Walter Mickle Smith: Difference between revisions
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In 1926, Smith and L.D. Cornish published "Engineering Features of the Illinois Waterway" reviewing the development of the waterway to that point.<ref>{{cite journal|authors=L.D. Cornish and Walter M. Smith|title=Engineering Features of the Illinois Waterway|journal=Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, volume 31, no. 5|date=May 1926|pages=178-182}}</ref> After retiring in 1937, Smith remained as a consulting engineer for the State of Illinois waterways division from 1937 to 1946. He was also the author of the ''Stream Flow Data of Illinois'', a 1937 work of the Illinois Division of Waterways (which he headed) and the [[U.S. Geological Survey]].<ref name=waterways>{{cite book|author=Walter M. Smith, D. Sc.|url=http://www.library.wisc.edu/selectedtocs/ca3490.pdf |title=Stream Flow Data of Illinois|date=1937|publisher=State of Illinois Division of Waterways, Department of Public Works and Buildings}}</ref> |
In 1926, Smith and L.D. Cornish published "Engineering Features of the Illinois Waterway" reviewing the development of the waterway to that point.<ref>{{cite journal|authors=L.D. Cornish and Walter M. Smith|title=Engineering Features of the Illinois Waterway|journal=Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, volume 31, no. 5|date=May 1926|pages=178-182}}</ref> After retiring in 1937, Smith remained as a consulting engineer for the State of Illinois waterways division from 1937 to 1946. He was also the author of the ''Stream Flow Data of Illinois'', a 1937 work of the Illinois Division of Waterways (which he headed) and the [[U.S. Geological Survey]].<ref name=waterways>{{cite book|author=Walter M. Smith, D. Sc.|url=http://www.library.wisc.edu/selectedtocs/ca3490.pdf |title=Stream Flow Data of Illinois|date=1937|publisher=State of Illinois Division of Waterways, Department of Public Works and Buildings}}</ref> |
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==Family and later life== |
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In 1889, Smith married Nettie Babcock McDonald, a fellow South Carolina native born in September 1866.<ref name=whosLeonard/> |
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In 1889, Smith married Nettie Babcock McDonald, a fellow South Carolina native born in September 1866.<ref name=whosLeonard/> Their first child, Walter M. Smith, Jr., was born in 1890.<ref name=1900Census>Census entry for Walter M. Smith and family. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Year: 1900; Census Place: Portland, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: 591; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 72; FHL microfilm: 1240591.</ref> |
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| ⚫ | Nettie died in January 1942.<ref>{{cite news|title=Obituary|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=January 22, 1942|page=22|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/468027042.html?dids=468027042:468027042&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Jan+22%2C+1942&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Obituary+1+--+No+Title&pqatl=google}} ("Mrs. Nettle McDonald Smith, wife of Walter Mickle Smith, consulting engineer and former chief engineer for the department of waterways, state department of ...")</ref> |
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| ⚫ | Nettie died in January 1942.<ref>{{cite news|title=Obituary|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=January 22, 1942|page=22|url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/468027042.html?dids=468027042:468027042&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI&type=historic&date=Jan+22%2C+1942&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=Obituary+1+--+No+Title&pqatl=google}} ("Mrs. Nettle McDonald Smith, wife of Walter Mickle Smith, consulting engineer and former chief engineer for the department of waterways, state department of ...")</ref> |
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In his later years, Smith returned to his home state, South Carolina. He died in 1953 at [[Spartanburg, South Carolina]].<ref name=Dixon/><ref>{{cite news|title=Deaths Elsewhere|newspaper=St. Petersburg Times|date=March 14, 1953|url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yIpaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Lk8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4225,2118857&dq=walter-mickle-smith&hl=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Obituaries in the News|newspaper=The Sheboygan (Wis.) Press|date=March 13, 1953|page=13}})online at newspaperarchive.com)</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Deaths|newspaper=Syracuse Herald-Journal|date=March 13, 1953|page=2}}(available online at newspaperarchive.com)</ref> |
In his later years, Smith returned to his home state, South Carolina. He died in 1953 at [[Spartanburg, South Carolina]].<ref name=Dixon/><ref>{{cite news|title=Deaths Elsewhere|newspaper=St. Petersburg Times|date=March 14, 1953|url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=yIpaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Lk8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=4225,2118857&dq=walter-mickle-smith&hl=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Obituaries in the News|newspaper=The Sheboygan (Wis.) Press|date=March 13, 1953|page=13}})online at newspaperarchive.com)</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Deaths|newspaper=Syracuse Herald-Journal|date=March 13, 1953|page=2}}(available online at newspaperarchive.com)</ref> |
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Revision as of 02:00, 9 September 2012
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Walter Mickle Smith, Sr. (October 26, 1867 - March 12, 1953) was a civil engineer who worked primarily on U.S. dams and waterway projects. He was a consulting engineer on the construction of the Panama Canal and Panama Canal Locks and later served as design engineer for the New York Board of Water Supply. He spent much of his career with the State of Illinois waterways division and was its chief engineer until his retirement in 1937. Several of his works built in the 1920s and 1930s as part of the Illinois Waterway project are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including portions of the Brandon Road Lock and Dam, the Dresden Island Lock and Dam, the Lockport Lock and Power House, and the Marseilles Lock and Dam.
