William Barstow Strong

{{Infobox person|

name=William Barstow Strong|

image=William Barstow Strong.jpg|

caption=|

| spouse = Abbie J. Moore

| birth_date={{Birth date|1837|5|16|mf=y}}| birth_place=Brownington, Vermont, U.S.|

death_date={{death date and age|1914|8|3|1837|5|16|mf=y}}| death_place=Los Angeles, California, U.S.}}

William Barstow Strong (May 16, 1837 – August 3, 1914) served as president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway from 1881 to 1889.{{White - America's most noteworthy railroaders}}{{cite book| author=Waters, Laurence Leslie| title=Steel Trails to Santa Fe| year=1950| publisher=University of Kansas Press| location=Lawrence, Kansas| page=54 }}[https://books.google.com/books?id=ukMKAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA6 The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway and Auxiliary Companies - Annual Meetings, and Directors and Officers; January 1, 1902] He is often referred to as either William B. Strong or W. B. Strong.

Life and career

He was born in Brownington, Vermont on May 16, 1837.{{cite web | title=Infoplease.com | work=William Barstow Strong | url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0772575.html | accessdate=2007-01-10}}

Strong graduated from Bell's Business College in Chicago, Illinois, in 1855, and soon launched his career in railroading. His first railroad job was as a station agent for the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad,{{cite web| author=Pearson Education| year=2005| url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0772575.html| title=William Barstow Strong| accessdate=2005-06-02 }} a position that was introduced to him by his older brother James.

He married Abbie J. Moore, October 2, 1859, in Beloit, Wisconsin. They had three children, a girl and two boys.{{cite web | title=Rootsweb - WI Rock-L Archives | work=William Barstow Strong | url=http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/WIROCK/2002-08/1028934319 | accessdate=2007-01-10 | archive-date=2013-02-01 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130201120914/http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/WIROCK/2002-08/1028934319 | url-status=dead }}

He worked his way through several railroad jobs successively for the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, McGregor Western Railway, Chicago and North Western Railway, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), and as superintendent of the Michigan Central Railroad in the 1870s. In this position, Strong was succeeded by Henry Brockholst Ledyard Jr. in 1876.{{cite book |author1=Burton, Clarence M. |author2=Burton, M. Agnes |name-list-style=amp |year=1930 |title=History of Wayne County and the City of Detroit, Michigan, Vol III; |url=http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Stories/HenryBrockholstLedyardBiography.htm |publisher=The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company |access-date=2005-06-02 |archive-date=2005-03-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050315092731/http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Stories/HenryBrockholstLedyardBiography.htm |url-status=dead }} He returned to the CB&Q after working on the Michigan Central and then joined the management team of the Santa Fe as General Manager, and was promoted to Vice President within a month.

On July 12, 1881, he succeeded T. Jefferson Coolidge as president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF). Under his tenure, the ATSF expanded to about 7,000 miles (11,265 km) of right-of-way, which at the time made the ATSF the largest railroad in North America. He held the presidency until his retirement in 1889.

The city of Barstow, California, where the ATSF maintained extensive shop and equipment construction and repair facilities, the town of Strong City, Kansas, and Stronghurst, Illinois are named in his honor.{{cite web| work=Legends of America.com| year=2005| url=http://www.legendsofamerica.com/CA-Barstow.html| title=Barstow, California - Crossroads of opportunity| accessdate=2005-06-02| url-status=dead| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050525102618/http://www.legendsofamerica.com/CA-Barstow.html| archivedate=2005-05-25}}{{cite web| url=http://www.lasr.net/pages/city.php?City_ID=KS0102028| title=Strong City, Kansas| accessdate=2005-06-02 }}

William B. Strong's work with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway is extensively chronicled in the book [http://johnsedgwick.biz/from-the-river-to-the-sea.html From the River to the Sea] by [http://johnsedgwick.biz/index.html John Sedgwick].

Other uses of the name ''William Barstow Strong''

William Barstow Strong was the name of an observation car owned by the ATSF and operated in business trains in the latter part of the 20th century.{{cite web| url=http://www.qstation.org/ATSF_89/| title=ATSF #89, William Barstow Strong| year=2003| accessdate=2007-01-11 }}

William B. Strong was included in a list of names that traveled aboard NASA's Stardust spacecraft which visited the comet Wild 2 in 2004.{{cite web| author=NASA| date=July 16, 2001| url=http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/overview/microchip/names2s38.html| title=Stardust Project - Microchip Names (S)| accessdate=2005-06-02 }}

An observation car on the Royal Gorge Scenic Railway in Colorado is named William B. Strong.{{Cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/groups/OAIPColorado/permalink/1412707958880642/|title=Heath Gay|website=www.facebook.com|language=en|access-date=2019-11-19}}