Webster Wagner

Wagner was born near Palatine Bridge, New York. He developed a wagon-making business with his brother James. The business had folded by 1842, largely due to the Panic of 1837.{{Cite web|url = http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/sc1044.htm|title = Webster Wagner Wagon-making Papers, 1837-1842 (finding aid)|date = |accessdate = 5 January 2016|website = New York State Library Website|publisher = New York State Library|last = |first = }} After serving as an employee for the New York Central Railroad, Wagner invented the sleeping car and luxurious parlor car. He also perfected a system of ventilating railroad cars. His inventions were first used on the NY Central and later spread to other lines. He founded the Wagner Palace Car Company, located in Buffalo, New York. Several legal battles with the Pullman Company failed to put him and his partners out of business; at the time of his death the two companies were completing a merger.

He was married to Susan Davis, and they had five children.

He was a Republican member of the New York State Assembly (Montgomery Co.) in 1871; and of the New York State Senate from 1872 until his death, sitting in the 95th, 96th, 97th, 98th, 99th, 100th, 101st, 102nd (all eight 15th D.), 103rd, 104th and 105th New York State Legislatures (all three 18th D.).

Wagner was killed in the 1882 Spuyten Duyvil train wreck while returning from Albany to New York City when two trains of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad collided in between the Kingsbridge and Spuyten Duyvil stations in The Bronx, two weeks into his sixth Senate term, on January 13, 1882. His body was found crushed between two of his company's cars.{{cite news|title=Meeting a Terrible Fate – Nine Persons Crushed and Burned in a Collision – A Train Crashing Into the Rear of the Atlantic Express – Nine, Perhaps Twelve, Victims Caught in the Burning Cars – State Senator Wagner Among the Dead – Narrow Escape of Many Others – Terrible Scene at the Wreck|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1882/01/14/98579188.html?pageNumber=1|accessdate=16 October 2016|work=New York Times|date=January 14, 1882|page=1}}

Webster Wagner House at Palatine Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.{{NRISref|2009a}}

• List of inventors killed by their own invention
• Rail Car Grand Isle: A preserved Wagner Palace car

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• {{White - America's most noteworthy railroaders}}

• [http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/wagner.htm Webster Palace Car Company]
• [http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/wksdfl.Html Accident at Spuyten Duyvil]
• {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Wagner, Webster|year=1889 |short=x |notaref=x}}
• [http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/sc1044.htm Finding Aid to Webster Wagner Wagon-making Papers, 1837-1842] at the New York State Library, accessed January 5, 2016

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{{succession box | before = James Shanahan | title = New York State Assembly
Montgomery County | years = 1871 | after = William J. Van Dusen}}

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{{succession box | before = Isaiah Blood | title = New York State Senate
15th District | years = 1872–1879 | after = Stephen H. Wendover}}

{{succession box | before = Henry E. Turner | title = New York State Senate
18th District | years = 1880–1882 | after = Alexander B. Baucus}}

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Category:1817 births

Category:1882 deaths

Category:Republican Party New York (state) state senators

Category:Republican Party members of the New York State Assembly

Category:Politicians from Buffalo, New York

Category:American people in rail transportation

Category:American railway entrepreneurs

Category:Railway accident deaths in the United States

Category:Accidental deaths in New York (state)

Category:People from Palatine Bridge, New York

Category:Businesspeople from Buffalo, New York

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:19th-century members of the New York State Legislature