Profile of Edward Daniel Meier circa 1900
Edward Daniel Meier Portrait circa 1900
The question has been often asked, — “How and why have the United States of America made such wonderful progress, and in so short a time?” The answer is simple, when we study the character of the men who have been active in its affairs. With such citizens any country must have prospered; and when such men have had such a country for their field the result was certain to be — America!
Colonel Edward Daniel Meier was born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1841. After attending local schools for five years, he was sent by his father, Adolphus Meier, to Bremen, Germany, where he studied for one year, returning to St. Louis in 1853, and there prepared to enter Washington University, St. Louis, which he did in 1857, taking a special course of one year. In 1858 he entered the Royal Polytechnic School at Hanover, Germany, and, after a four years’course, came back to America, in 1862, and began practical work as an apprentice in the William Mason Machine Works, at Taunton, Mass.
The Civil War was raging, and the call to arms was too imperative for him to remain in civil pursuits. The Confederate army was making its determined advance on the Northern States, and young Meier enrolled himself as a private in the Thirty-second Pennsylvania Militia, best known as the Grey Reserves. He, with his regiment, joined the Army of the Potomac at Hagerstown, Md. The Union victory at Gettysburg compelled the retirement of Lee’s army to Virginia, and the emergency troops were sent home.
But he was not satisfied with so short an army experience, and soon enlisted in Nim’s Second Massachusetts Battery. With it he was in skirmishes at Opelousas, Cane River, Alexandria, and other places, and in the two days’ battle of Sabine Cross Roads during the Red River campaign. Later, he was detailed to the U.S.A. Engineering Corps, and put in charge of one section of the work of fortifying Camp Parapet, extending from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain, above New Orleans, and afterward on the survey of a line of works at Brashear City, La. Following this, he was promoted to a Second Lieutenancy in the First Louisiana Cavalry, and, as such, saw duty in many raids and skirmishes, which resulted in his being made a First Lieutenant and aide-de-camp on the staff of General J. W. Davidson, then commanding the cavalry corps of the Division of West Mississippi. Lieutenant Meier was given the command of a raiding party into Tensas Parish, Louisiana, and on May 30, 1865, had the honour of receiving the surrender of the Confederate Lieutenant-General John B. Hood and three members of his personal staff.
The war ended, Lieutenant Meier, after being mustered out of service, at once took up his chosen calling by obtaining employment in the Rogers Locomotive Works, at Paterson, N. J., as a finisher and draughtsman. There he remained for about a year. In 1867 he was appointed Assistant Division Superintendent on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. During this service a blizzard carried away the railroad bridge over the Republican River at Fort Riley, Kansas. Mr. Meier was put in charge of the situation, making his headquarters in a box car. He obtained a pontoon bridge from the U. S. A. quartermaster at Fort Riley and bridged the river, over which he transported quartermaster’ s stores, passengers, mail, and express matter for several weeks; but as there was a flood in the river, he was compelled to take up the bridge each night, relaying it again in the morning. The weather was intensely cold, and all the hands employed suffered severely.
In 1868 he designed, built and operated a stone working mill at Junction City, in which was planed and turned the soft magnesian limestones of the Smokey Hill Valley. Later in the year he designed shops for the railroad, which, owing to financial troubles, were not completed. But, some time afterwards, the plans were used for the shops located at Moberly, Mo.
During 1869-70 Mr. Meier was the superintendent of machinery of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, but early in 1871 his health gave way from overwork, and he resigned, afterward making a trip to Europe. During this he could not be content to be entirely idle, and so spent much time in studying the European developments of coal washing and coking. On his return to America he became connected with the Illinois Patent Coke Company, which had already built works at East St. Louis, Ill.
Colonel Meier’s father was largely interested in these works, and his elder brother, John W. Meier, was the engineer in charge. Their efforts to produce a satisfactory coke from the Big-Muddy coals were satisfactory, but after the expenditure of over one hundred thousand dollars the attempt was abandoned, owing to the panic of 1873. But their plant and efforts were fully up to the then known state of the art; in fact, it was the commercial, and not the mechanical, side of the enterprise which failed.
Mr. Adolphus Meier was greatly impressed with the advantages of St. Louis as an iron centre. At that time the Iron Mountain district of Missouri was believed to contain a practically inexhaustible supply of high-grade iron ore. He subscribed liberally of his own means, and enlisted German capital, and organised the Meier Iron Copmany, which built two blast furnaces at Bessemer, Ill., not far from St. Louis. Colonel E. D. Meier during 1873-74 was actively employed by this company in laying out their railroad system, foundations, etc. , and was in charge of much of their mechanical construction. It was at these blast furnaces that the first fire-brick hot blast stoves west of the Alleghenies were erected.
During 1875-76-77 Mr. Meier was connected with the St. Louis cotton industry as mechanical engineer. From 1878 to 1884, inclusive, he was the manager and secretary of the Peper Cotton Press Company, of St. Louis, during which time, in addition to other large work, he designed, patented and built a hydraulic press of great power and capacity.
Colonel Meier later became impressed with the advantages of the water-tube boiler system, and his European connections brought him in contact with Heine and his boiler of that type. This led, in 1885, to his organising the Heine Safety Water-Tube Boiler Company, and he has been its president and chief engineer ever since. During this time he made several improvements on the original system, and the company has been successful, both pecuniarily and technically.
To a man of Colonel Meier’s great energy, however, the duties of one company organisation were not enough; hence, during the period since 1885 he has been engaged in many other engineering duties, among them having rendered efficient service as secretary of the American Boiler Manufacturers’ Association, and as chairman of its committee on materials. As such he was practically the author of both the first and second sets of specifications which were adopted as the association’s standard, and are so recognised by the boiler manufacturers of the United States. In the fall of 1897 he visited Germany professionally, to examine and report on the Diesel motor. This resulted in the organisation of the Diesel Motor Company of America, with Colonel Meier as chief engineer, which office he still holds.
During the railroad riots of 1877 Colonel Meier organised a battalion of militia to guard the St. Louis Water Works. From this nucleus was formed the Third Regiment National Guard of Missouri, with him as lieutenant-colonel, and later, when it was consolidated with the First Regiment, he was unanimously chosen colonel. The officers of the brigade joined in recommending him for the position of brigadier-general, but he declined, preferring to retain the personal command of his own First Regiment, and, as ranking colonel, the command of the First Brigade National Guard of Missouri. He resigned from service in 1887.
Colonel Meier is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the military order of the Loyal Legion. He has been active in many other public ways than as a military man. He is a member of the St. Louis Engineers’ Club, and was its president. He is also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and is now one of the vice-presidents of that organisation. He is also a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers and of the American Society of Naval Engineers, and has contributed liberally to the proceedings of all the societies, in addition to ‘bringing out several scientific works.