Thomas Fletcher Oakes

Thomas Fletcher Oakes (July 15, 1843 – March 14, 1919) was president of Northern Pacific Railway from 1888 to 1893.

Thomas Fletcher Oakes
Born(1843-07-15)July 15, 1843
Boston, Massachusetts
DiedMarch 14, 1919(1919-03-14) (aged 75)
Seattle, Washington
OccupationRailroad executive
Signature

Biography

Thomas Fletcher Oakes was born in Boston on July 15, 1843.[1] He entered railway service June 1, 1863; to April, 1879, on Kansas Pacific Railroad; two years secretary to contractors, two years purchasing agent; three years purchasing agent and assistant treasurer; six years general freight agent; one year vice-president; one year five months general superintendent; April 1879, to May 1880, general superintendent Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf and Kansas City, Lawrence and Southern; May 1880, to May 1881, vice-president and general manager Oregon Railway and Navigation Company; May 1881, to November 1883, vice-president Northern Pacific Railway, and November 1883, to 1888, vice-president and general manager.

Oakes was placed in charge of the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad after Charles Barstow Wright formed the Oregon Improvement Company. Harris retained Oakes as executive vice president, after Harris became president of Northern Pacific.[2]

His son, Walter Oakes, of Seattle, a founder of the Alaska Steamship Company, was father of the ethnologist Maud Oakes.[3][4]

Thomas Fletcher Oakes died at his residence at the Sorrento Hotel in Seattle on March 14, 1919.[5]

References
  1. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Vol. I. James T. White & Company. 1893. p. 183. Retrieved April 8, 2021 – via Google Books.
  2. Speidel, William (1967). Sons of the Profits. Seattle: Nettle Creek Publishing Company. pp. 170, 183.
  3. Secretary's Report, Class of 1887, Harvard College, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary 1887-1912, p. 154
  4. Snowden, Clinton A. (1911). History of Washington: The Rise and Progress of an American State. Vol. 5. Century History Company. p. 408. Retrieved April 8, 2021 – via Google Books.
  5. "Pioneer Railroad Executive Is Dead". The Seattle Star. March 14, 1919. p. 4. Retrieved April 8, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  • The Biographical Directory of the Railway Officials of America for 1887. Chicago, Illinois: Railway Age. 1887. p. 236.


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