Frederick Lothrop Ames
Frederick Lothrop Ames (June 8, 1835 – September 13, 1893) was heir to a fortune in railroads and shovel manufacturing. He was Vice President of the Old Colony Railroad and director of the Union Pacific railroad. At the time of his death, Ames was reported to be the wealthiest person in Massachusetts. Ames Family The Ames family was a wealthy family which had lived in Easton for many generations. Frederick's grandfather Oliver Ames Sr. founded the Ames Shovel Works in Easton, Massachusetts. The Shovel Works earned the family a huge fortune, during a time when aggressive canal and railroad expansion was built by the hands of thousands of men using shovels. Frederick's father Oliver Jr. was president of the Union Pacific Railroad during the building of the transcontinental railroad. Frederick's cousin Oliver Ames was governor of Massachusetts 1887–1890. Biography Frederick Lothrop Ames was born June 8, 1835, in Easton, Massachusetts, the only son of Oliver Ames Jr. and Sarah Lothrop. Sarah's father was Hon. Howard Lothrop, of Easton, who was a State Senator; and her brother was George Van Ness Lothrop, minister to Russia during the Grover Cleveland administration. Young Frederick attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Harvard College in 1854. Although he wished to study law, he was persuaded by his father to join the family shovel business. On the death of his grandfather Oliver Ames Sr., he became a member of the firm. In 1876, he became treasurer. On the death of his father in 1877, Frederick became head of the Ames & Sons Corporation; he also inherited five or six million dollars, which he invested in railroads. He married Rebecca Caroline Blair on June 7, 1860 and they had five children. The children were: Helen Angier; Oliver; Mary Shreve; Frederick Lothrop Jr.; and John Stanley Ames. The family had a winter home on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston and their main home was an estate in North Easton, Massachusetts. In 1893 Ames commissioned the 13-story Ames Building in Boston, considered Boston's first skyscraper and its first elevator-dependent building. Ames worked from his offices there. At the time it was the tallest building east of New York City. Ames stood about five feet 11 inches, and weighed about 175 pounds. He was a Unitarian and member of both the Unity Church of North Easton and the First Church in Boston. He was president of the Home for Incurables (the hospital changed its name to St Barnabas Hospital in 1947), of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and of the McLean Insane Asylum (now called the McLean Hospital). Business interests Ames was Vice President of the Old Colony Railroad and director of the Union Pacific Railroad. All told, he served as director of forty railroads, probably more than any other person in the country. He was a director in the Old Colony Steamboat Company. He also owned over six million dollars in Boston real estate, as well as real estate in Kansas City and Omaha. At the time of his death