Henry
Brockholst Ledyard
Dear Fellow MISSAR Compatriots
I am sure that most of you know that on January 18, 1890, Henry B. Ledyard
was elected as the first president of our MISSAR. This article as written
gives you a better feel for the people who where instrumental in developing
the foundation for our organization of today. Wes
Henry Brockholst Ledyard, railroad executive, regarded as one of the ablest
masters of transportation of his time, was a representative of a distinguished
American family. He was born in the American embassy in Paris, France, February
20, 1844, a son of Henry and Matilda (Cass) Ledyard and a brother of Lewis Cass
Ledyard, a distinguished New York lawyer. His grandfather, General Lewis Cass,
was perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of Michigan. His
great-grandfather, William Livingston, was a member of the continental congress
and at one time governor or New Jersey, while his great-great-grandfather,
Philip Livingston, was the second lord of the Manor of Livingston. At the time
of the birth of Henry B. Ledyard, his grandfather, General Cass, was United
States minister to France and his father, Henry Ledyard, was serving as
secretary of the legation in Paris. Returning to Detroit, he became an alderman
of the city, serving in 1849 and 1850, and for six years he was a member of the
first board of water commissioners, while in 1855 he filled the office of mayor
of Detroit.
In pursing his education Henry B. Ledyard became a pupil in the select school
for boys conducted by Washington A. Bacon, in Detroit and later he was appointed
a cadet at large to the United States Military Academy at West Point by
President Buchanan, at which time his grandfather, General Cass, was serving as
secretary of state in the president’s cabinet. On the day of his graduation from
the United States Military Academy in 1865, Henry B. Ledyard was presented with
two commissions, second and first lieutenant, and was assigned to duty with the
Nineteenth Infantry, with which he served successively as quartermaster, brigade
quartermaster and chief of the commissary officers of the department of
Arkansas. Subsequently he was transferred to the 37th Infantry as quartermaster
and later to the 4th Artillery and was detailed chief of subsistence on the
staff of General Hancock of the department of Missouri. He was in the field in
active warfare against the Indians in 1867 and for a year was assistant
professor of French at West Point. On the reorganization of the army in 1870, at
which time its numbers were materially reduced, he acted on the advice of
General Sherman and obtained a six months leave of absence in order to turn his
attention to railroading. He became connected with the engineering department of
the Northern Pacific Railroad, then under construction, but in the same year
became a clerk in the operating department of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
Railroad. Finding this a congenial field and one which he believed would offer
him opportunity for advancement in the future, he resigned his army commission.
He made rapid progress, for within two years he was assistant superintendent of
the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and in the following year was made
superintendent of the eastern division. In 1874 he was appointed assistant to
William B. Strong, who had become general superintendent of the Michigan Central
Railroad Company, and in the following year Mr. Ledyard was made chief engineer
as well as assistant general superintendent. Two years later he succeeded Mr.
Strong as general superintendent and the following year was advanced to the
position of general manager. The Michigan Central at this time was credited with
being little better than a third-class road and had a floating indebtedness of a
million and a half dollars. Its roadbed, train equipment and buildings were in
poor shape and its future outlook was none too bright. A few years later the
Vanderbilt interests acquired control of the road and William H. Vanderbilt
succeeded to the presidency of the company. It was Mr. Ledyard’s idea to keep
away from bond issuing and stock-jobbing, which policies were acceptable to the
new owners of the road, and he was given permission to carry out his personal
plans and ideas. In 1883 he succeeded to the presidency of the Michigan Central,
becoming one of the first of the younger railroad executives to accept the
Newman theory of doubling the capacity of cars and having longer trains pulled
by more powerful locomotives, thus reducing the cost of freight transportation.
In accord with his policy Mr. Ledyard proceeded to demolish every steel railroad
bridge in the eastern division and rebuilt scores of miles of trackage and
roadbed, eliminating the curves and steep grades as far as possible. When the
reconstruction work was completed the company was operating freight trains of
eighty cars as against its former maximum of thirty, and the capacity of these
cars had been doubled. The entire cost of this work was paid from the earnings.
