Biographical Note

Henry G. McClellan was born in Coila, NY on August 5, 1847. He was the son of William McClellan. He graduated from RPI in 1869 with a degree in civil engineering. After working briefly on the Hoosac Tunnel and the survey of the town of Morrisania, NY, McClellan was appointed as a civil engineer to the government of Ecuador, South America, in 1870. In Ecuador he worked on reconnaissance for a road uniting Quito with the coast, through the province of Esmerladas. He also worked on a survey of the towns of New Ibarra and Otavalo, which had been destroyed in an 1868 earthquake. He then worked on construction of the Esmeraldas road, and finally on the survey and construction of the Southern Railroad designed to unite the carriage road from Quito with the coast near Guayaquil.

In 1874, McClellan married Agnes French who traveled with him to Ecuador. The couple had two children.

McClellan had built some twenty miles of the railroad when, in 1875, his health failed. He returned to the United States, settled in California, and was employed for the next four years as an engineer of the Pacific Bridge Company of San Francisco.

McClellan moved on to become chief engineer of the Oregon and Nevada Railroad. He worked on its survey, design and construction until the railroad suspended work in 1882. He then moved to Tacoma, Washington, where he was engaged as construction engineer for the large coal bunkers of the Northern Pacific Railroad, a project described in an illustrated article of the November 24, 1883 Scientific American. During an inspection of this work, Henry McClellan fell off a trestle and eventually died from his injuries.

Scope and Content

The Henry G. McClellan Papers cover the period 1859-1882. The collection contains correspondence, student work from McClellan’s years at RPI, notes, a few miscellaneous printed items, and McClellan’s microscope. Series 1 – Correspondence, and Series 2 – General, are both arranged chronologically.

The family correspondence documents McClellan’s travels, life, and work. Many letters are from his years in Ecuador, South America, 1870-1875; these record his responses to a country where custom, geography, and political life were unfamiliar and where his work was often done under difficult conditions. Several letters are from the time of residence in California, 1875-1880, where he worked as engineer for the Pacific Bridge Company. Correspondence from Nevada, in 1880-1881, includes family news and his engineering challenges as Chief Engineer for the Nevada and Oregon Railroad. The last letter, from Tacoma, Washington in 1882 touches on his work as construction engineer on the Northern Pacific Railroad.

The student material includes work for several courses McClellan took at RPI, some notes and several printed programs for academic exercises. Material concerning the RPI Class of 1869, of which McClellan was at one time treasurer has been removed to a separate file.

The McClellan papers were given to RPI in two gifts by Helen MacArthur of Cambridge, New York in 1984 and 1985.

Inventory

Series 1 - Correspondence

Series 2 - General