Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-09

of credit for his generalship.
He owns large farm at Lyndonvile, VT,
and there he makes his home. In the town
of Lyndon he has established an agricultural
school which is one of the influential agencies
of agricultural progress in the Green Noun
tain State. There are several similar schools
in Vermont, conducted under State auspices,
but none is better equipped or more largely
attended. He furnishes the money, the
plant, the land-but not Eratutously, for the
boys pay for what they get, as they should.
Vail is also a generous supporter of Lyndon
Institute, a preparatory school with which
the agricultural school is affiliated. So when
Vail talks of rural progress he talks as a
man who is actively engaged in helping
things along.
When telephone stock was considered more
of a speculation than an investment when
folks were discussing the feasibility of the
present days greatest business necessity,
and few could see the future of Prof Alex
andcr Graham Bells great invention, Theo-
dore Newton Vail was one of the men who
had the faith to devote his entire time to
the work of promoting the enterprise. Mr..
Vail is one of the original telephone men
of the country. He left the position of
General Superintendent of Railway Mail
Service in Washington. which he had largely
developed, and became the general manager
of the original telephone operating company,
and continued in the full management OF
this company and successfully the National
Bell Telephone Company the American Bell
Telephone Company, and the American Tele-
phone and Telegraph Company of which he
was the first president
Starts Out as Telegrapher
Mr., Vail was born in Ohio, July 16, 1885,
the son Of David r. and Phoebe (Quimby)
Vail. His paternal ancestors were English
Quakers some of whom We're among the
pilgrims who came early to this country and
settled in Massachusetts. Branches of the
family later drifted to Westchester County,
New York, and then to Morris County, New
Jersey, where the ninth generation is now
living. Mr. Wallis mothers people were
Dutch and French, and were among the early
settlers in New York and New Jersey. AS a
boy Mr.. Vail attended the Morristown common
school and then the Morristown Academy.
He then studied medicine for a while and
gave that up to learn telegraphy. He had a
position as an operator in New York for a
while and was then sent west of the Mis-
souri, River to work for the Union Pacific
Railroad.
After working with the early organization
of the business affairs of the telephone in
dustry, Mr., Vail left active participation !
in the business for several years in order |
that he might attend to railway and cleo
trical enterprises i'm Europe and South |
America. He established the electric street
railway system of Buenos Aires, the Argen-
tine Republic, and developed power trans
mission In several other neghboring States.
He invested heavily in these enterprises, and
after he had developed them to a high degree
OF success, disposed OF all of his interests
to South American and European capitalists.
Mr.. Vail never relinquished his interests in
the telephone business, and after giving up
the South American railway enterprises in
1907, he again took the position Of president
Of the American Telephone and Telegraph
Company. which position carries with it the
presidency of almost every subsidiary com
pany in the country. Mr., Vail is today, with
out doubt, the foremost telephone man in
the world
Years ago Vail was factor in the develop-
ment OF the railway mail service In 1859
through the friendship OF General Grenville
n, Dodge, chief engineer Of the Union Paeihc.
Nail was appointed q clerk in the railway