Johnson County KS Archives Biographies.....Strang, William B. 1857 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 October 8, 2008, 4:14 pm

Author: Ed Blair (1915)

  W. B. Strang, of Overland Park, belongs to that type of present day Americans
who have become so accustomed to doing big things that they don't even realize
it themselves. Although still a young man, Mr. Strang has had a remarkable
career as a railroad builder all over the country, and has promoted, financed
and built several railroads in the north, south, east and west. For the last
seven years Johnson county has been proud to claim him as one of its most
important citizens. W. B. Strang is a native of the Empire State. He was born at
Syracuse, N. Y., November 8, 1857. His father, William Strang, was a native of
County Tipperary, Ireland, and was born in 1833, and in 1853 married Catherine
Fleming and they came to America shortly after their marriage. To this union
eight children were born, as follows: Mary, born in New York in 1855, married T.
F. Ryan, and now resides in Kansas City; W. B., the subject of this sketch;
Ellen, born in 1860 at Watertown, Wis., married William Kennefick in 1877. Mr.
Kennefick was the builder of the Missouri, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad, and also
promoted the town of Kennefick, Okla., which was named in his honor. He is still
the principal stockholder in that railroad and resides at Kansas City, Mo.
Catherine was born in Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1864, married John A. Newcomb, a nephew
of Simon Newcomb, the well known American astronomer. They reside at Savannah,
Ga., Bristol, Term., and Augusta, Ga., owning a large hotel at each place. John,
born in Ottumwa, Iowa, 1867, married Nellie Shay, of Binghamton, N. Y., was a
railroad contractor, died at Brunswick, N. J., in 1904; Robert, born in Ottumwa,
Iowa, 1869, is unmarried and an employe of the auditing department of the Strang
railroad line at Overland Park. One child wras born in 1871 and died in infancy
and Thomas, born in 1874, died at the age of six years. William B. Strang
received his education in the public schools of New York, Wisconsin and Iowa,
where the family resided at various times. When he was fifteen years of age he
began his railroad construction career at Sheridan, Iowa. He worked on the
building of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad until that line-reached
Ft. Kearney, Neb. In 1874, he took part in the building of the Baltimore & Ohio
into South Chicago. From 1874 to 1879 he was connected with the construction of
the Cincinnati Southern, now the Queen & Crescent, from Cincinnati to
Chattanooga, Tenn. In 1879 he returned to Nebraska and built thirty miles of the
Missouri Pacific from Omaha to Falls City. In 1880 he went with the Santa Fe,
and started the first mile of construction from the Kansas line west into
Colorado and to Santa Fe, N. M. He remained with this road until it was
completed to Deming, N. M., and El Paso, Texas. He also assisted in the
construction of the switchback or "Shoo Fly" over the Raton Mountains in New
Mexico before the tunnel was built there. In 1885 he came to Kansas and built
the Wellington & Western, twenty miles in the direction of Jasper. In the latter
part of the same year he was instructed by the Santa Fe officials to prepare for
quick action and tear up that track before an injunction could be filed. This
road had been built to fight a parallel line which was being built by the
Leavenworth, Lawrence & Gulf Railroad. In 1886 he commenced building the Kansas
City, Springfield & Memphis through the Ozarks, which was completed to Memphis
in 1889. He then returned to Kansas and started the construction of a line of
his own from Belle Plaine to Conway Springs. He promoted and financed this road
and secured township bonds to assist in the building. He also assisted in the
construction of the branch line from Newton to Winfield, Kan., in 1891. In the
latter part of 1892, Mr. Strang took the contract for building the Sheffield &
Birmingham railroad, which was no miles long, and completed that road in the
latter part of 1893. In 1894 he took the contract for building the Macon &
Birmingham railroad, between Macon and Alabama State line. At the same time he
took the contract for building the Macon & Atlantic railway, between Macon and
Port Carrollton, on the south Atlantic coast near Savannah. The mileage under
the last two named contracts totaled 375 miles. This work was completed in 1896
and Mr. Strang then went to New York and took the contract to build the New
York, Susquehanna & Western railroad from Strausburg to Wilkes-Barre, Pa. At the
time he was building this road, he was also building the Columbus extension of
the Mobile & Ohio, between Columbus, Miss., and Montgomery, Ala. Mr. Strang
completed the financing, construction and equipping of this road, including all
the round-houses, rights of way and terminals, after putting the line in full
operation turned it over to the Mobile & Ohio Railroad Company for $4,200,000.
This line is 210 miles long. The cost of the New York, Susquehanna & Western
railroad above mentioned was $69,000 per mile for grading, alone, and it
required four years to complete that road. Before that was completed Mr. Strang
began building the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line, between Detroit, Mich., and
Toledo, Ohio, and at the same time he was building the Detroit and Lima
Northern, a line 200 miles in length. Mr. Strang sold the Detroit & Toledo Shore
Line in 1904 to the Grand Trunk Railroad Company of Canada and went to London,
England, to consummate the deal and spent a part of 1905 in Europe. Mr. Strang
also was a partner in building 175 miles of the Kansas City Southern, from Fort
Smith, Ark., south. Alex Monroe, of Lawrence, was a partner in this contract. At
the same time Mr. Strang built the Nova Scotia Southern railroad, 120 miles from
Yarmouth towards Halifax. While constructing this line he had also taken a
$1,000,000 contract from the city of Boston to build the first section of the
Metropolitan water supply, called the Metropolitan waterway, which furnishes the
water supply for Boston and its suburbs. He then constructed the Strang line
from Kansas City to Olathe, which he now operates. Mr. Strang built the first
self-propelled railroad motor car in the world, which was put into service and
successfully operated, and it was operated on the Strang Line in Johnson county,
Kansas. Mr. Strang was married at Wellington, Kan., in 1892, to Miss Margaret
Morrison, of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Strang reside in their beautiful residence
at Overland Park, in that ideal surburban town, which Mr. Strang's genius has
made possible and his enterprise has developed.

 Mr. Strang organized the Strang Gas-Electric Car Company, of Garwood, N. J.,
where the cars were manufactured and he still owns that factory. This was one of
the transportation sensations of the time.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas
BY
ED BLAIR

AUTHOR OF
Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches

IN ONE VOLUME

ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
1915


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/johnson/bios/strang191nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ksfiles/

File size: 7.5 Kb