One of the many railroad presidents who began life on a farm is
Melville Ezra Ingalls. He was born at Harrison, Maine, September 6,
1842. Brought up on his father’s farm, he had his full share of hard
work during boyhood. He was first educated at Burlington academy, later
at Bowdoin college, and graduated from the Harvard law school in 1863.
Establishing himself in practice in Gray, Maine, he soon found that
the village was too small for his hopes and ambitions, so he removed
to Boston. There he became identified with political affairs and was
elected a member of the Massachusetts senate in 1867. In 1870 he was
made the president of the Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Lafayette
railroad, which was then in a bankrupt condition. A year later he was
made receiver for the road. Then it was that Mr. Ingalls’ genius for
railroading began to show itself. With the aid of the organization
in 1873 and 1880, he put the successor of the road, which was the
Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago, on a sound footing,
subsequently consolidating it with other roads under its final title of
the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis railroad, now known as
the “Big Four” system. Mr. Ingalls is president of the road, and up to
February, 1900, was also president of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad.
Mr. Ingalls’ successes have left him the same charitable, genial and
approachable individual that he was when a struggling lawyer in a
little village in Maine.