JOHN MIFFLIN HOOD

When the active career of John Mifflin HOOD, railroad president, was brought to a close in December 1906, one of the most conservative newspapers of the South said in an editorial: "Probably no citizen of Baltimore within the memory of men of this generation contributed more largely to the material welfare and prospertity of this city and of the State of Maryland than did John Mifflin Hood".

He was born in Bowling Green, near Sykesville, Maryland, on April 5, 1843. His father, Dr. Benjamin Hood, was a practicing physician who had married Miss Hanna Mifflin Coulter of Baltimore. Their son studied in the elementary schools of Howard and Harford counties and later entered Rugby's Institute at Mount Washington from which he was graduated in 1859. Previous to this, however, he had developed a passion for highter mathematics and engineering, and he sought at once an opportunity to gratify his desire to become an engineer.

At the age of sixteen, he began his career as a railroad man. His first service was with an engineering corps, then constructing a new line for the Delaware Railroad. this corps of builders was subsequently engaged to construct portions of the Eastern Shore Railroad of Maryland and young Hood continued with it. During the first two years of his work as an engineer, he gave his superiors such evidences of his ability as prompted them to advance him to the position of assistant engineer.

In August of 1861, determined to try a field with which he was unacquainted, but of which he hoped greater things than he had been able to attain in the somwhat restricted home territory where he had worked from 1859 to 1861, he went to Brazil. The conditions in South America did not, however, prove as promising as he had anticipated. At about the time when the enthusiastic young engineer had become discouraged with the outlook in Brazil, he received news of the struggle between the North and South; and he determined to cast his lot with the Confederate States. Hastening home to Baltimore, he soon ran the blockade and placed himself at the service of the Confederacy.

He was at first assigned as topographical engineer and draughtsman to the engineering corps engaged in constructing the road from Danville, Virginia to Greensboro, North Carolina, now known as the Piedmont Division of the Southeran Railway. When the work upon which he had been engaged was completed, preferring to perform active military duty, he declined a commission in the engineering corps and enlisted as a private in Company C of the 2nd Maryland Infantry, Army of Northern Virginia. He served with this company until the spring of 1864. But men of his training were both valuable and scarce in the South and he consented to return to his original work, receiving a commission as second lieutenant in Company B., 1st Regiment of of engineering troops. He held this position until the surrender at Appomattox. He was wounded seven times in various engagements; and at Stanard's Mill, during the Spottsylvania campaign, he had his left arm shattered above the elbow. Although at first the surgeons despaired of saving the arm, in course of time, the injury was entirely cured.

Returning from the battlefield to his native state, in September of 1865 he was engaged by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad to make surveys for the extension of the line of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central between the Susquehanna River and Baltimore. He was next placed in charge of the work of the same company upon the Port Deposit branch; and at the same time, as chief engineer of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad, he constructed the line through Cecil County to the Susquehanna. Subsequently he was appointed superintendent, as well as chief engineer, of the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central; and in 1870 he assumed the duties of superintendent of the Florida Railroad, later known as the Atlantic, Gulf and the West India Transit Company. His services were engaged by the Oxford and York Railroad, a narrow gauge line in Pennsylvania in November 1871; while performing the duties of this office, he also served as chief engineer of a projected line which was known as the Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York Railroad, the construction of which was discontinued by the panic of 1873.

Throughout these years, Mr. Hood was gaining the experience and the valuable techinical knowledge which were to serve him so well in the greatest undertaking of his life, the rehabilitation of the Western Maryland Railroad. On the surface of things, there appeared little to attract a man of his ability to such a position as the Western Maryland could offer him in 1874 and yet he was drawn to it, because of his affection for his native state and his belief that he could make the road of great value to Maryland. The company of which he soon became president was at that time in a very precarious condition. The road had been fostered by the City of Baltimore; but it seemed destined to exist only as a parasitic enterprise, draining the city's finances and offering no return. Baltimore had become involved in the project from the desire to recover the trade of the Cumberland Valley which centered at Hagerstown and was being diverted to Philadelphia.

At the time when Mr. Hood formed this connection with the Western Maryland, the company was sorely in need of an efficient executive. At the suggestion of the president of the road, Mr. Hood's name was considered for an official position and he was elected vice president and general superintendent. A few months later, on March 24, 1874, upon the resignation of the temporary president, he was elected president and general manager of the Western Maryland. To the duties of these two offices were added those of chief engineer of the road and Mr. Hood continued to perform the services devolving upon the incumbent of these three positions for nearly thirty years. until 1902.

The Western Maryland had just completed its road to the canal at Williamsport. The system then had a trackage of ninety miles, most of which was in wretched condition and could not be operated with profit. The company possessed almost no equipment; its trains were unsafe for travel and its freight was poorly handled. The Western Maryland in 1874 was absolutely bankrupt; the taxpayers of Baltimore were annually required to pay large sums of money in interest upon loans for the enterprise. Washington County was also heavily involved in the line.

Such were the conditions in 1874, when Mr. Hood became president of the Western Maryland; but before he resigned as president, the road had been placed in first class condition; it operated more than four hundred and fifty miles of track; its equipment was that of the best railroads; and the city's burden of carrying a large part of the expense of the Western Maryland had been converted into an interest in the road for which the purchaser of the company was willing to pay more than nine million dollars. In addition to these results, the country traversed by his road had been developed into one of the favorite summer resorts, as well as one of the most profitable farming and dairying sections of the Atlantic seaboard.

It was the result of this advanicng prospertiy which deprived the Western Maryland of the services of President Hood in 1902. On account of the advantageous sale he was able to consummate for the city of Baltimore and Washington County, and as a consequence of this sale, his activities were directed to a new field. The street railways of Baltimore, some time before merged into one large company, needed an executive who would be able to perform the same work there which President Hood had done in connection with the Western Maryland. The United Railways and Electric company invited Mr. Hood to become its president and in view of the fact that the city had sold its interest in the railroad, he decided to tender his resignation, which was finally accepted with reluctance by the railroad company, and assumed the presidencey of the street railway system. There was nothing in the business life of President Hood which gave him as great pain as did his seperation of the employees who had stood by him during his twenty-eight years as president of the road for which all had labored together.

President Hood came to the United Railways at an opportune time. He had been with the street railways company but a short while when the great fire crippled the system. Through his unceasing labors and untiring energy, the various lines were early restored to their normal condition. Through his instrumentality, too, the financial condition of the company was greatly improved. He was the advocate of progress, whatever the field in which he labored. He overtaxed his physical powers in his endeavors to improve the street railways system of Baltimore and, as a direct result, he suffered the physical breakdown which was followed by this death on December 17,. 1906.

The two greatest acomplishments of President Hood's life - his rehabilitation of the Western Maryland Railroad and his rebuillding of the United Railways after the Baltimore fire of 1904 - represented each a twofold attainment. The companies for which he labored, were both crippled for funds, as well as being somewhat involved in disputes with the people from whom additional funds must come, if they were to come at all. In both instances, he won the things for which he had striven, and with it, he also gained the confidence of the people, who, as a mark of respect and esteem, gave him the title of "General", by which he was always known. He was a man who accomplished remarkable things, and their accomplishment was all the more remarkable because of the quiet way in which he labored. The secret of his success lay in his unwavering fearlessness and determiniation; and in his uniform courtesy. His most marked characteristic was perhaps that of being ever the gentleman. Regarded as the largest contributor to the prosperity of Baltimore and of Maryland during his generation, he was still most unaffected and cordial in his manner and the most approachable of men. The source of his greatness really lay in his approachableness. His employees, when thay had occasion to confer with him, found in him one who made the task simple for them. It was neither difficult to see him nor to obtain his advice, and it was this democracy of his administration that won him the hearty support of those under him and made possible the apparently impossible things which he accomplished.

General Hood was married to Miss Florence Eloise Haden and had six children. Mrs. Hood is a native of Goochland County, Virginia and a first cousin of the late P.W. McKinney, who served as governor of Virginia. There were two sons, both of whom followed their father's professsion as civil engineers, and four daughters.   (pages 192-198)