George E. Mansfield (1839 - 1914)

Born 1839 in Walpole, New Hampshire

Ancestors

Died 13 Aug 1914 at about age 75 in Medford, Massachusetts

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Biography

George Mansfield was described as an inventor on his death certificate. He first married Emily J. Bickford at Lowell, Massachusetts, on 31 December 1857. The 1860 census lists George as a carpenter living in Lowell, Massachusetts. An 1866 directory of Charleston, Massachusetts lists him as a machinist. His first wife died of tuberculosis in 1870; and the 1870 census lists him as a sewing machine agent living alone in Boston. On 27 October 1871 George married Helen Brown at Somerville, Massachusetts. George reportedly traveled to Wales sometime after his second marriage to inspect the 2-foot gauge Festiniog Railway; and after returning to the United States built the miniature Sumner Heights & Hazelwood Valley Railroad on his farm. Using this miniature railway as an example, George organized funding for the 2-foot gauge Billerica & Bedford Railroad (B&B) between the Massachusetts towns of Billerica and Bedford 8.63 miles apart. The B&B was completed in November, 1877. There was insufficient traffic to pay B&B operating expenses, so the line ceased operations in June, 1878. The B&B was dismantled and the equipment was auctioned off to pay debts. George promptly convinced the towns of Franklin County, Maine, that they should purchase the B&B equipment to build another 2-foot gauge railroad from Farmington thru Strong to Phillips. This Sandy River Railroad became operational in November, 1879; and George was listed as the railroad's superintendent living in Phillips, Maine for the 1880 census. The Sandy River Railroad became the largest 2-foot gauge railroad in North America, and operated until 1935; but within a year George had moved on to organize the 2-foot gauge Bridgton and Saco River Railroad in southern Maine. The Bridgton and Saco River Railroad was similarly successful from 1883 to 1941, and George again moved on, but his subsequent life is undocumented until he died of dementia in the state hospital at Medford on 13 August 1914.

Sources

• Massachusetts marriage records
• Moody, Linwood The Maine Two-Footers (1959) Howell-North, Berkeley, California pp.49-59&124-129
• Jones, Robert C. Two Feet between the Rails vol. 1 (1979) Sundance Publications, Silverton, Colorado pp.15-60
• Find-a-Grave, Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts