Robert Edmund STRAHORN

1852 - 1944  (91 years)

• Name	Robert Edmund STRAHORN
  Born	15 May 1852	Haines, Centre, Pennsylvania
  Gender	Male
  Died	31 Mar 1944	San Francisco, San Francisco, California
  Buried	Riverview Cemetery, Spokane, Washington
  Person ID	I85878	Zentmeyer Main Tree
  Last Modified	19 Apr 2018

  
  

• Notes

  Robert was the brother of our great-grandfather, John Calvin Strahorn. He was born east of Bellefonte in Haines Twp. Centre Co., Pennsylvania. He wrote later how as a boy, he was impressed by Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858. He was a newspaper correspondent for the Denver News and New York Times during the Sioux campaigns of 1876-77, and fought alongside General Crook while covering the Battle of Rosebud. He was the first head of the Publicity Department of the Union Pacific Railroad from 1877-1783, and wrote extensively about the resources and attractions of the western states, resulting in waves of migration into those territories. He was instrumental in building the Oregon Short Line Railroad from Granger, Wyoming to Huntington, Oregon and in the process founded the towns of Caldwell, Weiser, Payette, Shoshone, and Hailey in Idaho, and Ontario in Oregon. He was a founder and trustee of the College of Idaho in Caldwell. He went broke in the panic of 1893, then spent six years trading municipal bonds in Boston. He went on to found the North Coast Railroad, and built Union Station in Spokane (which was demolished in 1974 for the Spokane World's Fair) and almost 750 miles of track in Washington state, under a secret financial arrangement with E.H. Harriman. This clandestine arrangement earned Robert the moniker "The Sphinx." The North Coast Railroad was consolidated into the Oregon Washington Railroad & Navigation Co. with Robert as Vice President and General Manager. In the 1930s Robert acquired most of a city block in San Francisco, but lost it all in the Great Depression. He died in 1944 in San Francisco (not in Spokane as is claimed elsewhere) and his remains are interred in a granite and marble mausoleum in Spokane along with both of his wives. There were no children from either marriage. Upon his death in San Francisco in 1944, Robert's remains were taken by his best friend Thurlow Bryant to Spokane, and his personal effects, including his steamer trunk, his personalized binoculars, numerous photos and papers, and the publishing rights to his autobiography, were taken by Thurlow to his home in Caldwell, Idaho. Thurlow's wife Nellie gave these items to us in 1995 because we were the only relatives who had ever inquired after him. Thurlow died in Caldwell in 1992, and Nellie in 2001. - Gary Zentmyer

  
  

Father	Thomas Foster STRAHORN,   b. Abt 1824, West Buffalo, Union, Pennsylvania ,   d. 18 May 1886, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California  (Age ~ 62 years)
Mother	Rebecca EMMERT,   b. 1826, Bethel, Lebanon, Pennsylvania ,   d. 1863, Harris, Centre, Pennsylvania - Tuberculosis  (Age 37 years)
Married	Abt 1848	Centre, Pennsylvania
Family ID	F23140	Group Sheet




Family 1	Carrie Adell GREEN,   b. 01 Jan 1854, Marengo, McHenry, Illinois ,   d. 15 Mar 1925, San Francisco, San Francisco, California  (Age 71 years)
Married	19 Sep 1877	Marengo, McHenry, Illinois
Family ID	F23223	Group Sheet




Family 2	Ruby Shannon GARLAND,   b. 25 Aug 1883, Waco, McLennan, Texas ,   d. 01 May 1936  (Age 52 years)
Married	05 Oct 1927	St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, California
Last Modified	9 Feb 2016
Family ID	F23272	Group Sheet




