Los Angeles County
Biographies
JAMES A. CASHION
CASHION, JAMES A., Railroad Builder, Los Angeles, California, was born in Glengarry County Dominion of Canada, May 13, 1860, his parents being sturdy representatives of the Canadian type. His father was Daniel Cashion and his mother Jane (Burton) Cashion. He married Jessie McDonnell at Ventura, California, December 24, 1900, and to them there have been born two children, Jean Elizabeth and James Angus Cashion.
Mr. Cashion attended the common schools of his native county and remained in Canada until he was 19 years old, at which time he went to Kansas. Kansas at that period was in the midst of great railraod construction and Mr. Cashion embarked in that business, which he has followed ever since and in which he is now engaged.
Starting in 1879 as a mule driver in a construction camp, he learned the business with such rapidity he was made a foreman in six months. From that time on his life has been one of hard work and progress, until today, with thousands of miles of railroad attesting his ability, the name of Cashion is known from the Missouri to the Pacific.
Mr. Cashion’s field of operations has been in Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Old Mexico, and during this time some of the largest railroad construction enterprises, especially in Old Mexico, have been successfully concluded under his direction and supervision.
In 1886 Mr. Cashion was superintendent of construction for Grant & McDonald on the line from Arkansas City, Kansas down into the Indian Territory, through that section on which Guthrie and other thriving towns now stand. At that time there were no towns in that barren country and the stations were named as the road was built. This was one of Mr. Cashion’s earliest successes and was followed by numerous others during the next fifteen years.
Mr. Cashion began his important Arizona activities in 1901, by which time he had become vice president, general manager and one of the principal owners of the Grant Brothers Construction Company. His first road there was the Prescott & Eastern, running from Mayer to Crown King, with a branch to Poland. This was attended with great difficulty, the route passing through a particularly rough stretch of country. About the time this line was completed Mr. Cashion began the construction of the Phoenix & Eastern (now the Arizona & Eastern), extending 100 miles from Phoenix to Winkelman. This was completed in 1903.
The Arizona & California Road, running from Wickenburg to Parker, on the Colorado River, a distance of 108 miles, was the next one completed, in 1905. This was an unusually strenuous period for Mr. Cashion, for about that same time he built the Rio Puerco cut-off from Belen to Del Rio, in New Mexico, and the Arizona Southern Road from Red Rock to Silver Bell, in Arizona.
As the three operations mentioned above were nearing completion Mr. Cashion invaded Old Mexico for the Southern Pacific Company, and there for the last six years or more has been at work carving ways through the rough country of the Republic to the south. In that comparatively short period of time he has constructed more than 1000 miles, and many miles of it have been through solid rock, necessitating, in addition to difficult grading, the building of numerous tunnels.
His first road in Mexico was that reaching from Nogales to Cananea, and was followed by the building of the line from Corral, in the State of Sonora, up the Yaqui River to Tonichi. This is 100 miles long, through a wild, rocky canyon. Another hard piece of construction was that from Nocozari to Montezuma.
The most notable line, however, built in Mexico by Mr. Cashion is the 800 miles from Corral to Tepic, running through parts of the States of Sonora, Sinaloa and the Territory of Tepic, with branches extending from Navajoa to Alamos and from Quila to El Dorado, in the sugar region. Mr. Cashion has also built hundreds of miles of railroad in the States of California and Colorado.
He is today, and has been for years, vice president and general manager of the Grant Brothers Construction Company, of Los Angeles, and is also vice president and a director of the Hibernian Savings bank of that city.
Aside from his construction enterprises and banking interests, Mr. Cashion is a heavy land-holder in the famous Salt River Valley of Arizona, where his ranches, of the finest soil in the valley, are pointed out as models. These ranches are stocked with the best horses, mules and cattle in that section of the Great Southwest.
Mr. Cashion’s only lodge affiliation is the B.P.O. Elks and he is a life member of the Los Angeles Lodge, No. 99.
Transcribed 5-20-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 272,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES