Editing Theodore Judah

{{short description|American businessman (1826–1863)}}
{{Infobox person
 | image            = CPRR_Chief_Engineer_Theodore_D._Judah.jpg
 | caption          = Portrait of Judah, {{circa|1862}}
 |birth_name        = Theodore Dehone Judah
 | birth_date       = {{Birth date|1826|3|4}}
 | birth_place      = [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]], U.S.
 | death_date       = {{Death date and age|1863|11|2|1826|3|4}}
 | death_place      = New York City, U.S.
 | resting_place    = 
 | resting_place_coordinates = 
 | other_names      = 
 | known_for        = railroad pioneer
 | education        = [[History of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute|Rensselaer Institute]] in 1837
 | employer         = [[Central Pacific Railroad]]
 | occupation       = Civil engineer
 | title            = Chief Engineer, CPRR
 | spouse           = {{marriage|Anna Pierce|1849}}
 | signature        = Theodore D. Judah Signature.png
 | website          = 
 | footnotes        = 
}}
[[Image:Sacramento Valley Railroad 1854.jpg|thumb|right|Sketch of the [[Sacramento Valley Railroad (1852-1877)|Sacramento Valley RR]] as provided by its engineer, '''Theodore Judah'''.]]

'''Theodore Dehone Judah''' (March 4, 1826 – November 2, 1863) was an American civil [[engineer]] who was a central figure in the original promotion, establishment, and design of the [[First transcontinental railroad]]. He found investors for what became the [[Central Pacific Railroad]] (CPRR). As chief engineer, he performed much of the route [[surveying|survey]] work to determine the best alignment for the railroad over the [[Sierra Nevada]], which was completed six years after his death.

==Early life and education==
Theodore Judah was born in 1826 (perhaps 1825<ref name="birthdate">{{cite web |last1=Huffman |first1=Wendell |title=Theodore Judah's Birthdate |url=http://cprr.org/Museum/Judah_Birthdate.html |website=cprr.org |publisher=Letters to the Editors, Railroad History, 175 |access-date=21 October 2019 |date=1996}}</ref>) in [[Bridgeport, Connecticut]], the son of Mary (Reece) and The Rev. Henry Raymond Judah, an [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]] clergyman.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6YehIsw-eF8C&q=%22Henry+Raymond+Judah,+of+Westport,+Conn.,+and+Mary+Reece,+of+Maryland,+May+10,+1849.%22&pg=PA561|title=Genealogical Notes of New York and New England Families|isbn=9780806305370|last1=Talcott|first1=Sebastian Visscher|year=1973|publisher=Genealogical Publishing Com }}</ref> After his family moved to [[Troy, New York]], Judah attended the [[Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute]], then called the [[History of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute|Rensselaer Institute]] in 1837 for a term<ref name="rpi-alumni">{{cite web |title=Theodore Dehone Judah |url=https://www.rpi.edu/about/alumni/inductees/judah.html |website=rpi.edu |publisher=Alumni Hall of Fame |access-date=21 October 2019 |date=September 2001 |quote=Student in 1837}}</ref> and developed at a young age a passion for engineering and railroads.<ref name="ring">{{cite web |title=Theodore Judah's Golden Ring |url=http://www.uprrmuseum.org/curator/ring.shtml |website=uprrmuseum.org |access-date=21 October 2019 |quote=Even though he had to leave his formal schooling behind at the age of 13, he had developed a passion for [[civil engineering]] and railroads. |archive-date=22 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022233143/http://www.uprrmuseum.org/curator/ring.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref>

At age 23,  Judah married Anna Pierce (1828-1895) on May 10, 1849. Theirs was the first wedding in the then-new St James Episcopal Church of [[Greenfield, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Anon. |title=Anna Feron Pierce |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/10915744/anna-feron-judah |website=Find-A-Grave |access-date=14 December 2020}}</ref>

