Bio of Lakey, J. H. Wabasha Co., MN
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Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Barbara Timm and Carol Judge
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This bio comes from "HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY" 1884.
Check out Barbara's site for more great information on this book:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnwabbio/wab1.htm
There are also some pictures and information from descendents for some 
of the bios on her pages.

Lakey, J. H., superintendent of the Chippewa Valley and the Wabasha
divisions of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway, general offices at
the Union depot on the main line of the road at Wabasha. Mr. Lakey was
superintendent of construction of the Wabasha division, and has had charge
of its management since ground was broken for its construction in October,
1877. He was appointed superintendent of the Chippewa Valley division
November 15, 1882. Mr. Lakey is descended from an old central New York
family, who settled in Palmyra, Wayne county, in that state, over one
hundred years ago. Mr. Lakey learned his trade as a blacksmith, at Lyons,
the county seat of his native county, and coming to Chicago in 1848, was
there employed in making car-springs for the cars of the old Galena road,
the first that were ever made in Chicago. In the following year, 1849, Mr.
Lakey was in the employ of Baltimore & Ohio railroad, at Cumberland,
Maryland, which was at that time the western terminus of the road. In
February, 1854, Mr. Lakey returned to Chicago, and entered the service of
the Galena & Chicago railroad, then operating a road from Chicago to
Scales Mound, one hundred and forty-two miles westward from the lake. This
road subsequently became a branch of the Chicago & Northwestern system,
and in the employ of that company Mr. Lakey continued twenty-three years,
at Turner Junction, where the road branches from the old Galena route, and
running westward crosses the Mississippi at Clinton, Iowa, and traversing
that state reaches the Missouri at Council Bluffs. Mr. Lakey was in charge
of the shops of the company at Turner Junction, and had general care of
the rolling stock along the line. The old engine "Pioneer," which so
recently attracted the notice of all visitors at the railway exposition in
Chicago, was the first engine to run out of Chicago, in 1848, and appeared
at that city in 1882, substantially as she was built in 1836 for the New
York Centeral Railway Company, by Balwin, of Philadelphia. She was doing
duty between Rochester and Buffalo, New York, when Martin Van Buren and
Daniel Webster made their first trip westward, and drew the train that
brought them over the road. Mr. Lakey remained in charge of the shops at
Turner Junction until he came to Wabasha in the fall of 1877 to
superintend the construction of what was then known as the Midland
railroad, now the Wabasha division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul.