Julian Linus Yale (1850 – 1909) was an American railroad entrepreneur and president of Julian L. Yale & Co., later sold to Samuel P. Bush's company. He was Carnegie Steel's representative for their railway business, and purchasing representative of the Big Four for the Vanderbilts. He was also the son of Yale Lock inventor Linus Yale Jr., and a member of the Union League Club of New York.
Notably, he introduced the Shelby Steel Tube technology to the railway market, helping the growth of a new industry in America. He also founded an electric vehicle company in 1907, dealing in electric cars and other vehicles such as the Baker Motor Vehicle.
Biography
Julian L. Yale was born on March 26, 1850, in Newport, New York to Linus Yale Jr., son of Linus Yale Sr., inventor and mayor of Newport. They were members of the Yale family who gave their name to Yale College. His cousin was architect Merton Yale Cady, and his uncle and aunt were Congressman Halbert S. Greenleaf and suffragist Jean Brooks Greenleaf.Kellogg, Lucy Cutler (1902). History of the Town of Bernardston, Franklin County, Massachusetts. 1736–1900 with Genealogies, Press of E. A. Hall & Co., Harvard College Library, p. 314-316. He was involved in his family enterprise, the Yale Lock Company, for number of years, while his brother, John B. Yale, would become its Treasurer. He worked with his father at the company's beginnings, receiving his training, and was involved with its first locks.
While initially starting his career in New York on the commercial side of the Yale Lock Co., working with various companies, he moved to the West, and worked in the railroad industry. He became the purchasing agent of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway, Cincinnati and Richmond Railroad, and the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis, now part of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis, also known as the Big Four.The Railway Purchasing Agent, Railway Master Mechanic, Volume 5, November 1882, p. 258 The enterprise was at the time one of the railroads controlled by the Vanderbilt family. In 1883, Yale is recorded among the general officers of the Cincinnati and Springfield Railway, as their purchasing agent, along with board directors William H. Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, financier William Bayard Cutting, Democratic chairman Augustus Schell and Congressman Amos Townsend.Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States, Vol. 16, H.V. & H.W. Poor, January 1883, p. 564The Official Railway Guide: North American Freight Service Edition, National Railway Publication Co., January 1882, p. 172 They were the Vanderbilts of the Triple Palace in New York and The Breakers in Newport.
Yale then founded with his brother, John B. Yale, and a few others, the Bankers and Merchants Telegraph Company, which would construct, maintain, and operate telegraph lines from Cleveland to Cincinnati, Toledo and others places in Ohio.Detroit Free Press, November 17, 1883, Sat ·Page 2 The company had a capital stock of $3,000,000 in 1884, with his brother as its Secretary-Treasurer.Chicago Tribune, September 23, 1884, Tue ·Page 5 In the same year, he is recorded as the purchasing agent of the Dayton and Union Railroad and the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroad, at the time under president John H. Devereux.Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States, Vol. 16, H.V. & H.W. Poor, January 1883, p. 576-577-662-664 Devereux was a general and railroad builder during the American Civil War, business partner of John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flagler, and was also in charge of hosting the Grand Duke Alexei of Russia, son of Tsar Alexander II, during his official visit to Cleveland.John D. Rockefeller: The Cleveland Years, Rockefeller in Cleveland, chapters 18 and 19, Grace Goulder Izant, Western Reserve Historical Society, 1972, p. 108-109Cleveland: the making of a city", 1990, p. 381His Imperial Highness The Grand Duke Alexis to J. H. Deveroux, Souvenir December 26, 27, 28 - 1, 871The Great Oil Octopus, Truth Investigator, University of California, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1911, p. 29-31
Yale then moved into the railway supply business at Cleveland, Ohio, and became one of Cleveland's prominent iron manufacturers with H. H. Brown.The Pittsburgh Press, October 17, 1888, Wed ·Page 1 He represented the Carnegie Steel Co. of Andrew Carnegie for their railway supply business and became General Sales Agent for about 10 years of the Illinois Steel Company, the largest steel producer in the United States.The Bulletin of the American Iron and Steel Association, Vol. XXIX, Philadelphia, January 2, 1895, p. 61 He rose to that position at the incorporation of the company, having served under the various enterprises that were merged before the formation of the conglomerate.
