WASHINGTON LAVERY, NEW YORK CITY. Assistant Superintendent Motive Powers.
January 2, 1846, Washington Lavery was born in Wellsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia). Wellsburg is a prosperous city located on the Ohio River, just south of Steubenville, Ohio, and after the young man had finished his schooling he entered the shops of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad- now part of the Southwest system of the Pennsylvania Railroad- at Steubenville as a machinist's apprentice. This was on April 1, 1863, when he was 17 years of age. After serving some time as a skilled machinist at Steubenville he was promoted to Roundhouse Foreman at Dennison in 1867, where he remained two years, being then promoted to Foreman of the machine shops at Cincinnati, and was transferred to the position of General Foreman in the shops at Dennison in 1882. On July 1, 1887, the late Ross Kells, who was then Superintendent of Motive Powers of the Erie, appointed Mr. Lavery Master Mechanic of the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Division of the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad, serving at Cleveland for one year, being transferred to Galion, Ohio, for one year, and then to Meadville, Pennsylvania, for two years. In 1888 he was made Master Mechanic of the Erie Division at Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, and in February, 1894, was promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Motive Power of the Ohio Division, being located again at Cleveland. Just five years later, in February, 1899, he was called to New York to assume the more important duties of Assistant Superintendent of Motive Power of the Erie Division. Like many of the Erie's capable officials, Mr. Lavery has come up from the ranks of the men who toil in the great railroad shops of the country; and the fact that he holds such a responsible position on one of the greatest railroads of America shows he has tried to faithfully perform such duties as his abilities warranted. Mr. Lavery was married in May, 1869, to Miss Elizabeth A. Jones of Dennison, Ohio and they have six children.


Excerpted from: "American Locomotive Engineers, Erie Railway Edition," H.R. Romans Editor; Crawford-Adsit Company Publishers, Chicago, IL 1899.