Arthur Mellen Wellington (1847-1895)
Editor of 'Engineering News'
Born at Waltham, Mass., USA
1895 Obituary [1]
ARTHUR MELLEN WELLINGTON was born in Waltham, Mass., U.S.A., on the 20th of December, 1847. He was descended on his father’s side from an old New England family, which had resided on a rocky hillside farm in the town of Lexington, Mass., since the time of the early colonists.
He graduated at the Boston Latin School, and then, when only sixteen years old, began to study the profession by apprenticeship to a practising engineer.
From 1863 to 1866 he was an articled pupil in the office of Mr. John B. Henck, of Boston, well known to engineers as the author of 'Henck’s Field-Book.' His first work after leaving Mr. Henck’s office was an engagement in the engineering corps of the Brooklyn Park Department, under Mr. Frederick Law Olmstead, where he served as leveller and assistant engineer.
In 1868 he obtained his first post on railway work, a field in which he was to win enduring fame. This was on the Blue Ridge Railroad in South Carolina, where he remained for a year as transitman, having charge of a locating party. He then went to the Dutchess and Columbia Railroad in New York and for nearly a year served on that line as an assistant engineer. In 1870, when twenty-three years of age, he was placed in charge of a division of the Buffalo, New York and Philadelphia Railroad, and, notwithstanding his youth, he was soon advanced to the position of Principal Assistant.
After remaining with that Company two-and-a-half years, he became locating engineer of the Michigan Midland Railroad, and later was Engineer-in-Charge of the Toledo, Canada Southern and Detroit Railroad. . . . [more]