| Samuel Morse Felton Sr. | |
| Birth Date: | 17 July 1809 |
| Birth Place: | West Newbury, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | Harvard University |
| Spouse: | |
| Children: | 7, including Samuel Morse Felton Jr. |
| Relatives: |
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Samuel Morse Felton Sr. (July 17, 1809 – January 24, 1889) was a civil engineer and railroad executive.
Samuel Morse Felton was born on July 17, 1809, in West Newbury, Massachusetts.[1] At the age of 14, he went into the grocery business and prepared for college. He graduated from Harvard University in 1833.[1]
Felton was the Superintendent and engineer of the Fitchburg Railroad 1843-1851 and president of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (PW&B) from 1851–1865, during the pivotal American Civil War era. In 1865, he suffered a stroke that left him with paralysis and compelled him to resign his role as President of the PW&B.<ref name="sketch"/>
A few months after resigning from PW&B, he became the President of the Pennsylvania Steel Company.[1] While at Pennsylvania Steel, Felton also served on the boards of directors of several railroads, including his former Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, the Northern Pacific Railway, and the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad. In 1869 he was appointed by 18th President Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885, served 1869-1877), as a Commissioner to inspect the trans-continental and Pacific Railroads.[2] He was also appointed by Governor John Albion Andrew as a member of the Hoosac Tunnel Commission.[1]
He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1854.[3]
Felton married Eleanor Stetson in 1839, and together they had three daughters.[1] She died in 1847. In 1850, he married Maria Low Lippitt.[1] Together, they had one daughter and three sons.[1] One of his sons, Samuel Morse Felton Jr. (1853-1930), was also involved like his father with engineering and railroading with several different lines and supervised railroad operations in France on the Western Front in World War I (1914/1917-1918).[2]
Felton was the brother of Harvard College / Harvard University president Cornelius Conway Felton in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and attorney John B. Felton. [4]
He died on January 24, 1889, in Philadelphia.[1]