| Introduction | Historical Background | Chronology | Geography | Biography | Technology | Ownership and Financing | General Bibliography |
The people who designed, built, and operated water-works faced enormous challenges. Brief biographies of those who were involved in multiple systems or were otherwise notable will be included here, while others are noted on pages for individual systems.
| Name |
Lived |
Systems |
| Bacot, Robert Cochran | 1818-1902 | Jersey City; Hackensack; obit |
| Baker, Moses Nelson | 1864-1955 | Edited the four-volume Manual of American Water Works (1888-1897); in 1949 published The quest for pure water; the history of water purification from the earliest records to the twentieth century. Wikipedia entry |
| Ball, Jonathan | 1797-1868 | Inventor and manufacturer of cement-lined wrought-iron pipe; promoted water systems in order to spur sales of his pipe. |
| Ball, Phinehas | 1824-1894 | Worcester; founded the Union Water Meter Company |
| Battin, Joseph | 1807-1893 | Buffalo; Elizabeth; sought water works franchises in several cities; invested in Jonathan Ball's Patent Water and Gas Pipe Company. |
| Baylis, John Robert | 1885-1963 | Chemistry, sanitary engineer and author; developed powdered activated carbon (PAC) for taste and odor control. |
| Bernie, William | 1818-1889 | bio; Water works contractor, built sixty systems with C. L. Goodhue |
| Birkinbine, Henry Peter Miller | 1819-1886 | Germantown (erected first stand-pipe in America, 1851; West Philadelphia; York; chief engineer of Philadelphia Water Department 1858-1861 and 1864-1866. Prepared reports on water supply of Harrisburg, Reading, Allentown, Lebanon, Lancaster, Bethlehem, and other cities.; obituary |
| Birkinbine, John | 1844-1915 | South Bend: York, PA; Obituary |
| Boutelle, Thomas N. | 1845-1905 | Water works engineer, designed many systems in the Midwest | biography . |
| Bragg, Braxton | 1817-1876 | New Orleans; Columbus, GA; Wikipedia page |
| Bullock, Samuel R. | 1847-1908 | Build more than twenty water works in the late 1880s. |
| Cassin, Isaac Sharpless | 1826-1897 | Bio; Grave, Philadelphia, another bio |
| Chesbrough, Ellis Sylvester | 1813-1886 | Boston; Chicago; Kalamazoo: Memphis; Milwaukee; Pittsburgh; Jacksonville, Illinois; Toronto; Akron; Cambridge; and New York City. |
| Church, Benjamin Silliman | 1836-1910 | New York City. Chief Engineer of Croton Aqueduct; Helped President Abraham Lincoln repair a Worthington pump in the White House in May, 1861 while he was stationed in Washington as an Army Captain. bio |
| Clark, Patrick | 1818-1887 | Installed first mechanical filter at Rahway, New Jersey in December, 1879 and was a founder of the Newark Filtering Company. |
| Cook, Josiah Davis | 1830-1902 | Fort Wayne; Marion; Sandusky: Toledo; Galveston. Obituary - Designed and construtetd water-works plans in some 63 cities in the United States. |
| Coverdale, Robert Todd | 1822-1901 | Designed and built gas and water works with William C. Weir and Truman Cowell; grave; obituary |
| Cowell, Truman | 184-1895 | Built several water works; grave |
| Croes, John James Robinson | 1834-1907 | bio: New York City; Washington; Cincinnati; Newark; Syracuse; Indianapolis; The Statistical Tables of American Waterworks |
| Daniel, Trevors | 1827-1888 | Built water works in Clarksville, TN; Birmingham, AL: Cairo, IL; New Albany, IN; Dallas, TX; and Little Rock, AR |
| Davis, John | 1770-1864 | Philadelphia; Baltimore |
| Disbrow, Levi | 1785-1863 | Promoter of artesian wells; held several patents. |
| Douglass, David Bates | 1790-1849 | New York City; Albany |
| Eastman, Cyrus | 1787-1862 | Natchez; Manchester |
| Easton, Alexander | 1828-1874 | Rochester, Milwaukee |
| Emes, Luther | 1760-1827 | Boston; Keene, Lansingburgh, New York. |
