William Cary Hattan (1875 - 1929) was born on the family farm in Virginia.
In 1899 he took a degree in civil engineering from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA. Immediately after graduation he began working for railroad companies. In 1904, he became resident engineer on the Cumberland Extension of the Western Maryland Railway and was involved in extensive construction work along the Potomac Valley. The following year, Hattan joined the South and Western Railway (later known as the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway or Clinchfield). His initial work involved helping design and oversee construction of the Loops section along the Blue Ridge Mountains near Little Switzerland, N.C. His work also involved him in helping lay out the modern city of Kingsport, Tenn. He returned to a position with the Western Maryland line for a time before rejoining the CC & O and helping see it to completion. Hattan was chief engineer for the Carolina, Clinchfield and Ohio Railway, with offices in Erwin, Tenn., from 1920 until his death in 1929, following complications from an appendectomy. His daughter, Mary Hattan Bogart wrote a biography of her father using his diaries and photographs in a book titled Conquering the Appalachians: Building the Western Maryland and Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Railroads Through the Appalachian Mountains (Rochester, N.Y.: Railroad Research Publications, 2000).
From the description of William Cary Hattan collection, 1889-1940. (East Tennessee State University). WorldCat record id: 213351805
