Thomas Fletcher Oakes

Thomas Fletcher Oakes (July 15, 1843 in Boston – 1919 in Seattle) was president of Northern Pacific Railway from 1888 to 1893.

Oakes entered railway service June 1, 1863; to April, 1879, on Kansas Pacific Railroad; two years secretary to contractors, two years purchasing agent; three years purchasing agent and assistant treasurer; six years general freight agent; one year vice-president; one year five months general superintendent; April 1879, to May 1880, general superintendent Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf and Kansas City, Lawrence and Southern; May 1880, to May 1881, vice-president and general manager Oregon Railway and Navigation Company; May 1881, to November 1883, vice-president Northern Pacific Railway, and November 1883, to 1888, vice-president and general manager.

Oakes was placed in charge of the Columbia & Puget Sound Railroad after Charles Barstow Wright formed the Oregon Improvement Company. Harris retained Oakes as executive vice president, after Harris became president of Northern Pacific.[1]

His son, Walter Oakes, of Seattle, a founder of the Alaska Steamship Company, was father of the ethnologist Maud Oakes.[2][3]

References
  1. Speidel, William (1967). Sons of the Profits. Seattle: Nettle Creek Publishing Company. pp. 170, 183.
  2. Secretary's Report, Class of 1887, Harvard College, Twenty-Fifth Anniversary 1887-1912, p. 154
  3. History of Washington: The Rise and Progress of an American State, vol. 5, Clinton A. Snowden, Century History Co., 1911, p. 408
  • The Biographical Directory of the Railway Officials of America for 1887. Chicago, Illinois: Railway Age. 1887. p. 236.
Preceded by
Robert Harris		 President of Northern Pacific Railway
1888 – 1893		 Succeeded by
Brayton Ives


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