Debby Stevens
Henry Holbrook 1820 - 1902 New Westminster, Canada
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Henry Holbrook laid tracks across the continent
Railroad leader instrumental in finding the best route for the Steel Horse
Jeanne M. Rideout
Henry Randolph Holbrook helped forge the railroads across the Wild West. [Photo courtesy/Holbrook Historical Society of Holbrook, Arizona]
(Second in a historical series on Holbrook's links to the Wild West)
The name of Henry Randolph Holbrook is not widely recognized in the Town of Holbrook, Massachusetts.
In fact, when Holbrook Historical Society member Thomas Benvie researched the Holbrook family tree, he found only one reference to Henry Randolph Holbrook.
“I have looked at the male line from Elisha Niles Holbrook’s grandfather down to present and cannot find Henry anywhere," Benvie stated. "Not to say he isn't there, but there does not appear to be any public records on him. I did find a mention that someone was named to replace ‘the late Henry Randolph Holbrook.' "
Yet this member of Holbrook’s founding family found fame and accolades in the Wild West and carved the Town of Holbrook’s name in the sand and stone. Holbrook, a famed railroad engineer, stood tall among the larger-than-life men who literally shaped the West.
Railroads created towns and became the center of Western life. One of these towns, Holbrook, Arizona, dubbed in its early years as “A town too tough for women and churches,” according to the town’s website, bears his name.
At this point in his career, Holbrook was chief engineer of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. On Sept. 24, 1881, as the last spike was driven completing the railroad through the town, John Young, a grading contractor for the railroad, named the town after Holbrook.
“He had a rich history,” Jolyn Fox, a member of the Navaho County Historical Society, said of Holbrook.
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Fox affirmed Henry Randolph Holbrook was related to the Massachusetts Holbrooks.
Before he fought for the successful expansion of the railroad, Holbrook served valiantly in the Union Army during the Civil War.
“Young men in the mid-nineteenth century fought in the War Between the States," Colorado’s Eleanor Fry wrote in August 2000 in Lore, the monthly publication of the Pueblo County Historical Society. "Many of those who survived that bloodbath came West to build railroads which were to link the East and the West coasts and crisscross the country. Henry Randolph Holbrook was one of these ex-soldiers.”
Holbrook lived Pueblo, Colorado, from the time he retired from the railroad in April 1890 until his death on Dec. 21, 1907 at the age of 69.
In the decades following the Civil War, railroad companies sprang up like mushrooms, such as the Colorado and New Mexico Railway Company, the Arkansas Valley Railway, and the Denver and Rio Grande.
By 1900, much of the nation's railroad system was in place, opening the way for the settlement of the West, providing new economic opportunities, stimulating the development of town and communities, and generally tying the country together, according to the Library of Congress website (www.loc.gov).
Holbrook became a well-known figure in the fierce competition of railroad companies to claim land as part of the “iron road” at various times in his career, working as a locator (the person choosing the route a railroad would take) and an engineer for railways including the Kansas Pacific Railroad, the Southern Colorado Railway, the Boulder Valley Railroad, the Denver and South Park Railroad, and the Atlantic and Pacific.
“As a civil engineer, he located many a mile of railroad in the western states,” Fry wrote.
Railroad companies competed ferociously with one another, and Holbrook led his companies to success.
On April 22, 1878, Holbrook worked for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, then in a spirited competition with rival railroad Denver & Rio Grande to take possession of the Royal Gorge, then called the Grand Canyon of Arkansas, to lay down its tracks. The Santa Fe outmaneuvered the D&RG to take possession of the strategically critical Raton Pass and saw the opportunity to get into the gorge ahead of the D&RG.
“Engineer Holbrook of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe and Engineer DeRemer of the Denver and Rio Grande had a good lively summer race for a place of advantage,” Fry wrote. “DeRemer took the river, and Holbrook, who had recently surveyed the canyon and was better posted, took the mountain and came out ahead.”
Holbrook was one of three locators for the Santa Fe, responsible for the railroad spending about $50 million, apparently wisely.
“There was never a hint that even a dime was misspent,” Fry wrote. “Locators and surveyors had, besides the tough field work, a great deal of paperwork and figuring to do. Some of this was done around campfires at night, or in a dusty board shack beside the right of way. Data for a line 50 miles long might fill 100 pages of a modern book.”
There had to be thousands of calculations, estimates of availability of timber for ties, rock for ballasting and fills, water for engines, consideration of snow that had to be cleared and summer deluges that might wash out tracks, and suitable sites every 10 miles or so which would have a water tank, telegraphers, and track maintenance crews.
“Locating a railroad was something more than a cross-country stroll,” Fry wrote.
Henry Randolph Holbrook was born Nov. 22, 1838 in Columbia, Connecticut.
“His parents were of old New England stock and his relatives held high positions in a military way and in affairs of state during the Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War,” Fry wrote.
Holbrook was a notable figure in his nearly two decades in Boulder. He was a founder of a bank he kept solvent during the Panic of 1893, donated land to the Woman’s Hospital Association, leased land to a Mennonite colony, founded Holbrook Center, a new town on the Santa Fe and Arkansas Valley rail line, served as a stockholder and on the board of directors of the Pueblo and State Line Railroad, and in his will made bequests to the Sacred Heart and McClelland orphanages, according to Fry.
Businessmen from all over the state attended his funeral at Boulder’s First Presbyterian Church, Fry reported. According to Holbrook’s obituary:
“In Pueblo and throughout the country, he will be remembered for his endearing manner by hundreds of warm friends to whom his eccentricities of character formed one of his strongest fortes. His ideals were high, his tastes of the simplest, and his loyalty to the west knew practically no bounds. He was always present at popular meetings where moral standing and sterling worth were requisites and was always a worthy advocate of justice.”
Henry Holbrook
[Henry Holbrook]
July 11, 1820 - May, 1902
Second mayor of the city of New Westminster, Henry Holbrook was subsequently re-elected on four other occasions.
Holbrook was elected to the first Legislative Council of the newly-formed colony of British Columbia. In 1871 he was appointed to the Executive Council as Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, which office he continued to fill up to the resignation of the administration in November 1872. Thereafter he was leader of the Opposition until his defeat at the polls in 1875.
First Worshipful Master of Union Lodge No. 1201 (899) E.C., his loyalties to the United Grand Lodge of England resulted in the lodge not joining in the establishment of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia in 1871. From the time of Union Lodge's joining the newly formed Grand Lodge in 1872 until his departure for England in 1880, Holbrook had no further contact with Freemasonry. He died at Talbot House in Parkgate, near Neston, England.
Worshipful Master
Lodges No. 368 and No. 880
Prov. Gr. Supt. of Works for Cheshire
Deputy District Grand Master: 1860-1871
District Grand Lodge of British Columbia
Worshipful Master: 1861
Union Lodge No. 1201 E.C.
Source: "Masonic Pioneers", Harry Stewardson, Masonic Bulletin. March 1946 p. 1.
Henry Holbrook laid tracks across the continent
Railroad leader instrumental in finding the best route for the Steel Horse
Jeanne M. Rideout
Henry Randolph Holbrook helped forge the railroads across the Wild West. [Photo courtesy/Holbrook Historical Society of Holbrook, Arizona]
(Second in a historical series on Holbrook's links to the Wild West)
The name of Henry Randolph Holbrook is not widely recognized in the Town of Holbrook, Massachusetts.
In fact, when Holbrook Historical Society member Thomas Benvie researched the Holbrook family tree, he found only one reference to Henry Randolph Holbrook.
“I have looked at the male line from Elisha Niles Holbrook’s grandfather down to present and cannot find Henry anywhere," Benvie stated. "Not to say he isn't there, but there does not appear to be any public records on him. I did find a mention that someone was named to replace ‘the late Henry Randolph Holbrook.' "
Yet this member of Holbrook’s founding family found fame and accolades in the Wild West and carved the Town of Holbrook’s name in the sand and stone. Holbrook, a famed railroad engineer, stood tall among the larger-than-life men who literally shaped the West.
Railroads created towns and became the center of Western life. One of these towns, Holbrook, Arizona, dubbed in its early years as “A town too tough for women and churches,” according to the town’s website, bears his name.
At this point in his career, Holbrook was chief engineer of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad. On Sept. 24, 1881, as the last spike was driven completing the railroad through the town, John Young, a grading contractor for the railroad, named the town after Holbrook.
“He had a rich history,” Jolyn Fox, a member of the Navaho County Historical Society, said of Holbrook.
Get the Journal News Independent Thursday Briefing newsletter in your inbox.
Your weekly news roundup
Delivery: Thurs
Your Email
Fox affirmed Henry Randolph Holbrook was related to the Massachusetts Holbrooks.
Before he fought for the successful expansion of the railroad, Holbrook served valiantly in the Union Army during the Civil War.
“Young men in the mid-nineteenth century fought in the War Between the States," Colorado’s Eleanor Fry wrote in August 2000 in Lore, the monthly publication of the Pueblo County Historical Society. "Many of those who survived that bloodbath came West to build railroads which were to link the East and the West coasts and crisscross the country. Henry Randolph Holbrook was one of these ex-soldiers.”
Holbrook lived Pueblo, Colorado, from the time he retired from the railroad in April 1890 until his death on Dec. 21, 1907 at the age of 69.