==Career==
After studying briefly at Rensselaer,<ref name="rpi-alumni" /> Judah went to work on a number of railroads in the Northeast, including engineering for the [[Lewiston Railroad]] down the Niagara Gorge.  He was elected member of the [[American Society of Civil Engineers]] in May 1853; at that time there were fewer than 800 civil engineers in the United States.<ref name="asce2019">{{cite web |title=Golden Spike 150th Anniversary Historical Symposium |url=https://www.asce.org/history-symposia/ |website=ASCE |access-date=19 October 2019 |date=6 May 2019 |archive-date=28 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328183645/https://www.asce.org/history-symposia/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Judah was hired in 1854 at age 28, by Colonel Charles Lincoln Wilson, as the Chief Engineer for the [[Sacramento Valley Railroad (1852–1877)|Sacramento Valley Railroad]] in California.<ref>Kneiss, Gilbert H.  ''Bonanza Railroads,'' p. 7, Stanford University Press, Stanford University, California, 1941.</ref><ref name="putnam2011">{{cite web |last1=Putnam |first1=John Rose |title=Crazy Judah and California's first railroad |url=https://mygoldrushtales.com/crazy-judah-and-california%E2%80%99s-first-railroad/ |website=mygoldrushtales.com |access-date=19 October 2019 |date=June 12, 2011}}</ref> He and his wife Anna sailed to Nicaragua, crossed over to the Pacific, and caught a steamer to San Francisco. Under his charge, Sacramento Valley became in February 1856 the first common carrier railroad built west of the Mississippi River.<ref name="putnam2011"/> Later, he was chief engineer of the [[California Central Railroad]], incorporated 1857,<ref name="noble 2010">{{cite web |last1=Noble |first1=Doug |title=The Sacramento Valley Railroad: The first railroad of the West |url=https://www.mtdemocrat.com/uncategorized/the-sacramento-valley-railroad-the-first-railroad-of-the-west/ |website=Mountain Democrat |publisher=Placerville, California |access-date=9 May 2019 |date=November 2010}}</ref> and the San Francisco and Sacramento Railroad organized in 1856.<ref name="CA1stRR 1880">{{cite web |title=CALIFORNIA'S FIRST RAILROAD. |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDU19110813.2.23&e=-------en--20--1-byDA.rev-txt-txIN-%22california+central%22+%22california+and+oregon%22-------1 |website=cdnc.ucr.edu |publisher=Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 160, Number 44 |date=13 August 1911 |quote=based on an 1880 authority}}</ref>

===Pacific railroad surveys===
In January 1857 in Washington DC, Judah published "A practical plan for building The Pacific Railroad", in which he outlined the general plan and argued for the need to do a detailed survey of a specific selected route for the railroad, not [[Pacific Railroad Surveys|a general reconnaissance of several possible routes that had been done earlier]].<ref name="judah1857">{{cite web |last1=Judah |first1=T. D. |title=A practical plan for building The Pacific Railroad |url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist4/practical.html |website=Virtual museum of the City of San Francisco |publisher=H. Porkinhorn, Washington DC |access-date=21 October 2019 |date=1 January 1857}}</ref>

Nominated in the 1859 California Pacific Railroad Convention in San Francisco, Judah was sent to Washington DC to lobby in general for the [[First transcontinental railroad|Pacific Railroad]].  Congress was distracted by the trouble of pre-Civil War America and showed little interest.  He returned noting that he had to find a specific practical route and some private financial backing to do a detailed engineering survey.<ref name="RogersSpinks2019">{{cite web |last1=Rogers |first1=J. David |last2=Spinks |first2=Charles R. |title=Theodore Judah and the blazing of the first transcontinental railroad over the Sierra Nevada |url=https://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/american&military_history/THEODORE%20JUDAH%20AND%20THE%20BLAZING%20OF%20THE%20FIRST%20TRANSCONTINENTAL%20RAILROAd-Sierra%20Nevada-Rogers.pdf |website=mst.edu |publisher=ASCE Golden Spike 150th Anniversary History Symposium |access-date=21 October 2019 |location=Sacramento, CA |date=May 6, 2019}}</ref>

In the fall of 1860, [[Charles Marsh (railroad builder)|Charles Marsh]], surveyor, civil engineer and water company owner, met with Judah, who had recently built the [[Sacramento Valley Railroad (1852-1877)|Sacramento Valley Railroad]] from Sacramento to Folsom, California.  Marsh, who had already surveyed a potential railroad route between Sacramento and Nevada City, California, a decade earlier, went with Judah into the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  There they examined the Henness Pass Turnpike Company’s route (Marsh was a founding director of that company).  They measured elevations and distances, and discussed the possibility of a transcontinental railroad.  Both were convinced that it could be done.<ref>Lindars, Dom.  Manuscript, ''The Ditches of Nevada City,'' Chapter 24, Stories of Fire and Ice, anticipated publication date: Spring 2023.</ref><ref>“Railroad Route Discovered,” ''The Nevada Journal,'' November 9, 1860, p. 2, Nevada City, California.</ref><ref>Gorman, Richard.  “An Early Nevada City Odd Fellow,” October, 2017.  https://www.nevadacityoddfellows.com/history/charlesmarsh/.  Retrieved September 13, 2022.</ref><ref>Comstock, David Allan.  "Charles Marsh: Our Neglected Pioneer-Genius," ''Nevada County Historical Society Bulletin,'' pp. 9-11, 14-15, Volume 50, No. 2, April 1996, and papers compiled by David Comstock, Searls Historical Library, Nevada City, California.</ref><ref>“Henness Pass Turnpike Co.,” ''Daily National Democrat,'' p. 3, March 22, 1860, Marysville, California.</ref><ref>“Another Pioneer Gone,” ''San Francisco Chronicle,'' p. 3, April 29, 1876, San Francisco, California.</ref><ref>King, R. Joe.  “Nevada Survey Maps,” Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum website.  http://cprr.org/Museum/Maps/Nevada_Survey_Maps/.  Retrieved September 13, 2022.</ref><ref>Wheat, Carl I.  “A Sketch of the Life of Theodore D. Judah,” ''California Historical Society Quarterly,'' p. 250, Volume IV, No. 3, September 1925.</ref>

In November 1860, Judah published "Central Pacific Railroad to California", in which he declared "the discovery of a practicable route from the city of Sacramento upon the divide between Bear River and the North Fork of the American, via Illinoistown (near Colfax), Dutch Flat, and Summit Valley (Donner Pass) to the Truckee River".  He advocated the chosen Dutch Flat-Donner Pass route as the most practical one with maximum grades of one hundred feet per mile and 150 miles shorter than the route recommended in the government's reports.  Much of the Sierra Nevada where the practical routes were located was double-ridged, meaning two summits separated by a valley, Donner Pass was not and thus was more suitable for a railroad.  From Dutch Flat, the Pacific road would climb steadily up the ridge between the North Fork American and Bear Rivers to the Pass before winding down steadily following the Truckee River out of the mountains into the Great Basin of Nevada.  In December 1860 or early January 1861, Marsh met with Theodore Judah and Dr. Daniel Strong in Strong’s drug store in [[Dutch Flat, California]], to discuss the project, which they called the Central Pacific Railroad of California.<ref name="galloway1941">{{cite journal |last1=Galloway |first1=John Debo |title=Theodore Dehone Judah--Railroad Pioneer |journal=Civil Engineering |date=1941 |volume=11 |issue=10 (Nov) and 11 (Dec) |url=http://cprr.org/Museum/Galloway_Judah_ASCE/index.html |access-date=21 October 2019}}</ref><ref name="RogersSpinks2019" />

Judah's youthful interest in the general subject of a Pacific Railroad developed during this period into almost an obsession, his wife observing that...
:"Everything he did from the time he went to California to the day of his death was for the great continental Pacific railway. Time, money, brains, strength, body, and soul were absorbed. It was the burden of his thought day and night, largely of his conversation, till it used to be said 'Judah's Pacific Railroad crazy,' and I would say, 'Theodore, those people don't care,' or 'you give your thunder away.' He'd laugh and say, 'But we must keep the ball rolling."<ref>Wheat, Carl I. “A Sketch of the Life of Theodore D. Judah.” California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3, 1925, pp. 219–271. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25177767. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020. page 227</ref> ''Wheat, A Sketch of the Life of Theodore D. Judah (1925)''

===Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR)===
Failing to raise funds for the Central Pacific project in [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]], Judah succeeded in signing up five [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] merchants, : James Bailey, [[Leland Stanford]], [[Collis P. Huntington]], [[Mark Hopkins, Jr.|Mark Hopkins]], and [[Charles Crocker]]. On June 28, 1861, the Central Pacific Rail Way of California (CPRR) was incorporated with Judah as the chief engineer. At this point in time, Judah had the CPRR backing to survey the route over the Sierra Nevada along which the railroad was to be built during the 1860s, as well as barometric reconnaissance of two other routes, which turned out to be inferior. In a report dated October 1, 1861, Judah discussed the results of the survey, the merits of the chosen Dutch Flat-Donner Pass route,<ref name="galloway ch6">{{cite web |last1=Galloway |first1=John Debo |title=Locating the Central Pacific Railroad |url=http://cprr.org/Museum/Galloway6.html |website=cprr.org |quote=The reports by Judah give details of the location of the line up the Sierra Nevada, based upon his preliminary survey. Later location surveys varied from the original location at a number of places, but the line as built followed his first selection of the ridge between the Yuba and Bear rivers on the north and the North Fork of the American River. The route down the Truckee to the Big Bend at Wadsworth was also followed and it remains today the line of the Southern Pacific eastward from California.|access-date=21 October 2019}}</ref> and the estimated costs from Sacramento to points as far as Salt Lake City.  On October 9, 1861, the CPRR directors authorized Judah to go back to Washington DC, this time as the agent of CPRR, to procure "appropriations of land and U.S. Bonds from the Government to aid in the construction of this road".  The next day, Judah published a strip map (a.k.a. the Theodore Judah map), 30 inches tall by 66 feet long, of the proposed alignment of the Central Pacific Railroad.<ref name="judah map 1861">{{cite web |title=State Archives' 'First Complete Rail Map of the Sierra' Available Digitally, On Public Display for the First Time |url=https://www.sos.ca.gov/administration/news-releases-and-advisories/2019/state-archives-first-complete-rail-map-sierras-available-digitally-public-display-first-time/ |website=CA State Archives |access-date=21 November 2019 |date=7 May 2019}}</ref><ref name="sdr judah map 1861">{{cite journal |title=Central Pacific Railroad: proposed alignment (10 October 1861) |url=https://purl.stanford.edu/gh822ms4734 |website=Stanford Digital Repository |date=1861 |access-date=21 November 2019 |quote=[1] From Barmore Station to Clipper Gap -- [2] From Rattlesnake Bluffs to summit of Sierra Nevada -- [3] From summit of Sierra Nevada to Truckee River -- [4] From Dutch Flat to Rattlesnake Bluffs}}</ref>  On October 11, 1861, Judah boarded a steamer in San Francisco headed for Panama.<ref name="galloway1941" /><ref name="RogersSpinks2019" />

At Washington DC, Judah began an active campaign for a Pacific Railroad bill.  He was made the clerk of the House subcommittee on the bill and also obtained an appointment as secretary of the Senate subcommittee.  On July 1, 1862, President Lincoln signed the [[Pacific Railroad Acts|Pacific Railroad Act]] into law, which authorized the issuance of land grants and U.S. bonds to CPRR and the newly chartered [[Union Pacific Railroad]] for the construction of a [[First transcontinental railroad|transcontinental railroad]].  Judah then went to New York to order supplies and sailed back to California on July 21, 1862, having accomplished his mission in less than a year.<ref name="galloway1941" /><ref name="RogersSpinks2019" />

==Death==
Judah died of [[yellow fever]] on November 2, 1863. He contracted the disease in [[Panama]] on a voyage with his wife to [[New York City]], apparently becoming infected during their land passage across the [[Isthmus of Panama]]. He was traveling to New York to seek alternative financing to buy out the major investors. Anna took his body back to [[Greenfield, Massachusetts]], where he was buried in the Pierce family plot in the Federal Street Cemetery. He died before his dream <ref>{{cite news |last1=Debbie Hollingsworth and Chuck Spinks. |title=The First Transcontinental Railroad |url=https://exhibits.stanford.edu/rr/feature/maps-of-theodore-judah |newspaper=The First Transcontinental Railroad - Spotlight at Stanford |date=3 April 2019 |access-date=14 December 2020}}</ref> of a transcontinental railroad could be completed.

==Legacy and honors==
[[File:Theodore Judah monument 3956.JPG|thumb|Theodore Judah monument (1930), northeast corner of 2nd and L Street in Old Sacramento, CA]]
Within days of Judah's death, the CPRR's first locomotive, ''[[Gov. Stanford]]'', made a trial run over the new railroad's first 500 feet of track in Sacramento, California.
*The CPRR named one of its [[steam locomotive]]s ([[T. D. Judah|CP No. 4]]) after him. Judah crossed paths with the 19-ton locomotive bearing his name while on his way to New York.
* [[Mount Judah]], an 8,243-foot peak in [[Placer County, California]], located adjacent to [[Donner Peak]] and [[Mount Lincoln (California)|Mount Lincoln]] in the Sierra Nevada [[Tahoe National Forest]], was formally named for Judah on October 18, 1940, by the [[United States Board on Geographic Names|U.S. Board on Geographic Names]].<ref>[http://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=136:3:0::NO:3:P3_FID,P3_TITLE:262032,Mount%20Judah "Feature Detail Report for Mount Judah, Placer County, CA  (ID #262032) bound on the west by Sugar Bowl basin, {{convert|1.1|km|mi|abbr=on}} south of Donner Peak and {{convert|1.6|km|mi|abbr=on}} northeast of Mount Lincoln. (US-T121)"] U.S. Board on Geographic Names, Washington, D.C.</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/feat_card?p_file=6681| title = U.S. Board on Geographic Names Decision Card, October 18, 1940}}</ref><ref>[http://onthesummit.net/wordpress/activities/trails/donnerjudah-peaks/ "OnTheSummit: Donner/Judah Peaks] OnTheSummit.net</ref> Running through the mountain about 1,000 below the summit is the 10,322-foot long single track [[Union Pacific Railroad|UPRR]] Sierra Grade [[Tunnel No. 41]] (aka "The Big Hole") which was opened in 1925 and carries both UPRR freight and [[Amtrak]] passenger trains in both directions over Donner Summit between Soda Springs and Eder. This route bypasses the original, now abandoned 1868 CPRR "Summit Tunnel" (No. 6) surveyed by Judah which is located a mile to the north and had remained in service until 1993.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ca2413/ "Central Pacific Transcontinental Railroad, Tunnel No. 41, Milepost 193.3, Donner, Placer County, CA] Library of Congress</ref>
* Judah Street in [[San Francisco]] and its [[N-Judah]] [[SFMTA|Muni]] [[streetcar]] line are named after him.
* Memorial plaques dedicated to him have been erected in [[Folsom, California|Folsom]] and [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]], California
* Elementary schools in Sacramento and Folsom are named after Judah.<ref>{{cite web |title=Theodore Judah Elementary School - Welcome |url=https://www.theodorejudahelementary.org/ |access-date=2 September 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fcusd.org/Page/39/ |title=Theodore Judah Elementary / Homepage |access-date=2016-10-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130014255/http://fcusd.org/Page/39 |archive-date=2016-11-30 }}</ref>

"''In purely engineering retrospect, Judah’s achievements would seem nothing short of providential, especially in comparison to modern route surveying efforts. With a minimal survey crew utilizing crude instruments and only draft animals for transportation, Judah was able to lay out a remarkably accurate alignment across the most difficult natural obstacles undertaken up until that time (1861).''"  J. David Rogers and Charles R. Spinks, ASCE Golden Spike 150th Anniversary History Symposium, Sacramento, CA, May 6, 2019<ref name="RogersSpinks2019" />

==See also==
*[[California and the railroads]]
*[[N Judah]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

'''Sources'''
*Bain, David H. ''Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad'' (2000)
* {{cite book| title= Riding the Transcontinental Rails: Overland Travel on the Pacific Railroad 1865-1881| first = Bruce C.|last = Cooper| location = Philadelphia| publisher=Polyglot Press| year=2005| isbn=1-4115-9993-4}}
* {{cite book| title=The Classic Western American Railroad Routes| first = Bruce Clement|last = Cooper| location = New York| publisher=Chartwell Books/Worth Press| year=2010| isbn=978-0-7858-2573-9}}
*[http://cprr.org/Museum/Galloway4.html John Debo Galloway; ''The First Transcontinental Railroad: Central Pacific, Union Pacific'' (1950)]
*[https://archive.org/details/historycaliforn05hittgoog <!-- quote=theodore judah "central pacific". --> Theodore Henry Hittell, ''History of California'' (1898) vol 4]
* [[Carl Irving Wheat|Wheat, Carl I.]] “A Sketch of the Life of Theodore D. Judah.” California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3, 1925, pp.&nbsp;219–271. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25177767. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
*{{White - America's most noteworthy railroaders}}
*{{cite book|last=White|first=Richard|title=Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|author-link=Richard White (historian)|date=2011|isbn=978-0-393-06126-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/railroadedtransc00whit_0}}
{{commons category|Theodore Judah}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20020507012747/http://www.bushong.net/dawn/about/college/ids100/biographies.shtml Biographies of the Leaders of the Central Pacific Rail Road Company]
*[http://cprr.org/Museum/Galloway4.html Builders of the Central Pacific Railroad]
*[http://cprr.org/Museum/Ephemera/Judah%20Memoriam%20BCC.html In Memoriam: Theodore D. Judah, CPRR Chief Engineer. Died November 2 1863.]
*[http://www.sfmta.com/cms/asystem/routedesc.php?rted=N San Francisco MUNI Route N Judah]
*[http://world.nycsubway.org/us/sf/muni-surface.html San Francisco MUNI Surface Lines]
*{{Find a Grave|6299294}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Judah, Theodore}}
[[Category:First transcontinental railroad]]
[[Category:1826 births]]
[[Category:1863 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Bridgeport, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Deaths from yellow fever]]
[[Category:19th-century American railroad executives]]
[[Category:Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni]]
[[Category:Infectious disease deaths in New York (state)]]
[[Category:American surveyors]]
[[Category:People from Troy, New York]]
[[Category:19th-century American Episcopalians]]