Sacramento County
Biographies
GEORGE
ALLEN STODDARD
GEORGE ALLEN
STODDARD, mechanical engineer and draughtsman at the shops of the Southern
Pacific Company at Sacramento, who has been intimately connected with the
development of the mechanical department of the company from its infancy, was born
at Brattleboro, Vermont, in November,1833. His father was a well-to-do farmer, of Scotch
ancestry, his mother being of English descent.
He graduated at the high school in his sixteenth year, and after one
season on a farm and a term in the academy, he, in the fall of 1850, entered a
machine shop at Hinsdale, New Hampshire; but when only a few months at work he
received an injury that disabled him for manual labor. He at once went to teaching school until he
was able to return to the shop and finish his first year, for which the wages
were $5 a month and board. He then entered a shop at Brattelboro,
as he could see a wider range for improvement.
Here he remained for fifteen months, and then turned his attention to
railroad work, in February, 1853, entering the shops of the Connecticut River
Railroad at Northhampton, Massachusetts, under Master
Mechanic John Mulligan, at $1 a day, which during the following year was
increased to $1.50, the full wages for journeymen. Mr. Mulligan seeing that young Stoddard was
ambitious and willing to work, and finding him good at figures and general
mechanics, took great interest in him.
The shop had no draughtsman, but needed one. Mr. Mulligan, to test the young man’s
ability, requested him to make designs for changes in the engine Springfield,
which it was desired to rebuild. This he
did at his home evenings, and the plans were submitted to the president of the
road, which after thorough examination he returned approved. Stoddard was at once installed as draughtsman,
a position he retained and filled satisfactorily until 1860, going on the road
for a while, in order to study practically the workings of the “great iron
horse.” He had been making the working
plans for the company for about a year before ever having any instruction in
drawing, when by the advice of the master mechanic he attended night school,
under a most excellent designer. In
June, 1860, he decided to come to California, influenced mostly by the rigorous
climate of New England. Accordingly, in
company with S. H. Gerrish, one of his shop-mates, he
sailed from New York on the steamer Northern Light crossed the Isthmus on the
railroad, came up the coast on the Sonora, landing in San Francisco on the 28th
of June, and on the 30th went to work for E. T. Steen in a machine
shop, who induced him after a time to accept a position as engineer in charge
of the machinery for a quartz mill in which he was interested, to be erected
near Virginia city, Nevada. After seeing
this in working order he engaged in a similar capacity for a mill company at
Gold Hill, where he remained until the summer of 1865, when he became
interested in a ranch and mining operation in Calaveras County,
California. Learning that an old friend
of his—I. H. Graves—was master mechanic of the Central Pacific Railroad Works
at Sacramento, he on the 9th of June, 1866, engaged at the company’s
shops, which at that time comprised only a few rough shed-like buildings, with
no machinery. His first work was to put up an engine and shafting and get
machine tools at work, which the company had then lying at the wharf. He worked in the machinery department for
about two years, setting up and running the various tools required in the work. Then he became draughtsman, when A. J.
Stevens, in 1870, took the position and was for several years alone in the
office doing the entire work; but the demands so increased as to require at
times from one to three assistants.
There have been constructed at the works, all from original designs
under his supervision, ten or twelve different types of locomotives complete,
besides a large portion of the working apparatus in the shops here. The boilers and entire machinery for the two
river boats Modoc and Apache, also for the ferry boat Piedmont, running between
Oakland and San Francisco, having cylinders 57 inches diameter and 14 feet
stroke, nearly horizontal, being so placed to leave deck clear of
machinery. New boilers have been
designed for nearly all of the boats used by the company. Another branch of the business has required
and received a great deal of attention, that is, the rolling-mill. In the spring of 1876 Mr. Stevens strongly
urged the construction of a mill, and was finally allowed to have a small
experimental one designed and put in operation.
It was located in the blacksmith shop, in charge of Stephen Uren, and
proved a great success, saving the company many thousands of dollars. In 1879 a more complete plant was designed,
the one now in operation, the entire designs being executed personally by Mr.
Stoddard, his own hand making every figure and line. One singular fact connected therewith may be
noted, namely, this was the first rolling-mill machinery ever seen by him, he
working out the plans on general mechanical principles, advising with Stevens
and Uren, neither of whom, however, had had any practical experience in that
direction. It may well be considered a
success, as it has been steadily at work, a great portion of the time night and
day, since erected, turning out more than 10,000 tons a year. In his political views Mr. Stoddard is a
Republican, and he is a Mason and Odd Fellow of long standing, an amateur photograper, and something of a telegraph operator. He has, of course, like most Californians,
been more or less interested in mining operations and “has bought a farm.” He was married in 1879 to Mrs. Lucy C. H. Noyes, nee Hazelton, a
native of Strafford, Vermont, and daughter of Deacon Thomas and Sylvia (Kibling) Hazelton.
The Hazeltons emigrated from England. The grandmother Kibling
was Sarah Cooledge (before marriage), a native of
Ashburnham, Massachusetts, a relation to the well know Cooledge
family of Boston, Massachusetts. She
lived to be ninety-eight years old. She
lived to see the fifth generation, and at her death had 103 descendants. Mrs. Stoddard’s father’s family consisted of
six sons and six daughters. She has
three sisters and two brothers residing in Stafford, Vermont; one sister
married Amos Morrill, of Vermont. Two
Brothers and one sister live in Barnett, Vermont. H. J. Hazelton, M. D., a brother, has been a
practicing physician there over twenty years.
The sister married John S. T. Wallace, a merchant at Elkhart, Indiana. She has two children living by her former
marriage. Charles T. Noyes, the eldest,
is a mechanical engineer, at work in the office with Mr. Stoddard. The youngest, Frederick B. Noyes, resides in Nicolaus, California.
Mrs. Stoddard came to California in 1875. In 1876 she called a meeting and helped to
organize the first “Christian Temperance Union” on the Pacific coast. In 1879 she was elected on the Board of
Managers of the Protestant Orphan Asylum; was one of the charter members of the
Fair Oaks Relief Corps, and is an earnest worker in missionary work. She was secretary of the Woman’s Board of
Missions (Sacramento auxiliary), for eight years; in 1888 was elected president
of the same; also president of the “Central Committee” (auxiliary to the Young
Men’s Christian Association; to the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and the
“Woman’s Aid Society,”—all the same year.
She has been a member of the Congregational Church nearly thirty years,
a teacher in the Sunday-school twenty-five years, where she still remains an
earnest worker. Truly it can be said of
her, “She hath done what she could.”
Transcribed by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An
Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 551-553. Lewis Publishing
Company. 1890.
© 2006
Karen Pratt.