John B. Thayer facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Thayer
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| Born |
John Borland Thayer II
April 21, 1862 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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| Died | April 15, 1912 (aged 49) |
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| Occupation | Railway businessman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Known for | Died on Titanic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Marian Thayer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 4, including Jack Thayer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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John Borland Thayer II (born April 21, 1862 – died April 15, 1912) was an American businessman. He worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for 30 years. He was a very important leader there, serving as a director and second vice-president.
Sadly, John Thayer died at age 49 when the famous ship RMS Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. When he was younger, Thayer was also a talented athlete. He played baseball and lacrosse for the University of Pennsylvania. He also played first-class cricket for the Philadelphian cricket team.
Contents
Early Life and Sports Career
John Thayer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He went to the University of Pennsylvania. In 1879, he was the captain of the university's baseball team.
His family was well-known for playing cricket. Thayer started playing for the Merion Cricket Club when he was just 14 years old. He continued to play for them throughout his life.
Cricket Tours and Matches
In 1884, Thayer was part of the Philadelphian cricket team that traveled to England. During that trip, he scored 817 runs and took 22 wickets.
He played in seven matches that are now called "first-class" matches. Three of these were for the Philadelphians. Four were for a team made up of "American-born" players. All these games took place at the Germantown Cricket Club in Pennsylvania.
In his first-class career, he scored 138 runs and took six wickets. His highest score was 24 runs. His best bowling performance was taking 3 wickets for only 17 runs. These top scores happened in October 1883, when Philadelphia played against the United States.
Family Life
On November 9, 1892, John Thayer married Marian Longstreth Morris in Philadelphia. Marian came from important, old families in Philadelphia. They had four children together:
- John "Jack" Borland Thayer III (1894–1945)
- Frederick Morris Thayer (1896–1956)
- Margaret Thayer (1898–1960) (who later married Harold Elstner Talbott Jr.)
- Pauline Thayer (1901–1981) (who later married Henry Hoffman Dolan)
John Thayer's wife, Marian, was a First Class passenger on the Titanic. She got into a lifeboat and survived the sinking. Out of their four children, only their son Jack was with them on the ship. Jack was 17 years old at the time. He survived by jumping into the cold water and swimming to an overturned lifeboat as the ship went down.
Career at Pennsylvania Railroad
After leaving the University of Pennsylvania in 1881, John Thayer started working for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He began as a clerk and then moved to the general freight department.
He held many different jobs. In 1888, he became a freight solicitor for the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company.
Rising Through the Ranks
Thayer left railway work for a few years, from 1889 to 1892. But he returned to the Pennsylvania Railroad in May 1892. He became the division freight agent in Baltimore, Maryland.
He quickly moved up in the company. In 1894, he was promoted to assistant general freight agent in Philadelphia. In 1897, he became the general freight agent in charge of traffic across the country. By 1899, he was also the general freight agent for several other important railway lines.
On June 1, 1903, Thayer was chosen as the fifth vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. This meant he managed all the traffic on that railway.
He continued to be promoted:
- In October 1905, he became fourth vice-president.
- In March 1909, he became third vice-president.
- In March 1911, he reached his highest position: second vice-president.
At the time of his death, John Thayer was a very important director at the Pennsylvania Railroad. He managed the busiest railway operations east of Pittsburgh. This included the Long Island and New York Connecting roads. He was also a director and president of other transport companies. Thayer was a member of many well-known clubs and organizations, like the Philadelphia Club and the Union Club of New York.
The Titanic Voyage
In the spring of 1912, John Thayer and his family were visiting Europe. They were guests of the American Consul General in Berlin, Germany. On April 10, the family boarded the RMS Titanic in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France. They were first-class passengers.
On the night of April 14, they were getting ready for bed when the ship hit an iceberg. As the ship was sinking, Thayer made sure his wife and their maid got onto lifeboats. The Titanic's designer, Thomas Andrews, had told him the ship would only last "much over an hour."
His son Jack bravely dove from the sinking ship. He managed to swim to an overturned collapsible lifeboat and survived. However, John Thayer Sr. decided not to get on a lifeboat. He stayed on the Titanic as it sank.
Final Moments
After all the lifeboats were gone, someone saw Thayer looking "pale and determined" near the ship's rail. A short while later, he was gone. It is thought that he moved towards the back of the ship, like many other passengers and crew.
At first, some news reports in Britain mistakenly said that Thayer had survived. This was because they confused him with his son. John Thayer's body was never found or identified. He is known as the only first-class cricketer who died on the Titanic.
See also
- Passengers of the RMS Titanic
