Jump to content

Lucian Sprague

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lucian C. Sprague (1882–1960) was an American railroad executive. Sprague was born in Serena, Illinois, on September 29, 1882, and during his early years held a variety of railroad jobs, including stints at the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Great Northern, and Baltimore and Ohio. In 1922, he was hired by the Uintah Railway, a remarkable and remote narrow gauge short line in the mountains along the Colorado-Utah border. Sprague remained at the Uintah for most of the decade, becoming the line's general manager.

In 1935, Sprague was appointed co-receiver of the bankrupt Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (M&StL), a mid-sized railroad that extended south and west from Minneapolis. The M&StL had struggled financially for years, and by the 1930s was threatened with liquidation; Sprague, however, managed to turn the company around, and the railroad's twenty-year receivership ended in 1943. Sprague was named president of the M&StL at the end of receivership, and he held that position until being ousted in a dramatic 1954 shareholders battle orchestrated by Benjamin W. Heineman.

Sprague died of a heart attack in Minneapolis on August 3, 1960.

References

[edit]
  • Bender, Henry E. Uintah Railway: The Gilsonite Route. Revised edition. Forest Park, Illinois: Heimburger House Publishing Co., 1995. ISBN 0-911581-36-7.
  • Hofsommer, Don L. The Tootin' Louie: A History of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8166-4366-0.
  • Drury, George H. (1991). The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. Kalmbach Publishing Co. ISBN 0-89024-072-8.