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NOVEMBER 28, 1885

AMERICAN CONTRACT JOURNAL.

337

John Bloomfield Jervis, Hon. M. Am.
Soc. C. E.*

In the death of John Bloomfield Jervis, at Rome, N. Y., on the night of January 12th, 1885, the country lost another of those remarkable men bequeathed to this generation by the latter part of the eighteenth century, whose talents and energies have for seventy years been directed toward building up the wonderful system of internal improvements which marked the history of the nation during the present century.

Mr. Jervis was born at Huntington, Long Island, December 14th, 1795, and was consequently in his 90th year at the time of his death. His father was Timothy Jervis, a carpenter by trade, and a resident of Huntington. His mother was Phœbe Bloomfield of Woodbridge, New Jersey. The brother of Mrs. Jervis, John W. Bloomfield, went to Fort Stanwix, now Rome, N. Y., from New Jersey, to act as agent for, and to look after a large tract of land in that vicinity, which resulted in the purchase for himself and two or three others of the "six thousand-acre tract." He soon after settled in what is now the town of Annsville, which was named after his wife. About 1812 he removed to Rome, purchased a farm, which included the homestead of Mr. Jervis, and lived and died in a house which then occupied the site of Mr. Jervis' late residence. His death occurred in 1849, at the age of eighty-four. He was widely known, and universally honored and esteemed.

In 1798, Timothy Jervis moved to Fort Stanwix, which was chiefly prominent as having a navigable canal of about two miles in length connecting the Mohawk River with Wood Creek. By connecting improvements in the form of locks and dams on the Mohawk River and Wood Creek, it formed part of a system of improvements connecting the natural navigation through a large portion of the State of New York. By these means barges or bateaux passed from Schenectady, on the Mohawk, to Ithaca, at the head of Cayuga Lake. The country was at this time mostly a wilderness of heavy timber, and Timothy Jervis soon became interested in a saw-mill, which was attended by himself and his sons. John B. Jervis was the oldest of seven children and had the experience of the trials of a settlement in a new country. What education he had was obtained at the common schools of that day, which he attended until he was fifteen years of age. There were then no public schools sustained in whole or in part by the State. Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two he spent his summers in managing a team and attending the saw-mill, with occasional farm-work, and during the winters he was engaged in hauling saw-logs and wood.

In 1817, the construction of the Erie Canal was commenced, and the work afforded employment and furnished facilities to a large class who had heretofore followed other pursuits. Benjamin Wright, more generally known as "Judge" Wright, was Chief Engineer in the construction. Judge Wright resided in Rome, and therefore knew Mr. Timothy Jervis and his sons. Needing an axman he applied to Mr. Jervis, who suggested that he should take John, which was the beginning of what afterward became the remarkable engineering career of John B. Jervis, who then turned his attention to the study and practice of surveying and engineering. Dexterous with an ax, apt and ambitious to learn, ready to do all and more than was required, he was soon promoted to the position of rodman in the survey, at $12 per month, in which he reached such proficiency, that in two years he was made Resident Engineer on seventeen miles of the canal, extending from Canastota, Madison County, to Limestone Creek, on Onondaga County, at a compensation of $1.25 per day. Mr. Jervis was then about twenty-five years of age, and although the young engineers of to-day might smile at an offer of $1.25 per day, that position and salary, sixty-five years ago, were considered very desirable and lucative.

Mr. Jervis records, in some notes which he has left for the purpose of memoir, that after filling a winter engagement for weighing stone for locks, he started for Rome, a distance of forty miles, on foot, traveling four miles on the evening of the first day, to a village where he and his associates spent the first night, and thence started at daylight to walk thirty-six miles to Rome, over melting snow, which made the traveling very heavy and disagreeable, reaching Rome about 9 o'clock in the evening, pretty well fatigued, but hardly the worse for it the next day. During this period Mr. Jervis was under the direction of Judge Bates as chief of the party. and Canvass White, well known among New York engineers, as the principal assistant.

In the spring of 1820, he became well acquainted with Henry Seymour (father of Hon. Horatio Seymour), who was one of the Canal Commissioners, and with whom Mr. Jervis had had frequent intercourse in relation to his duties. In the spring of 1821, Mr. Jervis was assigned the position of Resident Engineer to the division extending from "The Nose" to opposite the village of Amsterdam, about seventeen miles, Mr. Seymour being the Commissioner of that division. He retained the charge of this division until the close of 1822, when it was mostly completed, and the party was disbanded, except himself. He was retained to aid in the settlement of the accounts of the contractors, which occupied his time for the balance of the year. This work was discharged with such acceptability that he was retained by Commissioner Seymour, in the opening of the season of 1823, to take charge of such work as still remained to be done on the canal between the Minden dam and the Upper Mohawk aqueduct, a section of fifty miles. It was then made his duty to organize parties of men to superintend the work of repairs and such incidental improvements as were found necessary to bring the section into use for navigation.

