George Westinghouse - Family Background & Short Biographical Sketh by Ed Reis
George Westinghouse (1846-1914)
George Westinghouse, inventor, engineer, businessman and humanitarian, was born at Central Bridge, Schoharie County, New York, October 6, 1846. He was the son of George Westinghouse and Emmeline (Vedder) Westinghouse. The family is of very ancient German origin. As long ago as the ninth century the Westringhausen family was prominent in Westphalia, Germany. In the fourteenth century the family branched out into three wings; one of these emigrated into Russia, another into Holland, and the third into England. The English branch, however, did not remain in England very long, but crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and it was one of the earliest settlers in the state of Vermont. In the early 1800’s George Westinghouse, Sr., who was of an enterprising nature, left the ancestral homestead of his father, John, in Vermont, and went West as far as the state of Ohio. But the unsettled condition of that country prompted him to turn back East, and he then settled at Central Bridge, New York as a farmer. As he was of inventive mind, he made various valuable improvements in farming implements, and this induced him to move in 1856 to Schenectady, N.Y., where he established The G. Westinghouse Company for the manufacturing of farming implements. He married Emmeline Vedder, a descendant of a Dutch-English family of New York settlers. George Westinghouse, Jr. was the eighth of ten children and was raised first in Central Bridge and later in Schenectady, New York. George Westinghouse, Jr. joined the Union Army just prior to his seventeenth birthday and served for a period of two years during the Civil War. At first he was a private who served in both the Twelfth Regiment and Sixteenth Regiments of the New York Volunteer Cavalry. Later, after having passed a special mechanical examination, he transferred to the Union Navy where he became an officer. He was appointed Third Assistant Engineer on the steam powered gunboat U.S.S. Muscoota. He also served on the steam powered U.S.S. Stars and Stripes. Both these ships were used to blockade the Southern ports during the Civil War. George Westinghouse’s first patent, for a rotary steam engine, was issued to him at the age of 19 shortly after the end of the Civil War. A year after the war ended in 1865 George Westinghouse, Jr. invented two railway appliances, a device for replacing derailed cars upon the track, and a reversible steel railroad frog. The formation of a partnership between George Westinghouse, Jr. and two men in Schenectady and the manufacture of these devices in New Jersey did not prove successful. George then went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to have a steel firm in that city make the articles for him, while he went on the road to sell them to railroad companies. This was the beginning of his long stay in Pittsburgh. George Westinghouse, Jr. married Marguerite Erskine Walker, of Kinston-on-the-Hudson, New York, on August 8, 1867, in Brooklyn. She originally stayed with her new husbands parents in Schenectady but later moved to Pittsburgh when George Westinghouse, Jr. established himself well enough to send for her to join him. George Westinghouse’s major breakthrough came with his invention of the Westinghouse air brake. The brake was tested for the first time in April, 1869, on the Burgettstown Accommodation of the Steubenville division of the Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, which was commonly called "The Panhandle Railroad". After the successful trial he formed the Westinghouse Air Brake Company in July of 1869. The first Westinghouse Air Brake Company plant was located on the corner of Twenty-Fifth Street and Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh. George Westinghouse, Jr. went on to form 59 other companies during his lifetime. George and Marguerite Westinghouse had a single child who was born 16 years after they were married. His name was George Westinghouse, III. George Westinghouse, Jr., was truly a pioneer of the industrial age. He had a major impact on railroad transportation, shipping; with the invention of the marine turbine engine, the development of natural gas and electricity. George Westinghouse’s work with alternating current electricity, sometimes referred to as "Westinghouse Current" in the early days, was another of his crowning achievements. It was Westinghouse’s alternating current (ac) that was used to electrify the world. George Westinghouse, Jr. passed away on March 12, 1914 and was buried in New York City. A year later his body and that of his wife Marguerite, who only survived him by 90 days, were moved to Arlington National Cemetery. George Westinghouse, Jr. was a very patriotic American and had made it known before his death that he wanted to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The moving of his body and that of his wife fulfilled that wish. America and the World had lost a great man .... a man who’s efforts had truly benefited mankind. "Long Live the Memory of George Westinghouse"