Theodore Dehone Judah
Greenfield, MA
N 42° 35.645 W 072° 35.815
The grave of railroad and civil engineer Theodore Dehone Judah, who was responsible for the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, is located in the Greenfield Town Cemetery on Federal Street in Greenfield, MA. He was born on March 4, 1826 in Bridgeport, CT and studied engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. He moved to Greenfield, MA when he married Anna Pierce in 1847.
Judah was the Chief Engineer for the Sacramento Valley Railroad in California. He was known as "Crazy Judah" because he insisted on building a railroad over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, an idea considered to be impossible. Nonetheless, he convinced financiers Leland Stanford, Collis Potter Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker, to fund the project and was instrumental in securing Congressional passage of the 1862 Pacific Railroad Act, which authorized construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Judah then created the plans for the route, which was completed in 1869.
Judah died on November 2, 1863 of yellow fever while travelling from California to New York City through Panama. His wife brought the body to Greenfield, MA where he is placed in a tomb in the Pierce family plot. The inscription on the tomb reads JUDAH and:
THEODORE D. JUDAH
BORN MARCH 4, 1826 DIED NOV. 2, 1863.
HE RESTS FROM HIS LABORS.
ANNA F. JUDAH
JUNE 30, 1828 SEPT. 2, 1895.
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| Inscription |
THEODORE DEHONE JUDAH
1826 - 1863
THE ENGINEER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RAIL ROUTE
OVER THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS FOR
CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD AND LEADING
ADVOCATE FOR TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD
PLAQUE DONATED BY THE AMHERST RAILWAY SOCIETY
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