as he had abundant occasion to show during the whole of his engineering life.  He was, indeed, uncommonly fertile in expedients, as all who knew him testify, and the greater the demand upon his originality, the higher did he rise to meet the occasion.  The time spent in Lowell was not only to the great advantage of the company, but it increased also his own stores of mechanical knowledge, and in a direction, too, which in later years was of especial value to him.

In 1837 the condition of the Stonington Railroad became such as to demand the continual presence and attention of the engineer.  Mr. Whistler therefore moved to Stonington, a place to which he became much attached, and to which he seems during all of his wanderings to have looked with a view of making it finally his home.  While engaged upon the above road he was consulted in regard to many other undertakings in different parts of the country, and prominent among these was the Western Railroad of Massachusetts.

This great work, remarkable for the boldness of its engineering, was to run from Worcester through Springfield and Pittsfield to Albany.  To surmount the high lands dividing the waters of the Connecticut from those of the Hudson called for engineering cautious and skillful as well as heroic.  The line from Worcester to Springfield, though apparently much less formidable, and to one who now rides over the road showing no very marked features, demanded hardly less study, as many as twelve several routes having been examined between Worcester and Brookfield.  To undertake the solution of a problem of so much importance required the best of engineering talent, and we find associated on this work the names of three men who in the early railroad enterprises of this country stood deservedly in the front rank:  George W. Whistler, William Gibbs McNeill, and William H. Swift.  McNeill had graduated from the Military Academy in 1817, and rose to the rank of major in the Topographical Engineers.  Like Whistler, he had been detailed to take charge of the design and construction of many works of internal improvement not under the direction of the general government.  These two engineers exercised an influence throughout the country for many years much greater than that of any others.  Indeed, there were very few works of importance undertaken at that time in connection with which their names do not appear.  This alliance was further cemented by the marriage between Whistler and McNeill’s sister.  Capt.  William H. Swift had also graduated from the Military Academy, and had already shown marked ability as an engineer.  Such were the men who undertook the location and construction of the railroad which was to surmount the high lands between the Connecticut and the Hudson, and to connect Boston with the Great West.