Early life and career
Smith was born October 26, 1867, in Newberry, South Carolina. He received bachelor of science and civil engineering degrees from the Military College of South Carolina.[1] He started his engineering career in 1890 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, working on railroad projects.[1] The following year he joined the U.S. Engineering Department, working from 1891 to 1897 on coastal fortifications and jetty construction in Charleston, South Carolina. [1] In 1897 he was moved to Portland, Maine, where he worked on design of buildings, roads, fortifications and coastal structures until being transferred back to Charleston in 1903 to assume authority over the design and construction of fortifications in the Charleston district.[1] He was elevated from associate member to full member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1906.[2]
Panama Canal and New York
In 1905, the Army Corps of Engineers assigned Smith to Washington, DC, working on engineering plans for the Panama Canal.[1] Also in 1905, he supervised design and construction of a $150,000 project at a powder depot in Dover, New Jersey, returning to Washington, DC, in 1906 to continue work as a consulting engineer on construction of the Canal and the Panama Canal Locks.[1][3][4]: 20–21
He the Army Corps in 1907 to become the division engineer and later the design engineer for the New York Board of Water Supply, where his responsibilities included design and construction projects for the Catskill water system.[1][3][4]: 20–27 In 1910, the Albany Society of Civil Engineers published his work, "The Design of Masonry Dams."[5]
In 1914 he left the New York Board of Water Supply to form a general hydraulic and construction engineering firm with Mortimer Grant Barnes, with whom he had worked on the Panama Canal and at the New York water supply board.[1][4]: 20–27
In 1914, Smith and his son Walter M. Smith, Jr., published the article "Concrete Bridges: Some Important Features in Their Design."[6][7]
Illinois Waterway
In 1919, Smith was hired by his long-time colleague Mortimer Grant Barnes as chief design engineer for the Illinois Waterway Project, a system that includes eight locks providing a shipping connection from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River.[1][4][8] Legislation which codified the construction of the Waterway only stipulated the general design and location of the locks and dams along the Illinois River; the details were left to Barnes, Smith and other engineers.[4] He became the chief engineer of Illinois state waterways in 1934 and held that position until he retired in 1937.[6] At least five of Smith's works in the State of Illinois are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places ("NRHP"),[9][10] including the following:
- Brandon Road Lock and Dam Historic District, 1100 Brandon Road, Joliet, Illinois. Smith is credited with designing the lock, dam and ice protection wall. The project was built from 1927 to 1933. The structures are now listed on the NRHP.[11] (Smith, Walter Mickle), NRHP-listed[10]
- Dresden Island Lock and Dam Historic District, 7521 N. Lock Road, Morris, Illinois. Smith is credited with designing the control station, lock, auxiliary lock, and dam. These structures are now listed on the NRHP.[10][12]
- Lockport Lock, Dam and Power House Historic District, 2502 Channel Drive, Lockport, Illinois. The original lock and dam were built between 1905 and 1907. A second phase of constuction occurred starting in 1922 as part of the development of the Illinois Waterway. During that second phase, Smith is credited with the design of the control station, and unspecified "engineers with the State of Illinois" designed the Ohio River Standard Navigation lock. Smith was the chief designing engineer of the Illinois Division of Waterways during the second phase. The structues are now listed on the NRHP.[13][14][10]
- Marseilles Lock and Dam Historic District, 1 Hawk Drive, Marseilles, Illinois. Smith is credited with designing the lock and old control station, which were built from 1925 to 1933. The structures are listed on the NRHP. The State of Illinois (no specific person) is credited with the design of the canal, dam and dam boiler house.[15][10]
