Horace J. Hayden

Horace J. Hayden, or, as he was more affectionately known by his intimate friends, “Johnny Hayden,” was one of the most thoroughly equipped railroad men, in his special branch, in the United States.

He came of a prominent and honored Boston family, and graduated at Harvard in the class of 1860. At the outbreak of the Civil War he entered the regular Army and rose to be Major of the 4th Artillery, with a record of brilliant service. After its close he was from 1868 in the service of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy road, and the Missouri River, Fort Scott & Gulf railroads. In 1873 he became the general freight agent of the Boston & Albany Railroad. In 1880 he was called to the service of the New York Central & Hudson River road as its General Traffic Manager, afterwards having charge also of its passenger business, and in 1885 he became its Second Vice-President. He represented the road in the Trunk Line Association, and when Albert Fink resigned as its chairman, Mr. Hayden succeeded him. He was the representative in the Joint Traffic Association, formed in 1896, of all the Vanderbilt lines, and chairman of the Board of Managers during its entire existence. He was known as a master of that part of the railroad problem of regulating rates between competitive points, for which his imperturbability of temper, his accurate knowledge of his own road’s interests, his mastery of men having different interests over a wide field, eminently fitted him. He acquitted himself in that position with great credit, and was recognized as a leader whose efforts to conserve railroad property were of the highest quality and deserving of great reward. He was a man of most cultivated tastes and wide reading, the very soul of honor, an ardent lover of music in which all his family shared, and his principal pleasure was conducting a family orchestra made up of himself and his children. Personally he was one of the most attractive of men, enthusiastic, joyous, with a keen sense of humor, of quick appreciation, responsive, manly and generous, and the most loyal of friends. All who knew him loved him, and sorrow that they shall see his face no more.

Henry E. Howland
1901 Century Association Yearbook