A few years after Yale's departure, the company president Elbert Henry Gary worked with J.P. Morgan to acquire Carnegie Steel, and formed United States Steel Corporation, the first company with a 1 billion dollars market capitalization.Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "United States Steel Corporation". Encyclopedia Britannica, January 19, 2024, Accessed January 22, 2024. The Illinois Steel Co., Yale's future customer, was in the business of the manufacture of Bessemer steel rails, iron and steel merchant bar, rail fastenings, light "T" and street rails, steel billets, wire rods, iron and steel car truck channels, steel "I" beams and structural shapes, with their New York office at 46 Wall Street.The Iron Age : Vol. LI : No. 1, David Williams, January 5, 1893, p. 21 In 1896, he became a member of the Bessemer Steel Association at Hotel Manhattan, representing Illinois Steel Co., with various members of Carnegie Steel Co. and other manufacturers, and a year later, he became a member of the reception committee of the National Business League, with president Ferdinand Peck, mayor Carter Harrison Sr., Gen. John R. Brooke, and a few others.Altoona Tribune, November 11, 1896, Wed ·Page 2Chicago Tribune, July 4, 1897, Sun ·Page 11
Later career
After resigning from his position as General Sales Agent of the Illinois Steel Co. around 1897, he launched a partnership in the railroad supply business with chief chemist Townsend. V. Church, member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers.Transactions, American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, New York, 1897, p. 236 They were also involved in the general iron and steel business, and started operating from the newly built Rookery Building in Chicago, partly designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright.Engineering News and American Railway Journal, Vol. 37, Engineering News Publishing Co., New York, 1897, p. 67 Their customers would be Carnegie Steel, Illinois Steel, Lackawanna Steel, among many others. They also founded Julian L. & Co, railway suppliers, and later operated from the Railway Exchange Building, also in Chicago.The Banking Department, City of Chicago, Chicago Director Company, 1900, p. 2055Hendricks' Commercial Register of the United States, Hendricks Co., New York, January 1909, p. 966Proceedings of the ... Annual Convention of the American Railway ..., Volume 4, p. 41-127
Yale introduced the Shelby Steel tube innovation to the railway market in America, which helped launch the steel tubing manufacturing industry in the country, taking market shares away from the British.American Soap Journal and Manufacturing Chemist, Volume 8, Henry Gatham Publishers, Chicago and New York, April 1, 1897, p. 160Scientific American Supplement, No. 1123, July 10, 1897, p. 17952 At a railroad industry exhibition, they representend, as selling agents, the Allen & Morrison Brake Shoe & Manufacturing Company, and the American Rail Joint & Manufacturing Company. He then became the representative of the Lackawanna Steel Company of New York, the second-largest steel producer in the country. Julian L. Yale & Co. was the West and Northwestern States selling agent of the American Rail Joint & Manufacting Co., whose company obtained at the exhibition the contract for supplying the badges of the entire NYC Police force of the New York metropolitan area, made of metal, aluminium, brass, silver, etc.The Street Railway Journal, Index to Vol. XIV, Street Railway Publishing Co., New York, 1898, p. 108-663-664 A sample of the badges used by the New York police force was also shown.
In 1899, he cofounded the Clarendon Mining Company, an enterprise with a capital stock of $500,000 in Leadville, Colorado, with Congressman and Mayor George W. Cook, Senator William Grover Smith and Col. Joseph J. Slocum, a brother-in-law of millionaire Russell Sage, the cousin of Col. Ira Yale Sage.The Engineering and Mining Journal, 1899-12-02, Vol 68, Issue 23, p. 677 In 1900, Yale is recorded as the vice-president of the American Mckenna Process Company, a rail manufacturer with offices and plants in Illinois, Boston, and New Jersey.Proceedings of the Annual Convention, American Railway Engineering Association, Chicago, 1900, p. 564Directory to the Iron and Steel Works of the United States, 1908 During about this time, his brother John. B. Yale and president Henry R. Towne were serving the railroad industry though the Yale Lock Company, manufacturing travelling locomotive, jib, pillar, and other cranes, trolleys, tram-rails, and other items.American Engineer and Railroad Journal, Volume 69, No. 1-14, January 1895, p. 139 From another branch of the Yales, Gov. William H. Yale of Minnesota, became a board director of the Winona and Southwestern Railway Company.The Railway Age, Railway and Engineering Review, Volume 12, June 24, 1887, p. 436
Julien L. Yale & Co. is later selling renews rails, freight passengers, engine and tender couples, iron car roots, steam shovels, wrecking cars, victor rivers, soiler tubes, and equipment from the Buckeye Steel Castings Co.The Railway and Engineering Review, Volume 43, March 7, 1903, p. 13 They also became Buckeye's representatives in Chicago.The Railway and Engineering Review, Volume 43, Chicago, March 7, 1993 In 1907, he cofounded the Baker Electric Vehicle Company of Chicago, dealing in electric cars and other vehicles such as the Baker Motor Vehicles.Chicago Tribune, May 17, 1907, Fri ·Page 17 These electric vehicles were built in Cleveland at the time, with Thomas Edison as one of the customers of the main company. One of Yale's electric cars would be involved in a car crash in 1909 by one of his chauffeurs.Chicago Tribune, January 10, 1909, Sun ·Page 1
Personal life
Yale was a member of the Blue Book and Social Register of Chicago, and was recorded living at 9 Ritchie Court with his sister Madeline Yale Wynne, wife of Senator Henry Winn.Social register, Chicago, 1906, p. 101The Chicago blue book of selected names of Chicago and suburban towns, The Chicago directory company, Chicago, 1908, p. 261 His other brother-in-law was Charles McCulloch, President of the Hamilton National Bank, and son of the U.S. Treasury Secretary of Abraham Lincoln, millionaire Hugh McCulloch of Fort Wayne. Yale was also the uncle of architect Merton Yale Cady, who married the daughter of John Deere, founder of the John Deere Company.Portrait and Biographical Album of Rock Island County, Illinois, Citizens Historical Association, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1885, p. 313-314 His nephews were MIT engineer Philip Henry Wynne and Harvard doctor Sidney Yale Wynne.The Recorder, 06 Mar 1909, Sat ·Page 6