The custom was, at that day, to stop small leaks in the canal by dumping in clay, but Mr. Jervis records that, "finding the clay not satisfactory in the leaks that occurred, I made trial of fine gravel intermixed with sharp sand, which, while it did not fully stop the leak at the first application, was not sensibly carried away, and the interstices being small they were gradually filled up, and the work became tight," which marked a decided advance in the mode of repairing leaks, and was illustrative of the care with which Mr. Jervis always investigated details. In the spring of 1825 the canal was opened to Albany, and Mr. Jervis was continued as the Superintendent Engineer on the same division. During that year and until March, 1825, he had full charge of the entire section from Amsterdam to Albany, and all accounts for labor and material passed through his hands. He records the fact that the actual cost of operating the section of fifty miles for one year, including lock tenders and all expenses, except those for the collection of tolls, was at the rate of $600 per mile.

Mr. Canvass White, the principal Assistant Engineer, left the State service for other work in 1823, and as Judge Wright, the Chief Engineer, had many calls for his service on canal enterprises in other States, the entire responsibility for the section referred to was thrown upon Mr. Jervis and Mr. Seymour, the Canal Commissioner.

After seven years' employment on the Erie Canal, Mr. Jervis closed his services by resignation early in the month of March, 1825, very much to the regret of Mr. Henry Seymour, who gave him warm testimonials. Mr. Jervis went to New York and had an interview with Judge Wright, who had entered into an engagement with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, which resulted in the engagement of Mr. Jervis as Chief Engineer of that company, with Judge Wright as Consulting Engineer. Preliminary surveys and estimates had been made for the construction of a water route, partly canal and partly slack-water; but Mr. Jervis, after a careful investigation, decided against most of the slack-water plan, his decision being approved by Judge Wright. Near the close of 1827 Judge Wright resigned, and Mr. Jervis was appointed to succeed him, and remained in charge of the work until 1830. During this time he constructed the inclines of the Carbondale Railroad and ordered from England the "Stourbridge Lion," the first locomotive imported into this country, which, with two others, were ordered about a year before the famous trial on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, indicating Mr. Jervis' extraordinary foresight and courage. This locomotive, Mr. Jervis states, was bought under an order from him for a locomotive which should not exceed 5 1/2 tons in weight. The "Stourbridge Lion" actually weighed 7 tons, exclusive of coal and water, with the proper complement of which its weight was 8 tons, and consequently in excess of the weight which the trestles of the Carbondale road were built to sustain, and hence the locomotive could not be used. But the criticism that the trestles were too weak for their intended purpose is negatived by the fact that they bore in the first twenty years the transit of about 5,000,000 tons of coal. Mr. Jervis is certainly entitled to the credit of having introduced the first locomotive on the American continent, and its failure to be serviceable was not due to any error of his.

The works of the Delaware and Hudson Canal and Railroad were completed in the fall of 1829, and a few boats loaded with coal were transported to tide-water on the Hudson. Mr. Jervis records that at this time he employed Mr. John H. McAlpine to superintend the construction of machinery, who introduced his son, William J. McAlpine, then about sixteen years of age, and requested a place for him. Mr. McAlpine's widely-known engineering reputation started with that introduction.

In 1830, Mr. Jervis was appointed Chief Engineer of the Albany and Schenectady Railroad, the first railroad constructed in the State of New York.

Mr. Jervis subsequently became Chief Engineer of the Schenectady and Saratoga Railroad, and while occupying this position, in 1830, his attention was drawn to the inadequacy of the locomotives of the then existing plan for high speed. This was especially noticeable in the action of the second engine imported for the Albany and Schenectady Railroad, called the "John Bull," the first having been named the "De Witt Clinton." Mr. Jervis says of the "John Bull": "It being placed on four wheels, the overhanging caused a sharp and disagreeable motion of the engine. This circumstance, with others, induced me to continue my researches for a remedy for the weight, and to secure a more steady motion for the engine, and I was finally led to the plan of a four-wheeled truck under the forward portion of the engine as a support for that end." Mr. Jervis records that his mind was made up in regard to the form of this truck in the summer of 1830, although he had no opportunity to construct an engine of that plan until 1832, when the first engine having one pair of drivers and a four-wheeled truck, manufactured by the West Point Foundry Association, was run on the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, by David Mathews, till a speed of fifty miles per hour was attained.

*From the Transactions and Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, prepared by the following committee of the Society. Messrs. William P. Shinn, M. Am. Soc. C. E., and John Bogart, M. Am Soc. C. E.

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-04-21 08:48:48 John Bogard was updated to John Bogart in the article foot notes - 2023-04-21 jb