William Thompson Walters and Ellen Harper

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Husband William Thompson Walters ¹

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           Born: 23 May 1819 - Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 22 Nov 1894 - Baltimore, MD 1
         Buried: 

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         Father: Henry Walters (1795-1854) 2
         Mother: Jane Mitchell Thompson (      -1847) 2

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       Marriage: 1845 1

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Wife Ellen Harper ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 1862 1
         Buried: 

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Children

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General Notes: Husband - William Thompson Walters

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He attended the University of Pennsylvania. At the age of 19, he was given charge of an iron furnace at Farrandsville, Clinton County, Pennsylvania, where he produced, for the first time in America, iron by the use of coked bituminous coal. He was a merchant, railway director, patron and connoisseur of art. He did much to develop transportation facilities in the South and was the president of first steamship line between Baltimore and Savannah; was Vice-President, Northern Central Railway when it was extended to Baltimore. With his life-long friend, Thos. K. Scott, President Pennsylvania Railroad, formed the Southern Security Co., which in the years 1866 and 1873 borrowed the money to rebuild the railroads between Richmond and Charleston, Richmond and Danville and Bristol to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and built the Charlotte and Atlanta Air Line. After the panic of 1873 all these roads were sold except what now forms the Atlantic Coast Line, of which he was the Chairman of the Executive Committee until his death. For ten years he was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Texas and Pacific Railroad, which he and his friend Thos. K. Scott had projected from the Mississippi River to San Diego, California, but which they sold to Jay Gould, who completed it to a connection at the Rio Grande with the Southern Pacific. He was one of the early art collectors in the United States and Chairman for many years of the Purchasing Committee of the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, D. C. He was also President of the Peabody Institute of Baltimore. He translated from the French, Charles Du Hay's authoritative treatise on the Percheon horse and for 20 years was an importer and breeder of this draught horse to introduce it into this country. From 1867 to 1869 he was Finance Commissioner of Baltimore City and in 1873 Commissioner to the Vienna Exposition.

1 Addams S. McAllister, The Descendants of John Thomson, Pioneer Scotch Covenanter (Easton, PA: The Chemical Publishing Company, 1917), Pg 141.

2 Addams S. McAllister, The Descendants of John Thomson, Pioneer Scotch Covenanter (Easton, PA: The Chemical Publishing Company, 1917), Pg 140.