one of the highest authorities in the country.”
James Pugh Kirkwood (1807-77), born in Edinburgh,
came to United States in 1832, was one of the most
eminent engineers in the country, one of the founders
of the American Society of Civil Engineers (1852) and
President (1867-68). James Laurie (1811-75), born
at Bell’s Mills, Edinburgh, Chief Engineer on
the New Jersey Central Railroad, consulting engineer
in connection with the Housatonic Tunnel, and first
President of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
William Tweeddale, born in Ayrshire in 1823, rendered
valuable engineering service in the Civil War, and
was an authority on the sources and character of water
supply. Henry Brevoort Renwick, noted engineer
and expert in patent cases, first inspector of steam
vessels for the Port of New York, was a son of James
Renwick the scientist. David Young, born in Alloa,
Scotland, in 1849, was President of the Consolidated
Traction Lines of New Jersey and General Manager of
the larger consolidated company. William Barclay
Parsons (b. 1859), is partly descended from Colonel
Thomas Barclay, a Tory of the Revolution. Hunter
McDonald (b. 1860), descended from Angus McDonald,
a refugee from Culloden, is a prominent railroad engineer.
T. Kennard Thomson, born in 1864, is prominent as
a bridge builder, designer of pneumatic caissons,
etc. His father came from Stranraer in 1834.
Hugh Gordon Stott, born in Orkney, in 1866, President
of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers
(1907), Superintendent of motive power of Manhattan
Railway System, etc. William Gibbs McNeill
(1801-53), of Scottish parentage, was another engineer
worth mentioning. Theodore Crosby Henry (1841-1914),
“the father of irrigation in Colorado,”
was also of Scottish descent. William McLean
(d. 1839), brother of Judge McLean, was mainly instrumental
in extending the Ohio Canal from Cincinnati to Cleveland.
John Findley Wallace (1852-1920), of Scottish descent,
was chief-engineer of the Panama Canal (1904-05), and
also designed and constructed many important engineering
works. Angus Sinclair (1841-1919), born in Forfarshire,
was an engineer, author of several text-books on engineering,
and editor of the “Railway and Locomotive Engineering.”
SCOTS IN INDUSTRIES
Robert Gilmor (1748-1822), born in Paisley, was the founder of the East India trade in this country. He also assisted in founding the first bank in Baltimore (the Bank of Maryland), and the Maryland Historical Society. His son Robert (1774-1848) was also prominent in Baltimore business and was President of the Washington Monument Association which laid the foundation for the Washington monument in Baltimore in 1815 and completed it in 1829. Henry Eckford (1775-1832), shipbuilder, was a native of Irvine, Ayrshire. On the outbreak of the War of 1812 he built several ships for the American Government for use on the Great Lakes. In 1820 he was appointed Naval Constructor at the