Early Life
Haupt, whose first name was sometimes spelled Hermann, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Jacob and Anna Margaretta Wiall Haupt. Jacob, a merchant, died when Herman was 12 years old and Anna was forced to support her family of three sons and two daughters. Herman attended school by working part time to pay his tuition. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy at the age of 14 by President Andrew Jackson. He graduated in 1835 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 3rd U.S. Infantry that July. However, he resigned his commission on September 30, 1835, to become a civil engineer. He worked as a construction engineer on the Norristown Railroad and engaged in bridge and tunnel construction. On August 30, 1838, he married Ann Cecelia Keller in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They eventually had seven sons and four daughters. In 1839, he designed and patented a novel bridge construction technique that is known as the Haupt Truss; examples of bridges he constructed with this technique are in Altoona and Ardmore, Pennsylvania, both from 1854.
From 1840 to 1847, Haupt was a professor of mathematics and engineering at Gettysburg College (which at that time was named Pennsylvania College). He returned to the railroad business in 1847, becoming a construction engineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and then general superintendent from 1849 to 1851. He was the chief engineer of the Southern Railroad of Mississippi from 1851 to 1853, and the chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad until 1856; in the latter position he completed the Mountain Division with the Alleghany Tunnel, opening the line through to Pittsburgh. He was the chief engineer on the five-mile (8 km) Hoosac Tunnel project through the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts from 1856 to 1861.
Read more about this topic: Herman Haupt
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“We have good reason to believe that memories of early childhood do not persist in consciousness because of the absence or fragmentary character of language covering this period. Words serve as fixatives for mental images. . . . Even at the end of the second year of life when word tags exist for a number of objects in the child’s life, these words are discrete and do not yet bind together the parts of an experience or organize them in a way that can produce a coherent memory.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“Actors ought to be larger than life. You come across quite enough ordinary, nondescript people in daily life and I don’t see why you should be subjected to them on the stage too.”
—Donald Sinden (b. 1923)