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Charles Minot (August 30, 1810 - December 10, 1866) was an American railroad executive at the Erie Railroad, where in 1850 he became Superintendent as successor of James P. Kirkwood, and was succeeded by Daniel McCallum in 1854. After the bankruptcy of the Erie in 1859 he was reinstated as general superintendent of the Erie railroad. == Biography == Minot was born at Haverhill, Massachusetts. His father was a judge of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Charles Minot was educated for the law, and graduated at Harvard in 1828.〔William Thomas Davis (1895) ''Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts''. p. 399〕 However, Minot's mind was of a more practical bent, and he learned to be an engineer on the Boston and Maine Railroad, of which railroad he subsequently became superintendent. Minot was one of the first to learn telegraph, and his knowledge of that new science stood him well in his career as superintendent of the Erie, as we have seen in the account of his adapting the telegraph to the use of the railroad. He came to the Erie from the Boston and Maine Railroad. The Erie was then in operation as far west as Elmira. On May 1, 1850 he became General Superintendent as successor of James P. Kirkwood.〔Edward Harold Mott ''(Between the Ocean and the Lakes: The Story of Erie ).'' Collins, 1899. p. 430-31〕 Charles Minot was a large, fleshy man, verv democratic in his manner with his men, meeting them always on an apparent equality. He was a bluff and rude man in his speech, and hasty of temper. A peculiarity of his character was that if he summoned any of the men to his office to "blow them up," he would deliver his pent-up feelings on the first person who happened to come in, although that one was in no way concerned in the trouble on hand, and perhaps knew nothing about it. Minot's mind relieved, all would be serene again, and when the man he had summoned came in, he would be dismissed without a word.〔 Superintendent Minot was continually travelling over the road. He had no special car or retainers, such as general superintendents of to-day are sumptuously equipped with. "Any car is good enough for me," Minot used to say. He frequently travelled with the pay car, to save expense. Until one day in the summer of 1853, he invariably travelled with his car ahead of the engine. He acknowledged that this was a dangerous thing to do, but he said "he could see things better." On the day in question, the car jumped the rails near Almond on the Western Division, at a high embankment there. With him on the car was President Homer Ramsdell and H.G. Brooks. Minot was a powerful man. He was standing on the platform as the car left the track. President Rainsdell and Mr. Brooks rushed for the door to escape, but they never would have got out but for Minot, who seized the president with one hand and Brooks with the other, dragged them through the door, and jumped from the car with them just as it toppled over the bank. That was the list trip Minot ever took over the road with his car in front of the locomotive.〔 The democratic manner of Superintendent Minot had made him objectionable to a number of the Directors long before he declined to enforce the McCallum rules, among them President Ramsdell, so although he had proved himself a capable railroad man, his withdrawal in favor of the strict disciplinarian, McCallum, was agreeable to that element in the Board in more ways than one - but it was costly to the Erie. Minot went from the Erie to the Michigan Southern Railroad, as general manager, a place he held until December 1859. Then he was recalled to the general superintendency of the Erie. He remained at the head of the operative department until December 31, 1864, when he was succeeded by Hugh Riddle. For a time Mr. Minot held an office with the Company known as consulting engineer, but he retired from that and returned to his native place, where he died.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Charles Minot (railroad executive)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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