William Jackson Palmer

William Jackson Palmer (September 18, 1836 – March 13, 1909) was an American civil engineer and veteran of the American Civil War. During the Civil War, he was promoted to brevet brigadier general and received a Medal of Honor for his actions.

In his early career, Palmer helped develop the expanding railroads of the United States in Pennsylvania; this was interrupted by the American Civil War. He served in colorful fashion as a Union Army cavalry Colonel and was appointed to the brevet grade of Brigadier General. After the war, he contributed financially to educational efforts for the freed former slaves of the South.

Heading west in 1867, Palmer helped build the Kansas Pacific Railway. He befriended a young English doctor, Dr. William Abraham Bell, who became his partner in most of his business ventures. Generally Palmer took the role of president with Bell as vice president. The two men are best known as co-founders of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (Rio Grande). The Rio Grande and its successors eventually operated the largest network of narrow gauge railroad in the United States. They were ultimately absorbed by the 21st century Union Pacific Railroad.

Palmer and Bell are notable for helping introduce to the United States the practices of burning coal (rather than wood) for railroad engines and using narrow gauge railways. He helped develop rail-related industries in Colorado, such as a large steel mill near Pueblo. He founded the city of Colorado Springs, in 1871, as well as several other communities. Palmer founded Colorado Springs as a "dry" community, based on his Quaker and temperance beliefs. He funded institutions of higher education and helped found a hospital for tuberculosis, then incurable. Public schools in Colorado Springs were named for both him and his wife, Mary (née Mellen) Palmer, who was known by her nickname of "Queen". A statue of William J. Palmer still stands in downtown Colorado Springs, across from the school named in his honor.

William Jackson Palmer was born in 1836 to a Hicksite sect Quaker family on their Kinsdale Farm in 1836, near Leipsic, Kent County, Delaware. His parents were John and Matilda (Jackson) Palmer. When he was five years old, his family moved to Germantown, then an independent city outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended the private Friends School, and then public schools: Zane Street School and Boys' Central High School.

In 1851, Palmer went to work at the age of 15 in western Pennsylvania as a clerk for Hempfield Railroad's engineering department. Two years later, at age 17, he worked under chief engineer Charles Ellet, Jr. as a rodman. Palmer became transitman for Hempfield in 1854.

Frank H. Jackson, president of Westmoreland Coal Company and Palmer's maternal uncle, encouraged him to go to England to study coal mining and railroads, which he believed were going to be key to United States development. The young Palmer was particularly interested in whether railroad engines could run on anthracite coal rather than wood as fuel. He left in the summer of 1855 for a six-month period, having arranged to write paid articles for Miner's Journal of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, to finance the trip abroad. He also borrowed money from his uncle. While in England, Palmer met with noted railroad engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Robert Stephenson,—and visited railroads, mills, and coal mines.

In 1856, his uncle Jackson hired Palmer to work at Westmoreland Coal Company as the secretary and treasurer. The following year he worked at the Pennsylvania Railroad and became private secretary to President John Edgar Thomson, a successful Quaker businessman. At this time, future industrialist Andrew Carnegie was a peer and secretary to a company vice president. Palmer wrote, Reports of Experiments with Coal Burning Locomotives and learned about running a railroad from Thomson. Palmer began an evaluation of converting steam engines to run on coal, which was more abundant ^{[citation needed]}, rather than wood. His findings were key to changing the type of fuel used to fuel the country's locomotives. He began a relationship with Thomas A. Scott at the Pennsylvania Railroad. Scott was later appointed as Assistant Secretary of War in charge of military transportation during the Civil War.