My Genealogy Hound

PATRICK F. HANLEY, engineer, post office Homestead, was born March 17, 1846, in Ireland, and came to Albany, N. Y., when very young. He is a son of Thomas and Bridget (White) Hanley, natives of Ireland, former of whom was a contractor in Milwaukee, Wis., where Patrick F. was educated, and learned the machinist’s trade in the machine-shops of Sanford & Sircum. There our subject followed his trade until his twentieth year, when he commenced railroading on the Chicago & North-Western railroad and the Illinois Central, as engineer. He was also in the employ of the Union Pacific railroad, and ran the first engine over the famous Dale creek bridge, on the summit of the Rocky mountains. In 1874 he returned east and followed engineering on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Subsequently he ran an engine on the Little Saw-Mill Run railroad, was in the accident there, and his escape from death was one of the most marvelous in the history of railroad accidents. Later he was foreman in the Pittsburgh and Glenwood shops, on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. At present he is in the Armor Plate-mill, where he has charge of the big engine. He invented the first lateral and moving table for lifting heavy iron and a system of railroad signaling, and distinguished himself as a capable workman. He married, in Pittsburgh, Maggie Barrett, a native of Ireland, and they had two children, one now living, Nellie. Mr. and Mrs. Hanley are members of the Catholic Church. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.