until April 3, 1929, and as president and director of the Central Pacific, one of the system's subsidiary corporations, until his death. Apart from his railroad work he served (1921 - 33) as a Class C director of the Federal Reserve Bank (12th district), San Francisco, and from 1912 to 1918 was president of the Associated Oil Company, a partly owned subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Company. He was also for some time a park commissioner of San Francisco.

He died in San Francisco of a heart attack.

Achievements

• William Sproule as president of the Wells Fargo Express Company and the Southern Pacific Railroad, was successful in the selection of his departmental heads and followed the wise policy of giving them authority coextensive with their responsibility. When he resigned the presidency he left for his successor a strong organization, in the operating as well as in the traffic departments, and a property in excellent physical condition.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Threatened Disruption of Southern Pacific Lines

    (Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)

Views

Sproule had the confidence of each of the men he worked with in turn and during his presidency of the Southern Pacific made an impressive record as a railroad administrator. His early experience having been entirely in the traffic department (rate-making and sales), as president he was especially interested in cultivating friendly relations with the public. His intimate knowledge of California and his wide acquaintance with men prominent in business and public life, coupled with his ability as a speaker, did much to overcome the public ill will resulting from different policies of earlier years.

Connections

On December 5, 1905, he married Mrs. Mary Louise Baird-Baldwin. She had two children by a former marriage but Sproule had none of his own.

Spouse:

Mary Louise Baird-Baldwin

associate:

Edward H. Harriman

associate:

Robert S. Lovett

associate:

Julius Kruttschnitt

associate:

Collis P. Huntington