Los Angeles County
Biographies
FREDERICK ALEXANDER WANN
WANN, FREDERICK
ALEXANDER, Railroads, Los Angeles, California,
was born at Market Hill, County Armagh,
Ireland, May 7, 1854, the
son of William Wann and Margaret (Mitchell) Wann. He married Carrie
Van Court, August 21, 1901, at Lemmington, England.
Mr. Wann is one of the men who has
risen gradually and consistently to a top position in the railroad world
through industry and rigid application to duty and through a thorough mastering
of the details of railroad operation. He
holds today a place among the great managers of railroads on the Pacific
Coast, and in the course of his career has held
offices of consequence on some of the most important railroad systems in the United
States.
His parents sent
him to the Royal School,
at Armagh, Ireland,
until 1868, when he was fourteen years old.
He then came to the United States. A few months later he was at Lawrence,
Kansas, a clerk in the office of the
General Superintendent of the Kansas Pacific Railroad.
Four years later,
in 1873, when he was only nineteen years old, he was offered, and accepted, the
position of Chief Clerk in the offices of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas
Railroad at Sedalia, Missouri, a position of responsibility.
Three years
later, in 1876, at the age of twenty-two, he was appointed the General Agent in
New York City of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, and was one of the
youngest men to ever hold a railroad position of such importance in the
country’s largest city.
He was offered
the office, in 1880, of General Agent for the Cleveland, Cincinnati,
Chicago and St. Louis Railway, known as the “Big Four,” at
St. Louis, Missouri, and after a
year he accepted the even more important position of Assistant General Freight
Agent of the Chicago and Alton Railroad at St. Louis. In the management of the freight department
of this system he remained for more than two decades, being advanced to the
post of General Freight Agent in 1896, with headquarters at Chicago.
After eight years
as General Freight Agent of the Chicago and Alton Railroad, he resigned to
accept the Vice Presidency of the C., H. & D.—Pere
Marquette system. He then took his place
among the big managers of railroads. He
resigned this post to retire to private life December 31, 1905. He made his home at Cape
Cod, Massachusetts.
He did not long
remain in retirement. He was sought out
by the new Clark enterprise, the San Pedro, Los Angeles
and Salt Lake Railroad, and offered the post of General Traffic Manager. He accepted and took up his headquarters at Los
Angeles, in December, 1906.
One of the chief
duties of his office was that of organization. The San Pedro, Los
Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad had just begun
operation and it was necessary to create traffic and to organize the necessary
machinery for its handling, as well as to attend to the necessary duties of
administration. For this duty he was
particularly chosen because of his long experience at the head of the freight
department of the Chicago & Alton
road.
Mr. Wann has, in the five years of his residence in Los
Angeles, become much interested in the activities of
the city, and his name is frequently seen connected with matters of public and
semi-public moment. He has been
especially interested in the development of Los Angeles
harbor at San Pedro, where lies the terminus of the San Pedro, Los
Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad.
In Los
Angeles he is a member of the California Club. He also belongs to the Illinois Athletic Club
of Chicago, the Alta Club of Salt Lake,
and the Commercial Club of the same city.
Transcribed 1-13-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 178,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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