Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1888 — 4 BUSY LIFE ENDED. [ARTICLE]

4 BUSY LIFE ENDED.

Gen. George W. Cass, of New York, Closes a Long and Useful Life, at the Age of 78. A New York telegram announces the death of Gen. George W. Cass, who was the organizer and first President of the Adams Express Company; the builder of the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago and Grand Rapids and Indiana railroads; President of the Northern Pacific, and prominent in politics. The following brief sketch of his busy career will be read with interest: Gen. Cass passed most of his active business life in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He lived for several years at Osborne Station, near Pittsburgh. Gen. Cass was born in Ohio in 1810, and passed his youth near Zanesville. He went to Detroit in 1824, and remained there several years. He then received an appointment to the United States Military Academy, and graduated with honors in 1832. He served with the topographical and military engineers. Resigning his position, he received an appointment as civil engineer on the National Road from President Jackson. It was while engaged in this work that he erected the first iron bridge ever built in the United States over Dunlap’s Creek, a branch of the Monongahela River. He was the organizer of the first steamboat line on tbe Monongahela River. In 1843 he brought the Adams Express line across the mountains from Baltimore, snd after forming a union of all the Adams Express lines between St, Louis and Boston was elected President of the consolidated companies in 1855. In January, 1856, he was elected President of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad Company, then completed as far west as Crestline. Ihe two corporations building the section of the road between Crestline and Chicago had exhausted their funds, and, although there was considerable opposition to it, Gen. Cass successfully conducted the consolidation of the three divisions. He retained the Presidency of the cqpipany, then first known as the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, until 1876, when he resigned. He was a leading Democrat, and once came within a few votes of securing the nomination for Governor of Pennsylvania, being defeated by Charles R. Buckalew. He was a nephew of the late Gen. Lewis Cass of Michigan.