Clement, L. M

L. M. Clement was an engineer for the Central Pacific Railroad Company.

From the description of Journal of L. M. Clement, 1865, Jan.-June. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 122499716

Biography

Lewis Metzler Clement

Lewis Metzler Clement, known as L.M. Clement, was born in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, on August 12, 1837. Clement earned an engineering degree from Montréal's McGill University. Clement began his career with the railroads as a shipping clerk with the Central Ohio Railroad, eventually moving to St. Louis where he worked for E.R. Blanchard, General Freight Agenet of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway Company. In January 1863, Clement decided to leave St. Louis to seek his fortune in California. With a recommendation from Blanchard, he was able to secure a position from Theodore Dehone Judah, Chief Engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad, as Judah's assistant in the surveying and building of the first railroad eastward across the Sierra Nevada Mountains. With Judah's death, Clement was made Assistant Chief Engineer and eventually the Acting Chief Engineer.

The eastward route from California that Clement laid out for the Central Pacific Railroad is still in use today, while the original westward route from Omaha, Nebraska built by the Union Pacific Railroad was abandoned and rebuilt elsewhere because of its poor location and inefficient operation.

In 1881 Clement was named Chief Engineer of the Pacific Improvement Company, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad. As the Chief Engineer he was in charge of designing and building cable and electric railways, power plants and car houses. Among the cable lines he was responsible for helping to build were the Hayes Street, Castro Street and McAllister Street Cable lines of the Market Street Cable Railway Company.

L.M. Clement passed away at home in Hayward, California on October 29, 1914.

Russell Montague Clement

Russell Montague Clement, known as R.M. Clement, son of Lewis Metzler Clement, was born March 30, 1865 in a camp along the Central Pacific Railroad line. Russell studied civil engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1889. He worked for both the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Pacific Improvement Company and later served as the City Engineer for Oakland, California. R.M. Clement died in 1958.

Market Street Railway Company

The Market Street Railroad Company, incorporated in 1857 was the first street railway system in San Francisco with tracks going down Market Street. Originally operated with steam dummy's pulling the cars, they were switched to horse drawn cars in 1867 after complaints from residents.

In 1882 construction began on converting the lines on Market Street to cable and completed in August 1883. From then on they were known as the Market Street Cable Railway Company. The company eventually had cable lines running down McAllister Street, Hayes Street, Haight Street, Valencia Street and Castro Street, all connecting on Market Street. Henry Root originally designed the system. This cable car line was also know as the Southern Line as it was owned by the same owners of the Southern Pacific Railroad, the "Big 4", Huntington, Hopkins, Crocker and Stanford. L.M. Clement who worked as a Chief Engineer for a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad probably oversaw the engineers in charge of designing the cable car lines.

The Market Street Cable Railway Company came up with many new innovations in cable railways including use of a single car and the single-jaw side grip. Their innovations were reported in 1884, in "The System of Cable Railways for Cities and Towns as Operated in San Francisco and Chicago." The Cable Railway Company, the owners of the original cable car patents, responded in a pamphlet entitled, "Cable Railway Company in Reply to the Pamphlet issued by the Market Street Cable company," and a lawsuit. The Cable Railway Company pursued many lawsuits against other cable car companies. Most failed.

In 1893 the Southern Pacific Company arranged a merger between the Market Street Cable Railway, the Omnibus Railroad and Cable Company, the Ferries & Cliff House Railway, and two horse car operations to become the Market Street Railway Company.

Around the turn of the century the Market Street Railway Co. petitioned to switch their cable car operations to electric railways, but San Francisco did not want electric lines going down Market Street. When the 1906 earthquake hit, the company constructed temporary electric lines on all of their routes except Castro Street. The lines have been electric ever since.

After years of financial problems, in 1944, the San Francisco Municipal Railway bought out the Market Street Railway.

From the guide to the Clement Family Documents Relating to San Francisco Cable Cars, 1877-1958, (bulk 1880-1899), (The Bancroft Library)

Biography

Lewis Metzler Clement was one of the leading civil engineers responsible for surveying and building the eastbound route of the Central Pacific Railroad, contributing to the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. He was born August 12, 1837 in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. He received an engineering degree from McGill University in Montréal. He first worked as a shipping clerk with the Central Ohio Railroad. Later he worked for E. R. Blanchard, General Freight Agent of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway Company in St. Louis, Missouri.

Clement moved from Missouri to California in January 1863. He became the right-hand man of Theodore Dehone Judah, chief engineer of the Central Pacific Railroad. Clement and Judah were central figures in the planning and construction of the first railroad that traveled eastward. In 1863 they began laying track eastward from Sacramento, California across California's Sierra Nevada mountains and through the deserts of the Nevada and Utah territories. The Central Pacific hired thousands of Chinese immigrants to lay the track and blast nine tunnels through the mountains. Shortly thereafter, the Union Pacific began laying track westward from Omaha, Nebraska. The two rail lines met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869, completing the nation's first transcontinental railroad. Clement was made assistant chief engineer upon Judah's death (1863) and later became the acting chief engineer of the project.

In 1881 Clement became chief engineer of the Pacific Improvement Company, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad, for which he designed and built power plants and cable and electric railways in the West. He invented the first electric control system for railroads and designed an "Emigrant Sleeping Car," the forerunner to the Pullman Car.

L.M. Clement died October 29, 1914 in Hayward, California.

From the guide to the Railroads in California, 1876, (University of California, Irvine. Library. Special Collections and Archives.)