Name H. Webb Children J. Griswold Webb Education Columbia University | Parents James Watson Webb Died June 18, 1900 | |
Born June 6, 1852 ( 1852-06-06 ) Tarrytown, New York Spouse(s) Leila Howard Griswold (m. 1884) | ||
Henry Walter Webb, Sr. (May 6, 1852 – June 18, 1900) was an American railway executive with the New York Central Railroad under Cornelius Vanderbilt and Chauncey Depew.
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Biography
He was born on May 6, 1852 to James Watson Webb in Tarrytown, New York.
Webb was head of his class in the Columbia College School of Mines (now incorporated into the School of Engineering and Applied Science). He was a member of the fraternity St. Anthony Hall and while still an undergraduate, he participated in the Orton expedition that ascended the Amazon River almost to its source, and crossing the Andes, he exited South America by way of Peru, returning to the USA by ship. He then studied law, also at Columbia, passed the bar in 1875, and briefly practiced the profession, which he found unsatisfying.
Thereafter he soon became active in Wall Street banking and brokerage. He drifted into the railway business almost by accident through his brother, Dr. William Seward Webb, married to a daughter of William H. Vanderbilt, became interested in the Wagner Palace Car Company which the Vanderbilts controlled. When Webster Wagner, the company's president was suddenly crushed between two of his own cars in 1882, Dr. Webb became president of the company and invited his brother to join it.
In 1884, Webb married Leila Howard Griswold, and they had two sons: Henry Walter Webb, Jr. (c.1885–1919) and State Senator J. Griswold Webb (1890–1934).
Webb was an advocate of fast railway travel and ran what was then the fastest railway train in the world, averaging nearly 60 miles per hour over 450 miles. In 1893 he made a bold and ultimately true prediction for the next hundred years: By 1993, a traveler will be able to have his breakfast in New York City and his evening meal in Chicago.
Webb lived in Scarborough, New York, was Show Chairman of the Westminster Kennel Club (1880–1882), subscriber to the Blackstone Memorial (1891), and helped dedicate a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus in Central Park (1894).
H. Walter Webb retired due to tuberculosis around 1897. He died from heart trouble on June 18, 1900 at his country residence, Beechwood, in Scarborough, New York.
Legacy
Had he remained healthy he would likely have become president of his railroad.