Charles Mayer | |
|---|---|
 Photographed around 1898 | |
| Born | November 30, 1826 |
| Died | February 4, 1904 (aged 77) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Employer | Baltimore & Ohio Railroad |
| Spouse | Susan Keim |
| Relatives | Charles F. Mayer (uncle) |
Charles Frederick Mayer (November 30, 1826 [1] - February 24, 1904 [2] ) was an American rail executive and businessman from Baltimore, Maryland, who served as the 10th president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) from 1889 to 1896.
Born to a well-known family, he was the sixth child of Lewis Mayer, a lawyer, and Lewis' cousin and wife, Susan Mayer. [3] His uncle and namesake, Charles F. Mayer, was a Maryland state senator and prominent figure in Baltimore. [1]
Mayer was privately educated in Baltimore and traveled abroad as a youth, before beginning work for his uncle Frederick Koenig. [3] [4] Showing "uncommon aptitude for commercial life", as a later biographer wrote, Mayer was dispatched to the west coast of South America on a trading voyage of two years, before returning to Baltimore. [5] On December 4, 1866, Mayer married his cousin, Susan Keim, who was the daughter of Congressman George M. Keim. [1] They had no children.
Mayer became president of the Consolidation Coal Company of Maryland in 1877. [3] [4] In 1887, he became a member of the board of directors of B&O, and in 1889, succeeded Samuel Spencer as its president. [4] Mayer served as president for seven years, [3] playing a key role in the construction of the Baltimore Belt Line. [4] [6] He recruited young engineer Samuel Rea to design the line, [4] and personally chose the Saxony royal blue color that became the signature of the line's premier Royal Blue rail service. [7] [8] Mayer also succeeded in separating the railroad from partial political control by the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland, convincing them to sell their stock in the company in 1890. [4] However, the railroad suffered from financial issues during his tenure, and Mayer resigned in 1896. He was replaced by the company's general counsel, John K. Cohen.
A flattering biographical sketch of Mayer in an 1898 Baltimore publication described him thus: [5]
The private life of Mr. Mayer exemplifies the man of faithful and unwavering friendship, who has helped many one to a higher destiny. His benevolence is proverbial, and many are the benefits he quietly and unostentatiously confers.
— Clarence H. Forrest
A member of Baltimore society, Mayer served on many charitable and educational boards and trusts, including those of Johns Hopkins University, the Western National Bank, and the Baltimore Steam Packet Company. [3] A brother of the Masonic Order, Mayer also was a member of a number of clubs in Baltimore, such as the Merchants' Club, the Maryland Club, and the University Club. [5]
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States. It operated as B&O from 1830 until 1987, when it was merged into the Chessie System; its lines are today controlled by CSX Transportation.
The B&O Railroad Museum is a museum and historic railway station exhibiting historic railroad equipment in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) company originally opened the museum on July 4, 1953, with the name of the Baltimore & Ohio Transportation Museum. It has been called one of the most significant collections of railroad treasures in the world and has the largest collection of 19th-century locomotives in the U.S. The museum is located in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's old Mount Clare Station and adjacent roundhouse, and retains 40 acres of the B&O's sprawling Mount Clare Shops site, which is where, in 1829, the B&O began America's first railroad and is the oldest railroad manufacturing complex in the United States.
The Western Maryland Railway was an American Class I railroad (1852–1983) that operated in Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It was primarily a coal hauling and freight railroad, with a small passenger train operation.
The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) was an American railroad that operated independently from 1836 to 1881. Headquartered in Philadelphia, it was greatly enlarged in 1838 by the merger of four state-chartered railroads in three Mid-Atlantic states to create a single line between Philadelphia and Baltimore.
The Baltimore and Philadelphia Railroad was a railroad line built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to the Maryland-Delaware state line, where it connected with the B&O's Philadelphia Branch to reach Baltimore, Maryland. It was built in the 1880s after the B&O lost access to its previous route to Philadelphia, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B). The cost of building the new route, especially the Howard Street Tunnel on the connecting Baltimore Belt Line, led to the B&O's first bankruptcy. Today, the line is used by CSX Transportation for freight trains.
Tom Thumb was the first American-built steam locomotive to operate on a common-carrier railroad. It was designed and constructed by Peter Cooper in 1829 to convince owners of the newly formed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) to use steam engines; it was not intended to enter revenue service. It is especially remembered as a participant in a legendary race with a horse-drawn car, which the horse won after Tom Thumb suffered a mechanical failure. However, the demonstration was successful, and the railroad committed to the use of steam locomotion and held trials in the following year for a working engine.
