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William Barclay Parsons

William Barclay Parsons (April 15, 1859 – May 9, 1932) was an American civil engineer. He founded Parsons Brinckerhoff, one of the largest American civil engineering firms.

William Barclay Parsons
Born(1859-04-15)April 15, 1859
New York City, United States
DiedMay 9, 1932(1932-05-09) (aged 73)
New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materColumbia University
Spouse
Anna Dewitt Reed
​
(m. 1884)​
Parent(s)William Barclay Parsons
Eliza Glass Livingston
Engineering career
DisciplineCivil engineer
Practice nameParsons Brinckerhoff
ProjectsFirst subway in New York City, Cape Cod Canal
Signature

Personal life

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Parsons was the son of William Barclay Parsons (1828–1887)[1] and Eliza Glass Livingston Parsons (1831–1922).[2] His siblings included Schuyler (1852–1917), Harry (1862–1935), and George (1863–1939).[3][4] His maternal grandparents were Ann Eliza (née Hosie) Livingston (1805–1838) and Schuyler Livingston (1804–1861), a descendant of Walter Livingston[5] who ran a line of clipper ships from the New York harbor named Barclay & Livingston.[2] His paternal grandparents were William Burrington Parsons (1794–1869) and Anne Barclay Parsons (1788–1869).[6] He was the great-grandson of Henry Barclay, second Rector of Trinity Church in Manhattan.[5]

In 1871, he went to school in Torquay, England, and studied under private tutors for four years while traveling in France, Germany, and Italy.[7] He received a bachelor's degree from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1879, and a second from the Columbia School of Mines in 1882. He served as class president and president of the Philolexian Society, and he co-founded the Columbia Daily Spectator in 1877.[8] He later served as chairman of the university's board of trustees.[9]

Parsons married Anna Dewitt Reed (1858–1958) on May 20, 1884. (She was the daughter of Rev. Sylvanus Reed (1821–1870) and Caroline Gallup Reed (1821–1914).[5] Her brother Sylvanus was the aerospace engineer who developed the modern metal aircraft propeller.)[10] Their children were Sylvia (1885–1962), who married Rudolph Weld (1883–1941)[11] in 1908,[12] and William (1888–1973),[13] who married Rose Peabody (1891–1985), daughter of Endicott Peabody (1857–1944).[14]

Parsons died on May 9, 1932, in New York City.[9]

Career

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Lieutenant Colonel Parsons in France, October 1918.

Parsons worked for the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad from 1882 through 1885. He wrote Turnouts; Exact Formulae for Their Determination (1884) and Track, A Complete Manual of Maintenance of Way (1886) which both addressed railroad problems, and this interest in rail transportation continued throughout his life.[15]

Parsons designed the Cape Cod Canal as Chief Engineer. He was also Chief Engineer of the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners[16] and was responsible for the construction of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) subway line.[17][18] He left New York in October 1886 to serve as Chief Engineer for the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad, although he retained his affiliation with the District Railway Company. In 1887, he became the Chief Engineer and General Manager of the Denver Railroad and Land and Coal Company. He returned to New York in 1891 upon the completion of these railway projects and a number of water-work ventures in Mississippi.[19]

Parsons was appointed to the Isthmian Canal Commission in 1904 by President Theodore Roosevelt.[9] He was also appointed to the advisory board which provided technical advice to the Royal Commission on London Traffic in 1904, along with Sir Benjamin Baker and Sir John Wolfe-Barry, both British civil engineers.[20] In early 1905, he traveled to Panama as a member of the committee of engineers which favored a sea-level canal.

