2010 INDUCTION CEREMONY HONORS COOPER AND FLAGLER

The National Railroad Hall of Fame’s 2010 induction ceremony honored the life accomplishments of rail industry legends Peter Cooper and Henry Morrison Flagler. 

Cooper was hailed as a visionary and a prolific inventor who built the first U.S. steam engine to run on a commercial railroad, the “Tom Thumb.”  He was represented by his Great-great-great Grandson, Tracy Brown of Fairlee, Vermont. 

Henry Flagler was inducted for building the Florida East Coast Railway and for his visionary investment in infrastructure to develop the state of Florida.  Flagler was represented by Seth Bramson, Company Historian of the Florida East Coast Railway.  “Flagler did for Florida what the Transcontinental Railroad did for the nation,” Bramson said. “No individual is more important in the history of our state.”

The ceremony took place on Saturday, June 25th, on the campus of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.  Guests from Vermont, Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, and Minnesota attended the event.  The National Railroad Hall of Fame was established in Galesburg by the United States Congress to honor the men and women who built the railroads.  Induction ceremonies are conducted on an annual basis and coincide with the community’s Railroad Days festival.  Information on the nominations and selections process is available on the organization’s website at www.nrrhof.org.

L to R:  State Representative Don Moffitt, Hall of Fame Executive Director Julie King, Florida East Coast Railway Historian Seth Bramson, Guest Speaker Rex Cherrington, Peter Cooper’s Great-great-great Grandson Tracy Brown, and Hall of Fame Board Member and Induction Weekend Coordinator Owen Muelder.