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JMcE

March 19. 1879 - weighed 135 lbs

JOHN B. JERVIS.
Sketch of the Life and Services of the Great Engineer.

At a recent meeting in Utica of the Oneida Historical Society, D.E. Wager, Esq., of Rome, read a paper before that body on "Men, Events, Politics and Politicians in Rome During the First Fifty Years of its History," and as the following extract will interest many readers of the FREEMEN it is copied from the Utica Herald:

"There is another Roman, although neither a lawyer nor a politician, and by the strict rules would be shut out of this paper, yet is would be hardly complete without him. John B. Jervis came with his parents to Rome from Long Island, in the same year Oneida county was formed. In 1817, when the construction of the Erie Canal commenced, Benjamin Wright, the engineer, was in need of an axman, and young Jervis was temporarily engaged. He was ready with an ax and apt in learning, and soon after he was promoted to the position of rodman in the survey, for $12 per month. He then turned his attention to the study and practice of surveying and engineering, and made such proficiency under Mr. Wright that in two years he was made resident engineer, at $1.50 per day, on seventeen miles of the canal extending from Madison into Onondago county. After remaining there two years, he was made resident engineer for two years more, on a more difficult and important division near Amsterdam. In 1823 he was made superintendent of the work for fifty miles of the canal, employing and discharging all the subordinates. When the canal was completed in 1825, having been eight years on that work, he resigned to engage in higher duties, and he received from Henry Seymour, Canal Commissioner and father of Governor Seymour, a kind and very commendatory letter. He received from Benjamin Wright, then chief engineer of the Delaware & Hudson Canal, the appointment of assistant engineer, and upon Mr. Jervis devolved the main duties. He examined the route, and on his recommendation the use of the river, for part of the way, as was first intended, was abandoned. He was engaged as engineer on a great many other works of internal improvement, among which may be mentioned the railroad between Albany and Schenectady, the Schenectady & Saratoga Railroad, the Chenango Canal, the Eastern division of the Erie Canal on its enlargement in 1836, the Croton Water Works, supplying New York City with water, and which was considered the greatest piece of engineering skill in the world, and the success of which gave to Mr. Jervis a world-wide reputation; he was consulting engineer to supply Boston with water, and chief engineer of the Hudson River Railroad, etc. The water works of Port Jervis (a place on the Erie Railroad named after him) were constructed under his approval, and the water works of Rome were not undertaken until the plan had been subjected to the scrutiny of his engineering skill, and received the approval of his judgement. In 1816 he united with the first, and then the only church of Rome, and under its first installed pastor, and for over sixty-two years he has been an honored member of a church. I think I am safe in saying there is no one who can show so long a membership, and that there is no living person whose coming to Rome antedates his, or who has made Rome for so many years a permanent residence. A few weeks ago he reached his eighty-third birthday, and those who heard, or have read his lecture on Industiral Economy," prepared a few weeks before he was eighty-three years old, need not be told that the mind and memory of John B. Jervis seem to be as clear, fresh and vigorous as when in the full flush of his early manhood."

It will be noticed that the above sketch of Mr. Jervis leaves the impression he was an assistant engineer on the construction of the Delaware & Hudson Canal. He was, but only for the first year after which he was made the chief engineer and so remained until the completion of the work. Port Jervis was a village of considerable size and bore the name long years before the Erie Railroad was projected and while the Delaware & Hudson Canal was yet considered a great public work. Mr. Jervis was the chief engineer of the Croton Water Works, but the construction of the High Bridge is the especial part of that work which gave Mr. Jervis a world-wide reputation and which by many old engineers is called "Jervis' monument." For years Mr. Jervis has been consulting engineer for many of the great Western railroads, and in the city of his residence, when he had long passed the age at which most men lay aside the active duties of life, he has reorganized the affairs of a stock company which own iron works and made the concern do what it had heretofore failed to do—pay a dividend. His recent paper on the Erie canal, written after his eightieth year, is considered the best ever written on the subject and his still more recent lecture on "Industrial Economy," as Mr. Wager says, proves his mind "to be as clear, fresh and vigorous as when in the full flush of his early manhood." Mr. Jervis is in the enjoyment of a liberal fortune in his graceful old age and he does not put his talent away in a napkin but goeth about doing good.