219.1249.1-5

This photograph of Oakes Ames (1804-1873) was supplied by the Easton (Massachusetts) Historical Society. Ames was a U. S. congressman from Massachusetts who was interested in post-Civil War railroad expansion. Oakes Ames is most associated with the expansion of the Union Pacific Railroad to the western United States. He was a good friend of railroad magnate John I. Blair, who named the town of Ames after him. It was Ames's involvement with the Credit Mobilier investment company that brought him into public prominence. For details of Oakes Ames's life, see chapter 1 of "Ames; the Early Years in Word and Picture: From Marsh to Modern City," by Farwell T. Brown, 1993. (See also: 219.1250.1-2)