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Railroad History ArchiveRecent Gifts and AcquisitionsThe Pierre Thomas Dumaine PapersThomas Park Dumaine, the seventh and last child of Frederic C. Dumaine, Sr. and Bessie Dumaine, was born on 21 August 1912, in Groton, Massachusetts. F.C. Dumaine, Sr. (1866-1951) owned Amoskeag Manufacturing Company and was at one time the president of the New Haven Railroad. For reasons unknown, Thomas Park's name was legally changed to Pierre Thomas by his father at some point in his early childhood. Pierre's nickname was "Spike". His education and the activities of his early youth are unknown; it is thought that he either picked up a mechanical background working at one or more of his father's holdings over the years and that his early jobs were in his father's mills. Dumaine was involved in a joint venture between the New Haven Railroad and the Mack Corporation during the early 1950s that resulted in the development of the Mack "FCD" Rail-Bus. He served as President of the New England Transportation Company, a bus and trucking company based in Boston, in the early to mid-1950s. Dumaine served on the Boston and Maine Railroad's board of directors during the early to mid-1950s. He possibly resigned after Patrick McGinnis became the railroad's president in January 1956. Pierre Thomas Dumaine was married to Margaret (last name unknown) until they divorced in 1959. They had two children, Lael and Peter. He married Evelyn Laffery in 1961. He died on 13 August 1987, in Portland, Maine. The collection consists of a scrapbook and two photograph albums compiled by Pierre Thomas Dumaine. Of particular interest is the scrapbook, which is composed almost entirely of newspaper clippings, many compiled by the New England Newsclip Agency, Inc. of Boston. Featured in the scrapbook are articles about Pierre Dumaine's work as President of the New England Transportation Company and a strike of mechanics for the bus company in August 1953. Also included is information about a proxy fight for control of the New Haven Railroad in the Spring of 1954, when F. C. Dumaine, Jr., Pierre Dumaine's brother, lost control of the railroad to Patrick McGinnis. There are also articles about McGinnis's move to merge the New Haven Railroad with the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1955.
For more information about the Pierre Thomas Dumaine Papers, see the finding aid at http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/findaids/Dumaine/MSS20020080.html See our other recent gifts here.
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