PLACE, Thomas Wheelock 1833-1922
PLACE, DICKEY, MYERS, MANSON, SIBERLING, WILKINSON, WAGONER
Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 8/7/2013 at 23:57:12
Impressive Rite's at
T. W. Place FuneralHigh church dignitaries, railway officials, rail workers, business men and hundreds of friends from Waterloo and towns along the Illinois Central, paid tributes at the bier of Thomas W. Place yesterday. Attendance at Christ Episcopal church was limited only by the capacity of the sanctuary.
Rt. Rev. Harry Longley, junior bishop of Iowa, Des Moines, conducted the service, assisted by Bev. E. B. Mounsey, rector, Rev. John Dysart, Dubuque, Rev. Mr. Hornsby, Independence, and Kev. Thomas Horton, of St. Mark's, Waterloo. Mr. Place had been a prominent layman in the diocese of Iowa for a half century.
Floral tributes filled the chancel and were banked about altar, pulpit and organ. The committal services at Fairview were equally impressive. As the last word of consecration was spoken by Bishop Longley, the choir softly sang a twofold amen.
Pallbearers were members of Christ Church Vestry, of which Mr. Place had been a continuous member since organization of the church society 41 years ago.
Source: Evening Courier and Reporter, Waterloo, Iowa, Thursday, October 12, 1922.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Thomas Wheelock Place, a most highly esteemed resident of Waterloo, where he now lives a retired life, enjoying the fruits of years of industry and frugality, is one of the best known railroad men in this part of the State. Mr. Place was born at Acworth, Sullivan County, New Hampshire, January 2, 1833, son of Ebenezer and Polly (Dickey) Place.
Ebenezer Place was born at Hanover, New Hampshire, November 14, 1800 and died at Acworth, New Hampshire, January 17, 1836. His wife was born at Acworth, June 26, 1803, and died at Waterloo, Iowa, September 11, 1874. They had three children: James D.; Thomas W.; and Mary P. who died in infancy. James D. Resides with his brother, Thomas W.
Thomas W. Place attended the district schools of Sullivan County, and remained on a farm until he was about 17 years of age, but he was too much of a natural mechanic to be satisfied with the monotony of an agricultural life.
In March, 1850, he found his first opportunity for another career, and entered the employ of Parks & Woolson, of Springfield, Vermont, manufactures of machinery for finishing wollen goods. There he continued until 1852, when he was employed as machinist in the Boston Locomotive Works, at Boston, Massachusetts. It was in the following year that he really entered upon his first railroad training, becoming a locomotive fireman on the Northern Railway of New Hampshire, which is now a part of the Boston & Maine system.
In January 1854, Mr. Place came West, stopping at Chicago, as a railroad center, and there entered the service of the Chicago & Aurora Railway, which is now a part of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, as a machinist. In the following April he became a locomotive engineer on the Illinois Central Railroad, Chicago Division. This position he filled until November 13, 1856, when he removed to Dubuque, Iowa, and entered the employ of the Dubuque & Pacific Railway Co., as locomotive engineer, under Col. R. B. Mason, who was then engaged in building the Dubuque & Pacific Railway from Dubuque to Dyersville. He continued in the employ of this company until August, 1859.
On May 11, 1857, with J. S. Northrup as conductor, Engineer Place ran the first passenger locomotive west of Dubuque. His brother, James D. Place, also a machinist and engineer, ran the first passenger engine from Freeport, Illiniois, to Dunleith, now East Dubuque, Illinois.
In 1859, Mr. Place was appointed foreman of the engine repair shop of the last named company, at Dubuque, and in May, 1850, he accepted a like position with the Chicago & Alton Railway Company, with office at Joliet, Illinois. On September 1, 1861, he became master mechanic of the Dubuque & Sioux City Railway, which was the successor of the Dubuque & Pacific Railway, the change in title having been made August 1, 1860. The shops were then located at Dubuque. This line was merged into the Illinois Central system in the fall of 1867, although the shops were not removed to Waterloo, Iowa, until November 1870.
Until November 1, 1901, Mr. Place retained his position as master mechanic at these shops, resigning at that date, to retire to the enjoyment of private life. His long connection with railroad affairs, during the years when he safely and swiftly drove his fleet steed through hitherto untraveled sections, and during the other years when his capacity, ability and fidelity insured the safety of thousands of his fellow citizens who went to and fro over the country by rail, won for him a large measure of confidence and personal esteem, which continues and follows him into the privacy of retired life.
He has seen many improvements in railroading in all its branches, and has more than once signified his approval or disapproval of various more or less useful devices. In this connection we recall the prediction made in 1825, by a no less august authority than the English Quarterly Review, that the time would never come when locomotives would be permitted, or be able, to go faster than the prevalent stage coach. The writer had no prevision of the future when men like Mr. Place would safely drive a locomotive across the country in the time now made by the fast "flyers."
On July 24, 1860, at Julien, Dubuque County, Iowa, Mr. Place was married to Mary Josephine Myers, who is a daughter of William and Susan L. (Shannon) Myers. They have four sons: Augustus Mason, James William, Frederick Ebenezer, and Dorrance Myers. Augustus Mason, who was born at Dubuque, Iowa, is foreman of the engine house at the Waterloo machine shops of the Illinois Central Railroad. He married Mrs. Midge (Siberling) Manson, widow of Robert Manson. James William, who was born at Dubuque, Iowa, is a traveling salesman for a St. Louis firm. He married Theresa Wilkinson, of St. Louis, Missouri, and they have three children: R. Meridith, Honore, W., and Helen M. Frederick Ebenezer, who was born at Dubuque, Iowa, is superintendent of the Buda Foundry & Manufacturing Company, at Harvey, Illinois. He married Lillie Wagoner, of St. Louis, Missouri. Dorrance Myers, who was born at Waterloo, Iowa, is unmarried and works as a clerk for a Chicago brokerage and commission house.
Mr. Place has taken an active part in civic affairs ever since he made Waterloo his home. He was a member of the School Board of East Waterloo from 1875 to 1885, and served in the Waterloo City Council in 1872, 1877, 1878, 1879 and 1880, advocating during all these years needed reforms and a careful and economical city government.
Mr. Place's fraternal associations include membership in Waterloo Lodge, No. 105, A.F. & A.M., of Waterloo, but he was made a Mason in Metropolitan Lodge, No. 49, A.F. & A.M., of Dubuque. He formerly belonged to Harmony Lodge, No. 2, and Halcyon Encampment, No. 1, I.O.O.F., of Dubuque, in both of which organizations he has filled all of the chairs. His portrait, executed from a photograph taken in the summer of 1904, accompanies this sketch.
[Biographical sketch of Thomas Wheelock Place while he was still living, from the History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, 1904]
Black Hawk Obituaries maintained by Karen De Groote.
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