• Photos » Slide Show		Robert Edmund Strahorn
  		Hailey Hot Springs Hotel, built by the two Robert Strahorns
  		Strahorn Pines - Spokane Constructed in 1887, this home was built and occupied by J.J. Browne, the developer of Browne's Addition, Spokane's premier neighborhood at the time. The home sat atop a bluff with panoramic views of the Spokane River. In 1900 the home was purchased by Robert and Carrie Strahorn. The three-story building was then completely remodeled by noted architect Kirtland Cutter into a twenty-room mansion with nine bathrooms and ten fireplaces. The first house in Spokane with steam heat, Strahorn Pines was also said to have featured a bowling alley. The house was purchased by the Eastern Washington Historical Society in 1970 and demolished in 1974 to make way for a new museum building.
  		Robert Strahorn - The Sphinx From the Zentmyer Collection. This cartoon depicts Robert as "The Sphinx," as he was known in the early 1900s. In his own hand, Robert (RES) describes, in the third person, how he got the moniker. The Harriman - Jim Hill fight refers to the struggle for control of the railroad business in the Pacific Northwest. $30mm in 1900 would be over $800mm today.
  		The Robert Strahorn Mystery From the Technical World magazine, March 1909
  		Robert Strahorn and North Coast Railroad's McKeen Car From the Zentmyer Collection. This self-propelled McKeen car was one of two purchased by the North Coast Railroad in 1910. Robert is circled in yellow. McKeen cars had the distinctive "wind-splitter" pointed aerodynamic front end and rounded tail. The porthole windows were also a McKeen trademark. But the McKeen car had no reverse gear, so backing up required the operator to reconfigure the camshaft to a set of reverse cams, then re-start the motor in the opposite direction. And this, from John W. Lundin: "When Harriman toured France by automobile in 1903, he wondered why a version could not be adapted to run on rails as a commuter car on lines lacking enough business to warrant full train service. Harriman asked William R. McKeen Jr., UP's chief mechanical officer, to work on the project. McKeen came up with the idea of a self-propelled vehicle powered by a gasoline engine that could do forty to sixty miles an hour on sustained runs at a lower cost than steam or electric-powered vehicles. It was tested in March 1905, and evolved over the next year into a model twice as long with sealed porthole windows that kept weather out and allowed stronger body construction. It was called a "submarine on wheels" and UP put them into use on regular routes throughout its system. They were used for over a decade but fell into disuse after WW II. They left a legacy, however. The McKeen car was an inspiration for the streamliners that Averell Harriman developed for UP during the 1930s."
  		Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage From the Zentmyer Collection. First published in 1911, Carrie's account of the Strahorn's adventures exploring the Western States was more readable that Robert's autobiography, Ninety Years of Boyhood, which never found a publisher.
  		Carrie's inscription to Mrs. Underwood 28 Jul 1914 at Old Faithful Inn From the Zentmyer Collection. This image is from our copy of Fifteen Thousand Miles by Stage. The inscription was surely addressed to the newly-married Mary Elizabeth Smith, wife of architect Gilbert Stanly Underwood, who in addition designing many of the Grand Lodges of the National Parks, worked extensively with both the Union Pacific and the Oregon Short Line Railroads.
  		Union Station in Spokane From the Zentmyer Collection. Robert financed and built Union Station on a site between the Spokane River and Trent Ave., now called Spokane Falls Blvd., completing construction in 1914. When it was torn down to make way for the Spokane World's Fair in 1974, demolition crews got more than they bargained for. The building was constructed to last for centuries, requiring the contractor to repeatedly ask for more money.
  		Monroe St. Bridge Viaduct From the Zentmyer Collection. Robert built a railroad viaduct which crossed the Monroe St. Bridge and the Spokane River at the same place. This structure was completed in 1914, and was an engineering marvel to say the least. Robert was an early champion of the concept of grade separation, that is running railroad lines and automobile traffic at different elevations so as to avoid conflicts.
  		Brothers John C. and Robert E. Strahorn, Christmas 1924 From the Zentmyer Collection. Probably at the vacant lot in Highland Park, Los Angeles, where John's daughter Mary and her husband George Zentmyer would build a new house in 1925.
  		Robert Strahorn's Binoculars From the Zentmyer Collection. Personalized with the initials RES on the case. These were given to Gary Zentmyer in 1995 by Nellie Bryant, the widow of Thurlow Bryant, who according to Nellie was Robert's best friend at the time of his death, and who transported Robert's remains from San Francisco back to Spokane for burial.
  		Hotel Stewart in San Francisco This is where Robert lived out the final years of his life. The building is located at 353 Geary Street, San Francisco, and is now the Handlery Union Square Hotel.
  		Strahorn Mausoleum From the Zentmyer Collection. This mausoleum was built by Robert E. Strahorn and contains the remains of Robert and his two wives, Carrie Adell Green and Ruby Shannon Garland. It is located in Riverside Memorial Park on the western edge of Spokane.