PLUMBE, John Jr.

John Plumbe championed the idea of a transcontinental railroad.

Iowa News May 5, 1838-An advertisement placed by Plumbe for the sale of property. Photo courtesy: Diane Harris

PLUMBE, John, Jr. (Wales, 1809-Dubuque, IA, May 29, 1857). Father of the transcontinental railroad. Plumbe emigrated to the United States in 1821 and settled in Dubuque in 1836 as a land speculator. (1) He purchased and sold several downtown lots by November of that year and the following year advertised property along the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. He later established the Wisconsin General Land Office in Dubuque. (2)

Using his pen name "Iowaian," Plumbe soon began promoting a railroad link to the Pacific coast. (3) Using his skills as a surveyor, cartographer, writer and speaker, Plumbe convinced audiences throughout the Midwest of the potential of RAILROADS in the West, while his brother ran their photography business. Plumbe also served as president of the Board of Trustees for the Village of Dubuque in 1837 and secretary of the Dubuque Literacy Association and the Temperance Society. In 1838 he drafted a resolution to Congress for improved postal routes.

In Dubuque on March 26, 1838, a committee of five, including Plumbe, wrote a petition to Congress describing their plan for a transcontinental railroad and giving reasons for its construction. Plumbe's booklet entitled Sketches of Iowa and Wisconsin described the potential of western lands in terms any marketing person would still admire. (4) Plumbe envisioned a connection between Lake Michigan and the MISSISSIPPI RIVER at or near Dubuque. George W. JONES, then a member of Congress, obtained an appropriation to help pay the costs of locating this route.

Plumbe, one of the first practitioners of daguerreotype photography, established the Plumbe National Daguerrian Gallery in Boston and New York in 1840. He briefly lived in Washington, D.C., and became the capital's first professional photographer. His PLUMBEOTYPE pictures became popular. Plumbe took the earliest surviving photograph of the U. S. Capitol, the earliest picture of a president in office (James K. Polk), and thousands of portraits of important people. (5) He pioneered brand name recognition by obtaining patent rights for color photography and published a magazine filled with illustrations based on his photographs. (6) Only thirty-one of his portraits, however, are known to survive.

Plumbe sold his studio and equipment to his employees and returned to Dubuque in 1847. A group of citizens on March 26,1847, concerned that others were receiving credit for Plumbe's ideas, proclaimed him the originator of the idea for the transcontinental railroad.

To aid in financing the project, Plumbe proposed in 1847 that the government grant land in alternate sections along the route to companies involved in construction. For its assistance, the government would have perpetual free use of the road. In addition, Plumbe proposed a stock issue at ten dollars per share; the railroad would be managed by a board of directors; and missionaries, ministers and editors, among others, would be able to ride free.

It was reported in 1849 that Plumbe, at his own expense, inspected a practical route for the railroad through South Pass. While in California, he served as a surveyor and register of the Settlers Association in Sacramento. He worked as a customs inspector for the port of San Francisco in 1852, entered California state politics, and continued to lobby Congress for a Pacific railroad. (7)

Plumb returned to Dubuque in 1856 and with his brother Richard established a steam-powered mill near Cottage Hill, Iowa. They also opened a patent agency in Dubuque. (8) Besides writing five articles for the San Francisco Placer Times about transcontinental railroads, Plumbe lived quietly with his brother on the corner of Iowa and 14th STREETS.

It is suspected that the 1855 publication of the Pacific Railroad Surveys by the Secretary of War, reporting the same route Plumbe had originally described years earlier, led Plumbe into depression and suicide.

The location of Plumbe's grave was not known until 1975 because of the loss of burial records from 1857, the year of Plumbe's death. A distant relative produced documents showing that he had been buried in an unmarked grave in the Plumbe family plot at LINWOOD CEMETERY. Through efforts of Cliff Krainik of Arlington Heights, Illinois, the founder of the John Plumbe, Jr. Memorial Association and the DUBUQUE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY a five hundred dollar gravestone was dedicated at Plumbe's grave on Memorial Day in 1977.

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Source:

1. Hudson, David; Bergman, Marvin; Horton, Loren. The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2008, p. 411

2. Ibid.