The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-02-15
,FRANK tn OlrSON,
The Newly Elected President of the Penn
sytvania Railroad.

At a meeting of the Board of Direc-
tors Of the Pennsylvania railroad, held
at the general office in Philadelphia on
February Sd, Frank Thomson, First
President, was unanimously elect
ed President.
In every field of American develop
ment Scotch ancestry is conspicuous.
Many great men of the learned profess
sions, the factors of the business world,
and the high officials of our commercial
and railroad interests look back with
pride to lineage of the land of the
thistle and heather. A family of this
description is that Of Thomson. In
It'll Alexander Thomson sailed from
Scotland and settled as pioneer in the
Cumberland Valley. Among his chill
dren was a son, Alexander, who, after
winning distinction at the bar of his
state, represented his district in con-
gress from 1924 to 1896 Returning to
the practice of his profession, he be-
came judge of the Sixteenth Judicial
district, and subsequently professor of
law in Marshall college.
His son, Frank Thomson, was born
in Chambersburg, Pa, July 9th, 1S41.
His rudimentary and classical educa-
ton was received at the Chambersburg
Academy, but he did not inherit the pa
ternal taste for the law. With the fore
sight which has been one of the dfstin-
gushing characteristics of his life, he
saw in the practical work of the rail
road an attractive and promising field
of action, and at seventeen years OF
age he entered the Altoona shops OF the
Pennsylvania railroad for instruction
"A four years course Of training in this
great school of applied science gradua-
ted him a mechanical engineer, who
could build a locomotive through every
stage of the progress. from the crude
iron to the finished engine on the rails
while it also fitted him to operate as en-.
gineman the product of his own skill.
1t required little time for Col Thos
"A. Scott, general superintendent of the
road to detect in the young engineer
evidences of unusual ability, and the
outbreak of civil war furnished the op.
portunity of testing his judgment.
Colonel Scott had been appointed by
President Lincoln Assistant Secretary
Of War, and placed in charge of al
matters relating to the transportation
of troops and supplies, and he called
Frank Thomson to his aid as chief as
sistant.
Ma. Thomson took the field immedi
ately, the scene of his operations being
the south and the upper southwest
where he constructed railroads ant
bridges, repaired those which had beer
injured by the exigencies of war, direct
ed the transportation of troops and thu
forwarding of supplies to the front
The signal success of his efforts in thi
dangerous undertaking not only re
cefved fitting recognition from the Wa
Department, but marked him as a rail
road man of rare promise. At the con
clusion Of active nostilities in this ter
ritory he was relieved from militar.
duty, and in June, 1854 was appointed
superintendent of the eastern division
of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad
which occupied his time until March
1873. After this experience promotion
came rapidly. In March, 1873, he wa
made superintendent Of motive powe
of the Pennsylvania railroad at Altoo
ma.
In this position the vast information
and wide experience gained from hi