In the decades following the Civil War, railroad companies sprang up like mushrooms, such as the Colorado and New Mexico Railway Company, the Arkansas Valley Railway, and the Denver and Rio Grande.
By 1900, much of the nation's railroad system was in place, opening the way for the settlement of the West, providing new economic opportunities, stimulating the development of town and communities, and generally tying the country together, according to the Library of Congress website (www.loc.gov).
Holbrook became a well-known figure in the fierce competition of railroad companies to claim land as part of the “iron road” at various times in his career, working as a locator (the person choosing the route a railroad would take) and an engineer for railways including the Kansas Pacific Railroad, the Southern Colorado Railway, the Boulder Valley Railroad, the Denver and South Park Railroad, and the Atlantic and Pacific.
“As a civil engineer, he located many a mile of railroad in the western states,” Fry wrote.
Railroad companies competed ferociously with one another, and Holbrook led his companies to success.
On April 22, 1878, Holbrook worked for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, then in a spirited competition with rival railroad Denver & Rio Grande to take possession of the Royal Gorge, then called the Grand Canyon of Arkansas, to lay down its tracks. The Santa Fe outmaneuvered the D&RG to take possession of the strategically critical Raton Pass and saw the opportunity to get into the gorge ahead of the D&RG.
“Engineer Holbrook of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe and Engineer DeRemer of the Denver and Rio Grande had a good lively summer race for a place of advantage,” Fry wrote. “DeRemer took the river, and Holbrook, who had recently surveyed the canyon and was better posted, took the mountain and came out ahead.”
Holbrook was one of three locators for the Santa Fe, responsible for the railroad spending about $50 million, apparently wisely.
“There was never a hint that even a dime was misspent,” Fry wrote. “Locators and surveyors had, besides the tough field work, a great deal of paperwork and figuring to do. Some of this was done around campfires at night, or in a dusty board shack beside the right of way. Data for a line 50 miles long might fill 100 pages of a modern book.”
There had to be thousands of calculations, estimates of availability of timber for ties, rock for ballasting and fills, water for engines, consideration of snow that had to be cleared and summer deluges that might wash out tracks, and suitable sites every 10 miles or so which would have a water tank, telegraphers, and track maintenance crews.
“Locating a railroad was something more than a cross-country stroll,” Fry wrote.
Henry Randolph Holbrook was born Nov. 22, 1838 in Columbia, Connecticut.
“His parents were of old New England stock and his relatives held high positions in a military way and in affairs of state during the Revolution, the War of 1812 and the Mexican War,” Fry wrote.
Holbrook was a notable figure in his nearly two decades in Boulder. He was a founder of a bank he kept solvent during the Panic of 1893, donated land to the Woman’s Hospital Association, leased land to a Mennonite colony, founded Holbrook Center, a new town on the Santa Fe and Arkansas Valley rail line, served as a stockholder and on the board of directors of the Pueblo and State Line Railroad, and in his will made bequests to the Sacred Heart and McClelland orphanages, according to Fry.
Businessmen from all over the state attended his funeral at Boulder’s First Presbyterian Church, Fry reported. According to Holbrook’s obituary:
“In Pueblo and throughout the country, he will be remembered for his endearing manner by hundreds of warm friends to whom his eccentricities of character formed one of his strongest fortes. His ideals were high, his tastes of the simplest, and his loyalty to the west knew practically no bounds. He was always present at popular meetings where moral standing and sterling worth were requisites and was always a worthy advocate of justice.”
Henry Holbrook
[Henry Holbrook]
July 11, 1820 - May, 1902
Second mayor of the city of New Westminster, Henry Holbrook was subsequently re-elected on four other occasions.
Holbrook was elected to the first Legislative Council of the newly-formed colony of British Columbia. In 1871 he was appointed to the Executive Council as Chief Commissioner of Lands and Works, which office he continued to fill up to the resignation of the administration in November 1872. Thereafter he was leader of the Opposition until his defeat at the polls in 1875.
First Worshipful Master of Union Lodge No. 1201 (899) E.C., his loyalties to the United Grand Lodge of England resulted in the lodge not joining in the establishment of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia in 1871. From the time of Union Lodge's joining the newly formed Grand Lodge in 1872 until his departure for England in 1880, Holbrook had no further contact with Freemasonry. He died at Talbot House in Parkgate, near Neston, England.
Worshipful Master
Lodges No. 368 and No. 880
Prov. Gr. Supt. of Works for Cheshire
Deputy District Grand Master: 1860-1871
District Grand Lodge of British Columbia
Worshipful Master: 1861
Union Lodge No. 1201 E.C.
Source: "Masonic Pioneers", Harry Stewardson, Masonic Bulletin. March 1946 p. 1.
