The Coolidge examiner., 1931-03-27

things with the proper tools.
Thus Walter Chrysler, early in
life, developed the liking for me-
chanics that has aided him so
much in gaining such signal sue
cess later on in life.
He was born in western Kansas
In 1876. Wamego, typical prairie
hamlet, was his birthplace. His
father, an engineer for the Union
Pacific railroad, moved to Ellis,
nearby town, when Walter was a
little fellow.
The lad grew up there in the
atmosphere of engines and the din
of repair work, for the shops of
the Union Pacific were located at
Ellis. He would watch his father
start his run in the primitive loco
motives of half century ago. He
would be waiting for him on his
return from across the prairie.
The youngster aspired to follow
in the footsteps of his father and
become a first-class mechanic. He
inherited q liking for machinery
from his parent. The contacts
and associations of the railroad
center served to strengthen his in
clinations. He never thought seri-
Ously of following any career other
than a mechanical one.
The elder Chrysler piloted the
first coal burning locomotive owned
by the Union Pacific, which is in
dicatiOn enough that he was re-
garded as the pick of the engi-
neers on the road. His son came
naturally enough by his mechan-
ical bent, it would seem.
The Ellis roundhouse and shops
saw much of young Chrysler In
the time he could spare from
school.
During the summers he didn't
have so much time TO loiter around
the railroad shops. He worked for
grocer as an errand boy and
clerk in the vacation periods. His
earnings helped the family. Times
were none too good In Kansas in
those days.
When he was seventeen and had
received the best common school
education he could obtain in Ellis
he decided that it was high time
for him to begin to earn his own
living and TO acquire a trade.
He tried and passed an examin-
alton to become a machinist's ap-
prentice in the Ellis shops. He
had to make his own tools as he
went along. His kit. consisting of
assorted calipers, dividers, bal
anced hammers, test Indicator and
combination square, was all made
with his own hands, before he was
eighteen.
After a year in the shops he
was skilled enough to build
miniature steam locomotive. 1t
was complete in every detail. in
Guiding air brakes. He built
track in his back yard and gave
demonstrations of how the con-
trivance would run.
Tired as he was from a hard
days work in the shops the young
ster read magazines and books on
engineering subjects to round out
the practical knowledge he was
gaining as a machinist's helper.
At the end of four years of strict
application to his job he was earn
ing 221s cents an hour as first
class journeyman mechanic.
Then he got the itching foot
and decided to see something of
the country. He worked for a
time in western shops, finally set
tling in Salt Lake City where his
pay was 271s cents an hour. There
he repaired a locomotives blown
off cylinder head in two hours so
that it could pull out the fast mail
on schedule time.
This feat brought him the job
as foreman of the Colorado &
Southern shops in Trinidad, Colo.
Next he became superintendent Of
motive power for the Chicago &
Great Western. Still thirsting for
knowledge and a chance to broad
en- himself. he accepted the place
as manager of the American Loco
motive company in Pittsburgh.
He got his first chance in the
automobile business with the Buick
company, where he accepted a big
salary cut for the opportunity.
With him the prospects for the
future have always outweighed
immediate rewards. What he did
with Buick, General Motors, Will
lys Overland, Maxwell Chalmers
and his own product constitutes
one of the most outstanding
achievements in the automobile in
dustry.
Today his headquarters are in
New York, where his ancestor,
Tuenis Van Dolsen, was the first
male child born in the days when
the city was New Amsterdam. 1t
is a far cry from the sun-baked
prairies of Kansas to a position in
a leading industry and to offices
atop the highest building in the
metropolis, a structure that bears
his name.
But that is the place to which
the box of tools made by Walter
Chrysler, on his first job, helped
carry him. He still has the imple-
ments that started him on the path
to fame and fortune. Nor has he
forpotten how TO use them