- Starved Rock Lock and Dam Historic District, 950 N 27th Road, Ottawa, Illinois. Smith was the chief design engineer on the lock and dam, which were built from 1926 to 1933. The lock and dam are now listed on the NRHP.[4][10]
In 1926, Smith and L.D. Cornish published "Engineering Features of the Illinois Waterway" reviewing the development of the waterway to that point.[16] After retiring in 1937, Smith remained as a consulting engineer for the State of Illinois waterways division from 1937 to 1946. He was also the author of the Stream Flow Data of Illinois, a 1937 work of the Illinois Division of Waterways (which he headed) and the U.S. Geological Survey.[17]
Family and later life
In 1889, Smith married Nettie Babcock McDonald, a fellow South Carolina native born in September 1866.[1] Their first child, Walter M. Smith, Jr., was born in 1890.[18]
Nettie died in January 1942.[19]
In his later years, Smith returned to his home state, South Carolina. He died in 1953 at Spartanburg, South Carolina.[3][20][21][22]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j John William Leonard (1922). Who's who in engineering. John W. Leonard Corporation. p. 1177.
- ^ "Minutes of Meetings of the Society". Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers. 32, Part 1: 139.
- ^ a b c "Former Illinois Waterway Engineer Dies". Dixon Evening Telegraph (AP story). March 13, 1953. p. 13.(available online at newspaperarchive.com)
- ^ a b c d e f "Historic American Engineering Record: Illinois Waterway, Starved Rock Lock and Dam". Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service. pp. 20–27.
- ^ Walter M. Smith, Sr. (1910). The Design of Masonry Dams. The Albany Society of Civil Engineers.
- ^ a b "Office of the Director". Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Water Resources. Retrieved September 7, 2012.
- ^ Smith, Walter M., Sr., and Smith, Walter M., Jr. "Concrete Bridges: Some Important Features in Their Design", Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXXVII, No. 1, December 1914, pp. 695-708.
- ^ Mary Yeater Rathburn, American Resources Group, Ltd., "Architectural and Engineering Resources of the Illinois Waterway between 130th Street in Chicago and La Grange," Volume 2, prepared for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island District, Rock Island, Illinois, October 1996.
- ^ Illinois Waterway Navigation System Facilities MPS
- ^ a b c d e f "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
- ^ "Illinois Waterway Brandon Road Lock and Dam" (PDF).
- ^ "Historic American Engineering Record: Illinois Waterway, Dresden Island Lock and Dam, HAER No. IL-164" (PDF). Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service.
- ^ "Historic American Engineering Record: Illinois Waterway, Lockport Lock, Dam and Power House, HAER No. IL-164-H" (PDF). Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service.
- ^ Walter M. Smith, "Heavy Lift Gate at Lockport Lock of Illinois Waterway," Engineering News-Record 96, no. 18 (May 26, 1926): pp. 722-723.
- ^ "Historic American Engineering Record: Illinois Waterway, Marseille Lock and Dam, HAER No. IL-164" (PDF). Historic American Engineering Record, National Park Service.
- ^ "Engineering Features of the Illinois Waterway". Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, volume 31, no. 5: 178–182. May 1926.
{{cite journal}}: Cite uses deprecated parameter|authors=(help) - ^ Walter M. Smith, D. Sc. (1937). Stream Flow Data of Illinois (PDF). State of Illinois Division of Waterways, Department of Public Works and Buildings.
- ^ Census entry for Walter M. Smith and family. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Year: 1900; Census Place: Portland, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: 591; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 72; FHL microfilm: 1240591.
- ^ "Obituary". Chicago Tribune. January 22, 1942. p. 22. ("Mrs. Nettle McDonald Smith, wife of Walter Mickle Smith, consulting engineer and former chief engineer for the department of waterways, state department of ...")
- ^ "Deaths Elsewhere". St. Petersburg Times. March 14, 1953.
- ^ "Obituaries in the News". The Sheboygan (Wis.) Press. March 13, 1953. p. 13.)online at newspaperarchive.com)
- ^ "Deaths". Syracuse Herald-Journal. March 13, 1953. p. 2.(available online at newspaperarchive.com)