Maricopa County AZ Archives Biographies.....Sargent, George M. November 23, 1858 - living in 1896
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 1, 2005, 10:12 pm

Author: McFarland & Poole

p. 453-454

  GEORGE M. SARGENT. The old saw has it that "A rolling stone gathers no moss,"
and while this may be true as a general thing, there are exceptions to this
rule. Circumstances may be such that a man will be compelled to follow various
occupations, especially at the commencement of his independent career, but it
does not follow that he is lacking in perseverance, energy, or intelligence. The
career of George M. Sargent has been a checkered one, but has not been without
substantial evidences of success, and it is owing to his own energy, push and
determination that he is now floating on a prosperous financial sea. He was born
in New Hampshire, November 23, 1858, to George G. and Araminta (Clement)
Sargent, who were born in Goffstown and Hudson, New Hampshire, respectively, of
Scotch-Irish descent. George G. Sargent is a painter by trade, but for a number
of years past has owned and operated a grist and saw mill, and is in comfortable
circumstances. His family consists of four children, George M., Stella, David C.
and Dora, the eldest of whom is the subject of this sketch. He was reared in the
Buckeye State and in New Hampshire, and up to the age of sixteen years was an
attendant of the public schools, where he acquired a practical education, but at
that age he left the shelter of the parental roof to fight the battle of life
for himself, and for two years thereafter found employment on different farms in
New Hampshire, receiving for his services from ten to twelve dollars per month.
At the end of this time he came West alone, and after working on a farm and
teaching school in Labette County, Kansas, for about nine months, he went to
Atchison, Atchison County, Kansas, where he became a book agent. Nearly one year
later he gave his employer his note for $90, from which it may be judged that
that occupation was not in his line, and at once set about securing other
employment with which to liquidate his indebtedness. Nothing was too menial,
provided it was honest, for him to engage in, and that winter he shoveled snow
from sidewalks, put coal in basements and cellars, sawed cord-wood, in fact, he
did anything he could get to do in order to turn an honest penny. In the spring
he found employment in delivering groceries, and was thus occupied until August,
1879, when he turned his attention to railroading. He was first employed in
trucking freight for the Hannibal & St. Joe Railroad at East Atchison, Mo., and
successively filled the positions of truckman, check clerk and expense bill
clerk under C. F. Barren, general agent, until July, 1880. He then became car
clerk for the same road, with headquarters at St. Joseph, under E. G. Fish, and
filled this and the position of bill clerk for two years, being also a general
utility man. In this manner he acquired a practical insight into railroading,
and laid the foundations of his future success as a railroad man. After
remaining in St. Joseph for nearly two years, he became freight earnings clerk
under G. W. Miller, freight auditor, and C. M. Carter, auditor in the general
offices of the Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council Bluffs Railroad, and this
position filled with ability for about eighteen months. It was while thus
employed that he formed the acquaintance of R. E. Wells, now assistant general
manager of the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix Railroad, who was then in the
passenger auditor's office of the same company for which Mr. Sargent worked. The
following eighteen months he spent in the Francis Street depot, St. Joseph, as
assistant ticket agent, but on the 1st of October, 1886, he gave up this
position to accept that of soliciting agent with the Burlington Railroad Company
at Kansas City under R. M. Rogers, Jr., general agent. July 13. 1887, he
transferred his allegiance to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company,
assuming the same position that he had held with the Burlington Railroad
Company, Mr. E. C. Gay being assistant general freight agent of the Santa Fe
Company when the change was made. Subsequently Mr. Gay was transferred to
Chicago and A. P. Tanner succeeded, and on the 21st of October, 1889, Mr.
Sargent was placed in charge as commercial agent in Mr. Tanner's place, he
having been transferred to Topeka. The duties of this position Mr. Sargent
filled with marked ability until October 1, 1895, since which time he has held
his present position at Phoenix. While in Kansas City Mr. Sargent was one of the
fifteen directors of the Kansas City Commercial Club, a position which cannot be
bought, and was the only man on a salary who ever held that honorable position
in that directory. Mr. Sargent has a record as a railroad man of which he has
every reason to be proud, for notwithstanding adverse circumstances, he
surmounted all obstacles that came in his way, and rose step by step until he
has reached his present position of general freight and passenger agent of the
Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix Railroad. He is in every sense of that oft-abused
term—a self-made man—and every round on the ladder up which he has been climbing
has been surmounted by his own unaided efforts. Mr. Sargent was married November
2, 1885, to Miss Ada Blackwell, of St. Joseph, Mo., and their union has resulted
in the birth of three children, George Ledwidge, born March 13, 1887: Araminta
Merrill, born March 12, 1889, and Henry Hutchings, born September 8, 1893, all
natives of Missouri. Mr. Sargent is a member of the National Union and is a
Republican politically.



Additional Comments:
From:

A Historical and Biographical Record of the Territory of Arizona
Published by
McFarland & Poole, Chicago, 1896

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