Collection Guide
This document describes a Manuscript Collection held by the
Special
Collections Department
University of Iowa
Libraries
e-mail: lib-spec@uiowa.edu
 |
Patrick T. Walsh |
Guide Contents
Biographical and Historical Information
Scope and Contents of the Collection
Administrative Information
Access and
Restrictions:
Agency Note
Patrick Thomas Walsh was born on Saint Patrick's Day in 1855. His Irish parents had moved to Davenport, Iowa, in 1848 from County Clare, Ireland by way of New York. As a boy Walsh earned money working as an apprentice stonecutter on the construction of the Rock Island (Illinois) Arsenal. An agitator for the eight hour day in the 1880s, Walsh succeeded in attaining this goal, but this activity apparently cost him his job.
Walsh added to his construction skills and was involved in two separate partnerships, the Edwards and Walsh Construction Company and the Tri-State Construction Company, before creating his own Walsh Construction Company. Walsh and his foreman, Henry C. Kahl, quickly became involved with railroad expansion, eventually landing large contracts for railroads including the Great Northern, Chicago, Illinois Central, Erie, and New York Central. Walsh constructed several bridges and train stations as well. According to America's Builders (November 1952), at one point, the Walsh Construction Company possessed the largest collection of railroad stock and equipment owned by a non-railroad company. Walsh Construction Company was incorporated in Davenport in 1899, one month after Walsh turned forty-four years old. An illustration of the high esteem accorded the construction company is that it was invited to submit a bid for building the Panama Canal before the government decided to use its own engineer corps.
Walsh married Catherine Beecher in 1881 and they had six children. Thomas J. Walsh and Edward P. Walsh would eventually join their father in the company. Patrick Walsh died in 1916 and Thomas took over presidency of the company. Under Thomas's direction, the company diversified, taking on projects that included bridges, canals, tunnels, dams, and buildings. In 1937, Thomas J. Walsh III became active in the company, bringing the third generation of Walshes into the company. During World War II the Walsh Construction Company participated in the war effort by building troop training camps, battleship docks, overseas military bases, bomb factories, and even ships. After the war Walsh Construction created a Building Division, established a headquarters in San Francisco, California, and more overseas ventures in France and Germany.
A. Neville and J. Roethler, September 2005
Scope and
Contents
Acquisition and Processing Information
These papers
were collected for the
University of Iowa Libraries by
Guide posted
to Internet:
Biographical information for P. T. Walsh and the Walsh Construction Company
Certificate of Commendation to T. J. Walsh from the U. S. Navy, 1 March 1947. Laminated copy
Correspondence regarding Panama Canal bid, 11 March 1907 -- 22 July 1907 (photostats)
General correspondence (photocopies)
From B. Moreel, Rear Admiral of the U. S. Navy, 4 December 1943
From James Forrestal, the Secretary of the Navy, 1 September 1945
From Harry S. Truman, the President of the United States, 7 December 1948
Obituaries for P. T. Walsh (photostats)
