Forwarded by permission of Gene Green.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [mstl] Edwin Hawley obit.
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:04:43 -0000
From: Gene Green <bierglaeser@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: mstl@yahoogroups.com
To: mstl@yahoogroups.com
"FEBRUARY 9, 1912. RAILWAY AGE GAZETTE. Page 237
EDWIN HAWLEY
Edwin Hawley, who died from a sudden attack of heart failure
at his home in New York on February 1, has been connected with
railway business for about 45 years, first as a traffic man and later
as a financier. As a traffic man he was in the service of the
Southern Pacific and was an associate of Collis P. Huntington; as a
financier he negotiated the sale of the Huntington holdings of
Southern Pacific to E. H. Harriman for the Union Pacific, gained
control of the original group of Hawley roads -- the Toledo, St.
Louis & Western, the Chicago & Alton, the Minneapolis & St. Louis and
the Iowa Central -- and, associated with Frank Trumbull, had a
considerable financial interest in the Colorado & Southern, which was
sold to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy in 1907.
It was after the sale of the Colorado & Southern in 1907 that
one began to hear a good deal about Mr. Hawley's plans for a system
of roads, which plans were sometimes compared with Mr. Harriman's
plans for a Harriman system. This, however, is not an accurate
comparison. Mr. Hawley and Mr. Trumbull, after selling their
control of Colorado & Southern, bought from Kuhn, Loeb & Company
control of the Chesapeake & Ohio, and Mr. Hawley negotiated the
purchase of the Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville for the Chesapeake &
Ohio shortly after Mr. Trumbull negotiated for the purchase of the
control of the Hocking Valley and a joint interest in the Kanawha &
Michigan for the Chesapeake & Ohio. Shortly after this Mr. Hawley
and two associates gained control of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas,
and quite recently Mr. Hawley, associated with Newman Erb, announced
plans for extending the two roads which they had just merged -- the
Minneapolis & St. Louis and the Iowa Central -- to the Canadian
border on the north, and connecting them with the Missouri, Kansas &
Texas on the south. These later plans of a north and south system
are more nearly comparable with the railway planning of E. H.
Harriman than any of the financial schemes that Mr. Hawley carried
out.
Mr, Hawley was a shrewd financier rather than a constructive
railway owner. Of the properties with which the Hawley name has been
associated, the two which have been managed with real success as
railways are the Colorado & Southern and the Chesapeake & Ohio, and
while Mr. Hawley had a considerable financial interest in both, the
success of their management was due to Frank Trumbull, who was both
financially interested in them and directly in charge of them.
The properties which may fairly be called Hawley properties,
such as the Alton, the Clover Leaf, the Minneapolis & St. Louis and
the Iowa Central, were not conspicuously well managed from a railway
man's point of view. It was as a speculative banker that Mr. Hawley
earned the position in both the railway world and the financial world
which he occupied at the time of his death. Mr. Hawley was the
senior member of Hawley & Davis, was a member of the New York Stock
Exchange, although he had not been active on the Exchange for a
number of years, and, as the recognized head of a certain group of
capitalists, which included Theodore P. Shonts and some of the old
Southern Pacific people, had a very important influence in the
railway situation of the country.
He was born in Chatham, N. Y., in 1849, and began railway
work as a clerk in the Erie freight office in New York in 1867. In
1870 he became a clerk in the offices maintained at New York by what
was known as the Rock Island Route. In 1874 he was made contracting
agent, and, in the following year, general eastern agent of the
California Fast Freight Line. His connection with the Southern
Pacific was begun in 1883, when he was made general eastern agent of
the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio and the Southern Pacific
Company. Two years later he was made also general eastern agent of
Morgan's Louisiana & Texas Railroad & Steamship Company, the
Louisiana Western, the Texas & New Orleans, the Houston & Texas
Central and the Mexican International. From March, 1890, to
February, 1902, Mr. Hawley was assistant general traffic manager of
the Southern Pacific, with office at New York. He had been president
of the Minneapolis & St. Louis since 1896.
Mr. Hawley was unmarried. He was a silent and
extraordinarily persistent worker. He had the reputation of being
rather slow in his judgment, but was actually a careful man rather
than a slow thinker. He was capable of making the most important
decisions quickly and finally. His purchase for instance, into the
Chesapeake & Ohio was decided on after a single short inspection trip
over the property. A close friend of the late Edwin Hawley said that
the will made in 1903 was subsequently destroyed and that it was Mr.
Hawley's intention ultimately to have all his interests
incorporated. It will be recalled that Mark Twain adopted this
method of disposing of his property. It was also said that Mr.
Hawley was prevented from carrying out his plan by his unexpected
death."
Gene Green
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