The Portland daily press., 1897-05-22
MELVILLE /. INGALLS,.
A Maine Mans Success in Western
Railway Circles.
WAS TALKED OF AS SUCCESSOR TO
CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW.
Is the Head of Two Great Roads-His
Daily Life and What the People of
His Adopted Home Say of Him-Both
Successful and Popular.

His Adopted Home Say of Him-Both
Successful and Popular.
| Melville E. Ingalls,, as Maine people
know, is a Harrison boy who went out
into the world to become power in
Western railroad circles. Last Sundays
| Cincinnati COMMERCIAL Tribune printed
the following sketch of the man and his
habits and the great properties which he
controls:
Melville e. ingalls, is railway mag
nate of the first magnitude
He looks every inch of what he is in the
world. He is big, brainy, liberal mind
ed broad American citizen, who has a
keen faculty of seeing farther than most
| men, and can grasp an opportunity when
there is one to grasp. This explains his
phenomenal success. Like Blaine and
Reed-both natives of the State of Maine
Ingalls, is q pusher. That state has
graduated men from it's rocky borders in
| to the pine forests and later into the Sen
ate Chamber at Washington. Ingalls,
came from the same school of sturdy men
but directed his energies to railroading,
rather than to politics and Craftsmanship,
yet his claims on the latter could not be
disputed.
| He was born at Harrison, Me-, in 1912; ;
so he is IS years of age. Before he was
half century old he was president of
! two railroad systems-the Big Four and
the G. & o. One system has about 24OO
mi loc Of mood. +bn otbop 2OO
| Mr.. Ingalls, returned from two-months
stay in Europe onWednesday, and arrived
in Cincinnati last evening. He has made
the transatlantic trip several times
This time he crossed over with J. Pier
pont Morgan, the multi-millionaire of
Gotham. Morgan has helped ingalls, won
derfully, but on the other hand ingalls,
has been of great assistance to Morgan
1t was the latter who wrested the G. g. o.
property, after Coils P. Huntington
let go of it, from bankruptcy, but it is
Ingalls, who has given the porperty such
stability among railroads. The G. &.
O., like the New York Central, is noted
for it's service and equipment. The
| cline of the Rhine, Battlefield and Alps
such is the way we see the G. &. o. ad-
vertised nowadays.
But this is DEPRESSING. Mr. Ingalls,
started out in life to be lawyer, dabbled
a little in State politics, and believe got
as far as the Massachusetts, State Legisla-
trre, when he had chance to come out
West to look after the interest of the
bondholders of the old 1. G.. & L. rail
road.
The line of road to Indianapolis via
| Lawrenceburg was built before the Civil
War, and during the conflict connected
| the Hoosier capital with the Queen City
of the West. 1t had a connection to La
| fayette over another property, but this
was gobbled up and score or more years
ago the indianapolis, Cincinnati & La
fayette road became a fact; but it was
owned in Boston and the directory was
in Cincinnati. After the war the heavy.
traffic fell off and President Henry Lord,
who came out here from the hills of New
Hampshire, was unable to hold his own.
Then it was that the bright, pushing
young lawyer, not long from Harvard,
was picked out, and he and w. T. Boaz
became the receivers, but Ingalls, soon
erty and was left solely in charge. The
| receivership was lifted and he became q
real live railway resident, but the finan-
cial load was yet too burdensome, so
another scaling down process became nee
essary, and he was for the second time
made receiver But the little Lawrence
burg line had grown. When the second
reorganization took place Mr.. ingalls,
called his 'pet' the Cincinnati Indian
apolis & Chicago Company-the original
tof the big -Four - stsa@
1t was called the f''Big Four because
four large cities were reached; then there
| is story that somebody called the new
company after the Big Four Minstrels
that were touring the country at the
time Whether this is so I cannot say
but the name proved popular enough to
stick. He made his mark at the head of
this company and attracted the attention
of the Vanderbilts, who We're interested
in the old ''Bee Line''-the Cleveland
Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis
and they took him under their wing
The upshot was the consolidation of this
company, together with the indianapolis
g. St. Louis Railway, and June %,
1889, the present name, Cleveland, Gin
cinnati & st. Louis Railway Company"
was organized. The original big Four
was still bigger, and had scooped in
Cleveland dropping from the name Indi-
annapolis. In 1880 certain leased lines
were merged into the system and the
stock of the Cincinnati Wabash & Mich
igan Company was bought. When Mr..
Ingalls, got things shaped up he built the
handsome office building on West Third
street and moved the general offices of
the new system to Cincinnati.
While Ingalls, was building up the Big
Four, Coils p. Huntington was manag-
ing the G.. & o., which for years termi-
mated at the Ohio River. the outlet west
being the river. But crooked way to
Cincinnati via Lexington, Ky, was Sc
cured and more direct con-
uactinn was made tn I.O1liSVilIe and aJsa.