1. Stillman Witt was an American railroad and steel industry executive best known for building the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad, Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad, and the Bellefontaine and Indiana Railroad.
65 Facts About Stillman Witt
1. 2.
Stillman Witt was one of the founding investors in the Cleveland Rolling Mill, a major steel firm in the United States.
3.
Stillman Witt's family was poor, and he had little education.
4.
The Witts moved to Troy, New York, when Stillman was 13 years old.
5.
John Stillman Witt ran a tavern on the halfway point between Troy and Albany, New York.
6.
Stillman Witt obtained a job earning $10 a month paddling a skiff ferry across the Hudson River.
7.
Stillman Witt went to work as paymaster for the Cohoes Company, although the date of his arrival is not known.
8.
Some sources claim that Stillman Witt helped to construct the dam and the six power canals, as well as platted the emerging village of Cohoes.
9.
Stillman Witt then went to work as a paymaster and engineer for the Juniata Bridge Company on the Clark's Ferry Bridge in Duncannon, Pennsylvania.
10.
Stillman Witt then traveled to Kentucky, where he was to work on the Louisville and Portland Canal.
11.
Two sources say Stillman Witt spent 18 months there, but did not finish the work and so returned to Albany.
12.
The New York Times said Stillman Witt completed work on the canal and then returned to Albany.
13.
Joblin says that Stillman Witt first captained the James Farley, a steamboat on the Erie Canal, for an unspecified period of time.
14.
Stillman Witt then captained the Hudson River steamboat Novelty for two or three years, before being hired as a manager by the Hudson River Steamboat Association.
15.
About 1840 or 1841, Stillman Witt took a managerial position with the Western Railroad.
16.
Whatever the scope of his duties, sources agree that Stillman Witt was stationed at Albany, and during his tenure oversaw the construction of the depot at East Greenbush.
17.
Stillman Witt worked with Amasa Stone, who at that time was active constructing railroad bridges throughout New England.
18.
Harbach, Stone, and Stillman Witt agreed to take a portion of their pay in the form of stock in the railroad.
19.
Stillman Witt was elected vice president of the firm as well in June 1863, a position he held until 1868.
20.
Stillman Witt was elected a director and vice president of the new company, a position he held until his death in 1875.
21.
Stillman Witt next became involved with the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad.
22.
Stillman Witt was elected vice president of the company as well in 1859, and held that position 1868.
23.
Stillman Witt was elected a director of the new company, a position he held until his death in 1875.
24.
In 1849, Harbach, Stone, and Stillman Witt won a contract to build the Bellefontaine and Indiana Railroad.
25.
Stillman Witt was named to the board's executive committee in 1861 and 1862.
26.
Stillman Witt encouraged Brough to run for Governor of Ohio in 1864.
27.
Frederick Harbach died of a heart attack in February 1851, but Stone and Stillman Witt kept the construction firm going.
28.
In December 1853, Stone and Stillman Witt won a contract from the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad to build a 44.6 miles line from Chicago to the Illinois-Wisconsin border.
29.
In 1868, Stillman Witt was elected a director of both the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad and the Indianapolis and St Louis Railroad.
30.
Stillman Witt was elected president of the Valley Railway in 1874, and was still serving in this position at the time of his death the following year.
31.
Stillman Witt was elected a director of Cleveland's Bank of Commerce in 1859.
32.
Stillman Witt held that position through 1863, when the bank reorganized as the First National Bank of Cleveland.
33.
Stillman Witt was elected to the new bank's board of directors.
34.
Stillman Witt held this position until 1868, when it merged with the Second National Bank in 1868.
35.
Stillman Witt, who had been a director of the Second National Bank since 1866, Stillman Witt was elected a director of the merged bank in 1873.
36.
Stillman Witt was elected a vice president of the Society for Savings, one of Cleveland's biggest banks, in 1867, and a director of the Commercial National Bank in 1879 and 1873.
37.
Stillman Witt now owned the equivalent of 5 percent of the entire outstanding stock of Standard Oil.
38.
Stillman Witt continued to play a role in aiding Standard Oil financially.
39.
Stillman Witt had financial interests in the iron and steel industry.
40.
Stillman Witt co-founded and was the first president of the Sun Insurance Company.
41.
Stillman Witt was still president at the time of his death.
42.
Stillman Witt co-founded the Protestant Home for the Friendless Stranger in Cleveland in 1852, and served as its president in 1866.
43.
Stillman Witt was elected a national lay director of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in 1869, and built Idaka Chapel in 1874 for use as a missionary church by First Baptist Church of Cleveland.
44.
Stillman Witt co-founded in 1854 and served on the first board of directors of the Cleveland Female Seminary, a school for girls and young women.
45.
Stillman Witt served on the board of directors for the secular Cleveland Orphan Asylum in 1858 and as one of its trustees in 1867.
46.
Stillman Witt served as a trustee of the Ohio State Institution for the Blind from 1865 to 1870, and was one of the largest donors to the Cleveland Charity Hospital when it was founded in July 1865.
47.
Stillman Witt served as a founding member of the Cuyahoga County Military Committee, which formed in 1863 to help recruit volunteers to fight for the Union during the American Civil War.
48.
Stillman Witt served as treasurer of a committee which raised funds for needy soldiers' families.
49.
Stillman Witt's service found national expression when he was elected an associate member of the United States Sanitary Commission in 1861.
50.
Stillman Witt was so well-respected that he was appointed an honorary pallbearer for the coffin of Abraham Lincoln when Lincoln's remains were transported through Cleveland on their way to Illinois in April 1865.
51.
Stillman Witt became friendly with a number of President Lincoln's associates through his Sanitary Commission work as well.
52.
In 1869, Witt discovered that former Secretary of War Edwin M Stanton was impoverished after leaving the federal government.
53.
Stillman Witt quietly gave Stanton $5,000 to lift his family out of poverty.
54.
Stillman Witt was one of the major original investors in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery when that organization was first founded in 1869.
55.
Stillman Witt was elected to the Lake View Cemetery Association's first board of trustees in 1870.
56.
About 1871, Stillman Witt fell ill with rheumatism.
57.
Stillman Witt traveled to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1873 to seek relief, and appeared to recover.
58.
Stillman Witt was thrown from his deck chair by a sudden wave, and injured his head.
59.
Stillman Witt's death caused widespread mourning in Cleveland, where he had an immense reputation for integrity and management.
60.
Stillman Witt's death was "a public calamity", the Cleveland Leader newspaper declared.
61.
Stillman Witt was interred at Albany Rural Cemetery near Albany, New York.
62.
Stillman Witt left a fortune worth $3 million to his wife and daughters.
63.
About 1851 or 1852, Stillman Witt built a mansion for his family at what is 1115 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.
64.
Stillman Witt's home helped cement Euclid Avenue's reputation as a location for the wealthy to build their homes, and extended the enclave's boundaries.
65.
In 1869, Stillman Witt purchased for $5,000 a house and lot at 16 Walnut Street, and donated these to the Young Women's Christian Association as a boarding home for single, unwed mothers.