History of Guilford, (Chenango County) New York United States of America

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Rufus Henry Gilbert, inventor, was born in Guilford, N.Y., Jan. 26, 1832. He was graduated at the College of physicians and surgeons, New York city, and practised in New York. He went to the front as surgeon of the 5th New York volunteers, Duryea Zouaves, and served throughout the civil war as army surgeon, medical director and superintendent of U.S. hospitals. After the war he engaged in railroading as assistant superintendent of the New Jersey Central railroad. In 1872 he devised and obtained a charter for an elevated pneumatic railway designed for rapid transit in New York city, but to which the city refused a franchise. He had in 1867 commenced the erection of the original elevated railroad supported by posts placed at the curbs along Greenwich street and Ninth avenue, from the Battery to Thirtieth street, which, in spite of litigation and vexatious delays due to the opposition of the horse-car companies, slowly grew in public favor. The Sixth Avenue roadway which he built in 1877, resulted in the Manhattan elevated railway systems. Dr. Gilbert lost his holdings in the road through the greed of capitalists anxious to secure the control of the elevated roads to build up a monopoly of rapid transit. The expenses of litigation and disappointment and anxiety hastened his death, which occurred in New York city, July 10, 1885.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Guilford, (Chenango County) New York

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