| Erdman, Frederick | 1791-1862 | Philadelphia; Harrisburg; Lancaster; Alexandria; Frederick; University of Virginia |
| Freeman, William R. | 1846-1890 | Austin, San Antonio, Waco, Cuero |
| Fuller, George Warren | 1868-1934 | Expert in filtration | Wikipedia page | |
| Geist, Clarence Henry | 1866-1938 | Owned the Indianapolis Water Company from 1912 to 1938 and the Philadelphia Suburban Water Company from 1924 to 1938. Wikipedia entry |
| Gilman, Benjamin Clark | 1763-1835 | Portsmouth: Exeter: Boston: Salem: New London. |
| Goodhue, Charles Leonard | 1838-1912 | Water works contractor, built sixty systems with William Birnie |
| Graff, Frederick | 1775-1847 | Philadelphia; consulting on 37 other systems. |
| Graff, Jr., Frederick | 1817-1890 | Philadelphia; also engineered several other systems after 1872, superintendent in Philadelphia from 1847 to 1856 and again from 1867 to 1872 |
| Gray, Carroll Eugene | 1851-1890 | Constructed several water works in the 1870s and 1880s, and owned the Fergus Falls Water Works in Minnesota. |
| Hanchett, Walter P. | 1827-1882 | Started building water works in Niles, MI; made proposals in Appleton, WI; Ann Arbor, MI and Yankton SD |
| Hazen, Allen | 1869-1930 | Expert in hydraulics, flood control, water purification and sewage treatment. | Wikipedia page | |
| Hermany, Charles | 1830-1908 | Louisville; Cincinnati; Bowling Green; Frankfort; obituary |
| Hobbie, Isaac Smith | 1820-1909 | Manufacturer of Wyckoff wood water pipes, built water works in Elmira |
| Holly, Birdsill | 1820-1894 | Manufacturer of pumping engines; inventor of direct pressure water supply; designed and built several water system |
| Howland, Arthur Henshaw | 1852-1923 | Built and owned several water works in the 1880s; partner with George A. Ellis and William F Ellis in firm of Howland & Ellis |
| Jervis, John Bloomfield | 1795-1885 | New York City Croton Aqueduct; Boston Cochituate Aqueduct, Hamilton, Ontario; Brooklyn |
| Jones, Benjamin Franklin | 1831-1912 | 5th president of American Water Works Association; Kansas City |
| Jones, James A. | 1851-? | Built some 15 water works in the 1880s |
| Ketcham, Alonzo R. | 1814-1890 | Buffalo, Memphis, Atlanta |
| Kuhn, James Speer | 1853-1928 | Founder of American Water Works and Guarantee Company |
| Kuhn, William Speer | 1856-1944 | Founder of American Water Works and Guarantee Company |
| Latrobe, Benjamin | 1764-1820 | Philadelphia; New Orleans. Architect of the U.S. Capital and many other buildings. |
| Leach, Caleb | 1755-1837 | Plymouth; Boston, Philadelphia, New York City. 1797 patent for machine to bore wooden logs for pipe |
| Ledoux, John Walter | 1860-1932 | Chief Engineer of the American Pipe Manufacturing Company (1891-1920) for which he designed and built many water works for the company, later he was an active consulting engineer for many water works systems. Obituary (1939); bio (1908) |
| Lockwood, John | 1814-1891 | Frankfort KY; Dayton, Columbus, Zanesville, Sandusky, Steubenville OH; Newport RI; Dallas, Fort Worth, TX; New Albany, Madison IN; Milwaukee, Janesville, WI: West Troy NY; New York City. | obituary | |
| Loweree, James M. | 1815-1881 | Long Branch; Houston; Perth Amboy; Knoxville |
| Mahan, Frank M. | 1826-1917 | Memphis; Kansas City; President of National Water Works Company |
| Marsh, Daniel | 1800-1873 | Bridgeport; Rochester |
| Mason, Charles | 1804-1882 | Burlington, IA; head of US patent office; patent attorney |
| McAlpine, William Jarvis | 1812-1890 | Buffalo, Albany; Brooklyn, Chicago; New Bedford; Norfolk; Hartford; Buffalo; Troy; Schenectady; New York City; Burlington, Vermont; Manchester; New Hampshire; Wilmington, Delaware.; San Francisco. Also Toronto and Montreal, Canada. |
| McClallan, William C. | 1828-1888 | Built water works at New Haven, Windsor, Chicopee, Quincy, Weymouth, Sharon, Cohasset, S. Framingham and Marblehead |
| Meigs, Montgomery Cunningham | 1816-1892 | Washington Aqueduct |
| Moffett, John Fletcher | 1841-1917 | Partner in Hinds, Moffet & Co, and Moffett, Hodgkins & Clarke; built more than 65 water works from 1884 to 1893, owning more than forty of them. |
| Morgan, George Cadogan | 1833-1913 | Built more than thirty water systems in the Midwest; death notice |
| Morison, Nathaniel | 1779-1819 | Contracted to built Natchez water works, died of yellow fever. Grandfather of Samuel L. Morison and great-grandfather of naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison |
| Morison, Samuel Lord | 1851-1907 | President of Morison-Jewell Filtration Company |
| Norman, George Henry | 1827-1900 | Built many water works; obituary; Middletown, CT; Newburyport, Frnaklin, New Bedford, Lowell, Beverly, Lynn and Gloucester, Mass.; Manchester, NH; Newport, Bristol, Warren and Jamestown, R.I.; Seneca Falls and Hoosac Falls, NY; Frankford, Ind; Waukesaw, Green Bay, and Fort Howard, Wis.; also manufactured cement-lined wrought-iron pipes. |
| Parks, Charles Francis | 1853-1903 | Partner in Wheeler & Parks of Boston, built and bought several water works. |
| Payson, Charles Henry | 1853-1933 | Owned and financed numerous water systems and help found the American Water Works and Guarantee Company. |
| Pearsons, Galen W. | 1833-1907 | Ogdensburg, Kansas City, Marshall, MO; Rockaway Beach, NY: Potsdam, Bangor, Olathe, Memphis, Pueblo, Leavenworth, New Orleans; obituary |
| Pillsbury, Joseph L. | 1829-1873 | Columbus, Dayton, |
| Prescott, Benjamin | 1755-1825 | Northampton; Albany. Later superintendent of the Springfield Arsenal. |
| Richardson, Joseph | 1814-1897 | Bridgeport; Laramie; Houston |
| Runkle, Daniel | 1845-1914 | Son of Daniel Runkle; Houston; Hackensack; Alliance, OH; Council Grove KS; Plainview NJ; president of Warren Foundry and Machine Company |
| Schussler, Hermann | 1842-1919 | San Francisco, Virginia City, Pioche, Tuscarora | Wikipedia page | |
| Scowden, Theodore Ransom | 1815-1881 | Cincinnati; Madison, Indiana; Cleveland; Louisville; Dubuque; Newport, Kentucky; Sidney, Ohio; San Francisco |
| Shelton, Nathan | 1846-1896 | Omaha, Freeport, Galesburg |
| Starr, Jr., Jesse W. | 1845-1928 | Charleston, Joliet, Marion, Eau Claire |
| Stein, Albert | 1785-1874 | Lynchburg; Richmond; Nashville; New Orleans; Mobile. |
| Stripe, William C. | 1812-1888 | Keokuk; Principal founder of American Water Works Association. |
| Taylor, Lucien Arnold | 1846-1914 | Partner with William C. McClallan; built many water works in New England; biography |
| Tubbs, Joseph Nelson | 1832-1909 | Rochester, Mt. Morris, Medina, Geneseo, Geneva, Syracuse. |
| Venner, Clarence H. | 1856-1933 | Denver, Omaha, Alton, Urbana, OH. Involved in much litigation. |
| Walker, Miciah | 1835-1929 | Built more than fifteen water works after 1880. Death notice |
| Ward, John Frothingham | 1830-1902 | Jersey City: Hackensack; Providence; New York City; patented a widely-used flexible pipe joint in 1863. Obituary |
| Watts, Sylvester | 1837-1912 | Built many gas and water works in the Midwest; grave; obituary |
| Weir, William C. | 1840 -1876 | Covington, Ironton, Evansville, Portsmouth, Anamosa, Muscatine |
| Wheeler, William | 1851-1932 | Partner in Wheeler & Parks of Boston, built and bought several water works. |
| Wiley, Solon Lysander | 1840-1926 | Built twenty-six water systems. |
| Woodruff, James Orton | 1840-1879 | Indianapolis; Kansas City, MO; obituary |
| Worthington, Henry Rossiter | 1817-1880 | Manufacturer of pumping engines and water meters |
© 2018 Morris A. Pierce