Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1902-02-08
John Sheridan.

He had been i'll but a short time, the
last few days in the hospital.
The remains We're brought the same
day to his home, rested one night, and
Wednesday afternoon laid i'll the West
ernport cemetery.
Capt Sheridan was born in Mt. Savage
October 81, 1915, and was therefore
few months past IS years of age.
With some military experience, OBJ
tanned during the close of the civil war
era he learned the value of systematic
obedience as prerequisite to success i'll
the higher rate of systematic command.
The first position of trust accorded to
him was that of conductor of the passen-
ger train of the Cumberland and Penn
sylvania railroad. Soon outgrOwing this.
he became superintendent of the Allan
tic Coal company's operations, thence
rising to partnership and direction i'll
the Black, Sheridan, Wilson company.
In business way his progress was ag
gressively upward. On the day within
which he died he was associated in an
executive or directory capacity with no
less than twelve great industrial and
financial corporations whose interests i'll
Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia,
considered together, mount high into
the millions.
During the time he resided in Pied
mont, West Va, Miss Mary f. Downey,
lady of surprising social and intellec-
tual accomplishments, became his wife.
She, with two daughters Misses Kath-
leen and Amy, survives.
1t has been made plain already that
Capt Sheridan was man of much more
than ordinary financial ability. He had
in pre-eminent sense the tact of inves
tigation, the art Of development, and the
foresight which discerns success. So
true to life is this portraiture of his ma
tive endowments that it is to be doubted
whether he ever felt impelled to aban-
don an enterprise once undertaken.
Like Midas, everything he touched
turned to gold in his hands.
That he was an eXacting disciplinarian
there is no doubt. That he was COM
PEELED to be by both an overshadowing
and underlying environment is no less
true No employer of diversified labor
knows better than did he that the man
who loses to any alien interest the con-
troll of his own property, or business
operations, or both, no matter how large
or small, is failure foredoomed and
fOregone.
Yet he was kindly at heart, and to the
many who had gained even standing
room within its wide portals he was gen
erous to fault. In hundreds Of i'll
stances wherein operating regulations
seemed harsh and indiscriminating, it
was because his was but one of many
voices. With all his great interest in
this mining field, his was but fraction
of control that, to be effective, must be
united. However much he may have
been impressed by the weight, affected
by the force or touched by the tone of
grievance, he could not yield when the
consensus of the whole regions proprie-
tary is a unit of solidarity against the ell
of concession that may return i'll IA yard
of additional demand. In a word, he
was loyal to his sense of right i'll the
premises, often, often, often deploring
exigencies which seemed to set him i'll a
false attitude toward real labor.
Capt. Sheridan was all active, forceful,
influential factor in democratic politics
For four years he was national COM
mitteeman for West Virginia, retiring
at Chicago in 1896 because he could not
follow his party into the sage-brush
wilds of free coinage. Even though the
West Virginia delegation was a unit for
free coinage, it was not unanimously in
favor of Sheridan's retirement. 1t was
an eloquent crowd, but its strongest
orator was whole-souled Sheridan
man; and there We're others.
President Cleveland appointed Capt.
Sheridan to succeed Gen. FitZhugh Lee
as a director on the part of the United
States of the Union Pacific railroad, and
partly under his oversight the govern
ment's interest in that great link of
trans-continental thoroughfare was sold
several years ago for sum over IL mil
lions of dollars.
Socially the captain was ii member of
the royal society of good fellowship, and,
born under star whose benign ray shed
fortune upon his career, he was able to
make himself sought at home and abroad.
As host OF companion he was alike hos
pitable and entertaining, and wherever
or whenever opportunity deserving char
ity appeared he was free-hearted and
open handed.
He spent much time in reading, de-
lighting i'll the literature of human
prowess and achievement. Great mill
tary campaigns and desperate battles
entertained him, and from the strategies
of pre-eminent generalship he acquired
facts, arts and sleights which, applied to
his own dealings with business obstacles
and antagonisms, made himself an actu-
al captain of industry"
Endowed with keen sense of humor
"a temperament which came over the
Al II 4 e L.. E. IL.