Person

John Edgar Thomson (Pennsylvania civil engineer and railroad president)

b. 1808-02-10 d. 1874-05-27

Pennsylvania civil engineer and railroad president. Delaware County, Pennsylvania native. Son of John Thompson. Married to Lavinia Thomson. Father of Ada Thomson and Edgar Thomson. Civil engineer on the Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad in 1827. Transferred to the Camden & Amboy Railroad in 1830. Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad from Augusta to Atlanta from 1836 to 1845. General manager of the Georgia Railroad from Augusta to Atlanta from 1845 to 1847. Co-owner and consulting engineer of the West Point Railroad in Alabama and laid out the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad. Chief Engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1847. President of the Pennsylvania Railroad beginning in 1852 to 1874.

Details

Sex
Male
Race
White

Bibliography

Eighth Manuscript Census of the United States (1860), Population Schedule, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia County, Philadelphia, Ward 8, p. 115; "J Edgar Thompson: Sketch of his Career," The Indiana Democrat (Indiana, Pennsylvania), June 4, 1874, p. 2; Find A Grave, "John Edgar Thompson (1808-1874)," Memorial #13231040, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13231040&ref=acom (accessed May 10, 2017).

Citation

Thomson, John Edgar. Accessed via the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition, https://discovery.civilwargovernors.org/document/S32209274 (November 12, 2026).

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