The CSX Susquehanna River Bridge is a railroad bridge that carries CSX's Philadelphia Subdivision across the Susquehanna River between Havre de Grace and Perryville, Maryland, via Garrett Island. It was built in 1907-10 by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on the same alignment as an 1886 B&O bridge. Like its predecessor, it was the longest continuous bridge on the B&O system.
Benjamin Henry Latrobe II was an American civil engineer, best known for his railway bridges, and a railway executive.
The Baltimore Belt Line was constructed by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in the early 1890s to connect the railroad's newly constructed line to Philadelphia and New York City/Jersey City with the rest of the railroad at Baltimore, Maryland. It included the Howard Street Tunnel, the Mount Royal Station for B&O's Royal Blue Line passenger trains, and the first mainline railroad electrification in the United States. CSX Transportation currently operates the line as part of its Baltimore Terminal Subdivision.
Daniel Willard was an American railroad executive best known as the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) from 1910 to 1941. He served on or headed several government railroad commissions in World War I and appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1932 due to his part in negotiating wage cuts in the Great Depression.
The President Street Station in Baltimore, Maryland, is a former train station and railroad terminal. Built in 1849 and opened in February 1850, the station saw some of the earliest bloodshed of the American Civil War (1861-1865), and was an important rail link during the conflict. It is the oldest surviving big-city railroad terminal in the United States.
Camden Station, now also referred to as Camden Street Station, Camden Yards, and formally as the Transportation Center at Camden Yards, is a train station at the intersection of South Howard and West Camden Streets in Baltimore, Maryland, adjacent to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, behind the B&O Warehouse. It is served by MARC commuter rail service and local Light Rail trains.
The Royal Blue was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O)'s flagship passenger train between New York City and Washington, D.C., in the United States, beginning in 1890. The Baltimore-based B&O also used the name between 1890 and 1917 for its improved passenger service between New York and Washington, collectively dubbed the Royal Blue Line. Using variants such as the Royal Limited and Royal Special for individual Royal Blue trains, the B&O operated the service in partnership with the Reading Railroad and the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Principal intermediate cities served were Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. Later, as Europe reeled from the carnage of World War I and connotations of European royalty fell into disfavor, the B&O discreetly omitted the sobriquet Royal Blue Line from its New York passenger service and the Royal Blue disappeared from B&O timetables. Beginning in 1917, former Royal Blue Line trains were renamed: the Royal Limited, for example, became the National Limited, continuing west from Washington to St. Louis via Cincinnati. During the Depression, the B&O hearkened back to the halcyon pre-World War I era when it launched a re-christened Royal Blue train between New York and Washington in 1935. The B&O finally discontinued all passenger service north of Baltimore on April 26, 1958, including the Royal Blue.
The Mount Royal Station is a historic building in Baltimore, Maryland, which was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's third train station in Baltimore, Maryland, and is now part of the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) campus. The station was at the north end of the Baltimore Belt Line's Howard Street tunnel in the Bolton Hill neighborhood. It was the first railroad station in the world to have electrified passenger trains when it opened on September 1, 1896, serving the B&O's famed Royal Blue line. Following its closure as a railroad station in 1961, it became part of the Maryland Institute College of Art, where it now houses the Middendorf Gallery, as well as studio and classroom space for the university's sculpture and fiber departments.
The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, nicknamed the Old Bay Line, was an American steamship line from 1840 to 1962 that provided overnight steamboat service on Chesapeake Bay, primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia. Called a "packet" for the mail packets carried on government mail contracts, the term in the 19th century came to mean a steamer line operating on a regular, fixed daily schedule between two or more cities. When it closed in 1962 after 122 years of existence, it was the last surviving overnight steamship passenger service in the United States.
The Baltimore Terminal Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of Maryland. The line runs from Baltimore to Halethorpe along the original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) line, one of the oldest rail lines in the United States and the first passenger railroad line. At its east (north) end, it connects with the Philadelphia Subdivision; its west (south) end has a junction with the Capital Subdivision and the Old Main Line Subdivision.
Charles Frederick Mayer (1795-1864) was an American lawyer, Maryland state senator, and railroad director.
Jacob G. Davies was an American politician. He served as Mayor of Baltimore for two terms, from 1844 to 1848.
Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Newcomer was an American railroad executive and bank president from Baltimore, Maryland.