It was then that Mr. Ledyard entered upon a campaign to create new business for
the road and stated to a friend: “I came to the conclusion that to get new
business we must provide facilities for men to make new business profitable, to
encourage manufacturers to build on our lines by giving them shipping facilities
as good as they could get in any other center.” Under his supervision six miles
of terminals were built at Riv3er Route before a single industrial plant was
located in that district. “Service to all” became his slogan in railroad
management and, moreover, his West Point training provided valuable, for he
insisted upon the cardinal principle of obedience, never countenanced
carelessness and met incompetency by summary dismissal. He always treated his
subordinates with candor and respect but never with familiarity. He continued to
build and acquired terminals in Detroit until his road was able to show more
manufacturing plants on its terminals that all other Detroit roads combined. In
1916 he purchased the Detroit Belt Line Railroad bordered by scores of large
factories, including the works of the Ford Motor Company. He found ready
solution for intricate business problems and his plans at all times practical,
far-reaching and resultant. When the passenger station in Detroit was destroyed
by fire, within two hours he was running trains out of the new station which was
then being built but which lacked two months of completion. He always recognized
merit, faithfulness and ability upon the part of his employees and was ready to
accord promotion as opportunity offered. He remained the chief executive of the
road until 1905, when he resigned the presidency but became chairman of the
board. General Rufus Ingalls, quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac, said of
him: “In an emergency he could run a dozen railroads and provision five armies
at a time”. While his attention was chiefly concentrated upon the development of
railway interests, he was at one time president and afterward chairman of the
board of the Union Trust Company and a director of the Peoples State Bank of
Detroit.
On the 15th of October, 1867, Mr. Ledyard was united in marriage to Miss Mary
L’Hommedieu, a daughter of Stephen L’Hommedieu of Cincinnati, who promoted and
was president of the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad for a quarter of a
century. Mrs. Ledyard died March 30, 1895, survived by four children: Matilda
Cass, who was married in 1897 to Baron von Ketteler of Berlin, Germany, who at
the time was German minister to Mexico and afterward minister to China, where he
was murdered in the Boxer uprising in Pekin in 1900; Henry, an able attorney of
Detroit; Augustus Canfield, who was killed in action in the Philippines while
serving as first lieutenant of the Sixth United States Infantry December 6,
1899; and Hugh, formerly secretary and treasurer of the Art Stove Company of
Detroit.
The family circle was again broken by the hand of death when the father, Henry
B. Ledyard, passed away at Grosse Pointe Farms, May 25, 1921. His life had been
one of intense and intelligently directed activity. Of him it was said: “For two
minutes during his funeral obsequies, for the first time in the history of the
Michigan Central, all the rolling stock stopped simultaneously by order, in his
honor. The crudity which tradition attaches to our strong business men was no
part of Henry B. Ledyard’s character. He was a gentleman, in a sense of the work
rarely employed today in the United States. He belonged to that valid
aristocracy which has almost been swept away by industrialism and all but
supplanted by a ruling class whose sole qualification is capital.”
Mr. Ledyard was always keenly interested in the vital questions and issues of
the day. He early gave political support to the democratic party but was not in
harmony with the party upon the free silver question of 1896 and thereafter
voted with the republican party. As a railroad builder, through the
encouragement of Detroit’s industrial development, he contributed in notable
measure to the upbuilding of the city. There are many concrete proofs of his
greatness, of the breadth of his vision and of his ability as an executive. He
largely concentrated his efforts and attention on his work with the idea of
making his railroad of the greatest possible service to others, but he always
kept a mind receptive to the needs of his fellowmen and his opportunities for
their improvement. In his will he made liberal bequests to the Children’s Free
Hospital Association, to Christ Protestant Episcopal Church and to the Railroad
Young Men’s Christian Association of Detroit. He always desired the most
beneficial and beneficent influences to be thrown around those in his service.
While his business life was characterized by much of the precision of the
military commander, those who came within the closer circle of his personal
acquaintance had for him the greatest love and respect. The value of his life
work as a factor in Michigan’s development can scarcely be overestimated and
time will serve to heighten his fame and to gain further recognition of his
ability and the value of his services to the state.
History of Wayne County and the City of Detroit, Michigan
Clarence M. Burton and M. Agnes Burton.
Volume III