  • Parsons was the Colonel of the 11th Engineers of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in France during World War I.[21] He was with a team of engineers in Battle of Cambrai that was suddenly attacked by Germans while making railroad repairs; the engineers fought back with picks and shovels. He was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal for "specially meritorious services" and received decorations from Great Britain, France, Belgium, and the state of New York.[22] The citation for his Army DSM reads:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Colonel (Corps of Engineers) William Barclay Parsons, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I, as Major, 11th Engineers (Railway), during its organization and training period, Chairman of Engineering Railway Commission sent overseas to investigate and report upon railway conditions in France; Lieutenant Colonel and then Colonel, 11th Engineers, during its combat operations. By his wide experience, sound judgment, and brilliant professional and technical attainments, Colonel Parsons handled many difficult problems which confronted him with conspicuous success, thereby rendering services of great value to the American Expeditionary Forces.[23]

Publications

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  • An American Engineer in China (1900)
  • "The American Engineers in France. 1920.
  • Engineers and Engineering of the Renaissance (1939)
  • Robert Fulton and the Submarine. 1922.
  • Track, a complete manual of maintenance of way. 1886.
  • Turnouts: exact formulae for their determination, together with practical and accurate tables for use in the field. (1884). ISBN 978-1-141-46307-7.

References

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  1. ^ "Obituary Notes". The New York Times. January 1, 1888. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Mrs. Eliza Parsons Dead. Member of One of the Oldest New York Families Dies at 91". The New York Times. November 5, 1922. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  3. ^ "MRS. PARSONS LEAVES ESTATE TO RELATIVES; Property Divided Among Children and Grandchildren--$15,000 to an Employe". The New York Times. November 17, 1922. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  4. ^ Moffat, R. Burnham (1904). The Barclays of New York: Who They Are and Who They Are Not, – And Some Other Barclays. R. G. Cooke. p. 128. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1316. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  6. ^ Browning, Charles Henry (1898). The Magna Charta Barons and Their American Descendants with the Pedigrees of the Founders of the Order of Runnemede Deduced from the Sureties for the Enforcement of the Statutes of the Magna Charta of King John. Philadelphia. p. 326. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  7. ^ Dictionary of American Biography. Volume VII, Page 276.
  8. ^ "William Barclay Persons". Columbia University. Retrieved April 14, 2014.
  9. ^ a b c "WILLIAM BARCLAY PARSONS". The New York Times. May 10, 1932. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  10. ^ Roger Ward (December 1958). "The Propeller Pioneer". Flying Magazine.
  11. ^ "R. WELD KILLED IN AUTO; Retired Boston Cotton Merchant Victim of Accident". The New York Times. August 28, 1941. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  12. ^ "MISS PARSONS TO WED RUDOLPH WELD; Bride-Elect, a Daughter of the Civil Engineer, Has Been Presented at the British Court. WEDDING IN THE AUTUMN Bridegroom a Member of Well-Known Boston Family and Graduate of Harvard, 1905". The New York Times. March 7, 1908. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  13. ^ "WILLIAM PARSONS, SURGEON, 84, DIES". The New York Times. January 3, 1973. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  14. ^ "ROSE PEABODY PARSONS". The New York Times. April 6, 1985. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  15. ^ Dictionary of American Biography. Volume VII, Page 276.
  16. ^ "WILLIAM BARCLAY PARSONS". The New York Times. December 2, 1904. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  17. ^ Parsons Brinkerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc., "The Man Who Planned the Subway: William Barclay Parsons and the New York IRT", 1980 (PB Communications).
  18. ^ Parsons, Robert Barclay (October 27, 1929). "TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF THE NEW YORK SUBWAY; Bitterly Assailed at the Outset, the Ever-Growing System Has in That Period Replaced the Old City With an Entirely New One". The New York Times. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  19. ^ "Historic American Engineering Record, Interborough Rapid Transit Subway" (PDF). National Park Service. p. 208. Archived (PDF) from the original on November 14, 2015.   This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  20. ^ Dictionary of American Biography. Volume VII, Page 277.
  21. ^ "FORM WAR RESERVE OF CIVIL ENGINEERS; Leaders of Profession Co-operating with General Staff in the Movement. A BILL NOW IN CONGRESS Measure Provides for Commissions, Special Military Training, and Making Men Subject to Call". The New York Times. March 19, 1916. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  22. ^ Dictionary of American Biography. Volume VII, Page 277.
  23. ^ "Valor awards for William Barclay Parsons". Military Times.
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