Samuel Rea and Mary Black

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Husband Samuel Rea ^{1 2}

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           Born: 21 Sep 1855 - Hollidaysburg, Blair Co, PA 3
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         Father: James D. Rea (      -1858/1868) 1 2
         Mother: Ruth Blair Moore (      -1908) 1 2

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       Marriage: 

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Wife Mary Black ¹

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Children

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1 M George Rea ¹

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2 F Ruth Rea ¹

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General Notes: Husband - Samuel Rea

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His first connection with The Pennsylvania Railroad Company was in the Engineering Dept. where he began on July 17th, 1871, as a chainman and rodman on the Morrison's Cove Branch and was located at Roaring Spring. On February 10th, 1897, Mr. Rea was appointed First Assistant to the President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, effective Jan. 1st, 1913, to succeed Mr. James McCrea, resigned. Later he was elected a Director and President of the other principal railroad corporations constituting the Pennsylvania System.
For many years Mr. Rea was interested in the project to bridge the Hudson river from Hoboken to New York City, and thus establish in the metropolis a terminus for the railroads using ferries from the New Jersey side. He was one of the incorporators of the North River Bridge Co, chartered by an Act of Congress in 1890 to build that bridge.
When other railroad companies failed to join the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in the project to bridge the Hudson, and after a very careful examination and report on the entire project by engineering experts, The Pennsylvania Railroad Company determined to build two single track tunnels under the Hudson river and four single-track tunnels under the East River, with a large station in the heart of New York City. After this plan had been approved by President Cassat and the Board of Directors of The Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Mr. Rea was given direct charge of what was regarded as the most important and difficult piece of engineering work in the country, and carried it to a successful conclusion. As a part of this project under his direction, may be considered the "Hell Gate Bridge Route" by the New York Connecting Railroad Company, jointly owned by The Pennsylvania Railroad Company and the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, which, with the tunnel extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, forms a through route for railroad transportation between the Southern, Western and New England States. On April 11th, 1917, he was appointed a member of the Executive Committee of the Special Committee on National Defense (Railroads' War Board), of the American Railway Association, which Committee supervised the operation of the railroads of the United States from that time until they were taken over by the Government on Dec. 28th, 1917. He is a member of the Philadelphia and Rittenhouse Clubs (Philadelphia); Union Club and Century Association (New York); Metropolitan Club (Washington); an Honorary Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the Institution of Civil Engineering (London); Pennsylvania Society Sons of the Revolution; Society of War of 1812, etc. (From Penna R. R. Biographies).-Extracts.

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General Notes: Wife - Mary Black

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from Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co, PA

1 John W. Jordan, LL.D, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol. IV (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908), Pg 223.

2 Lewis R. Culbertson, M.D., Genealogy of the Culbertson and Culberson Families (Zanesville, OH: The Courier Co., 1923), Pg 141.

3 Lewis R. Culbertson, M.D., Genealogy of the Culbertson and Culberson Families (Zanesville, OH: The Courier Co., 1923), Pg 161.