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'''William George Neilson- Founder of the Adirondack Mountain Reserve/ Ausable Club. NEILSON, William George, metallurgical engineer, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 12 August,1842. He graduated at the Polytechnic college of Pennsylvania in 1862, and at once directed his attention to the manufacture of iron and steel. After filling several professional engagements, he became connected with the Elizabethtown forges in 1869, and in 1870 with the Pennsylvania steel company. In 1871 he was appointed general manager of the Logan iron and steel company, and in 1877 manager of the Standard steel company. His services were called for by the Baldwin locomotive-works in 1878 in order to aid them in their shipment of locomotives to Russia. Mr. Neilson has been active in the American institute of mining engineers as an official, and in 1876 he was secretary of the centennial committee of that organization. In addition to various reports for the American iron and steel association he published in 1868 a chart illustrative of the material progress of the United States, showing the costs of certain staple products during a series of years.

Neilson was connected with Booth & Garrett, a prominent firm of analytical chemists in Philadelphia. In 1867 he was associated with the interests of Jay Cooke in the Adirondacks, spending three years in those mountains operating forges at Elizabethtown, Essex County, New York. He was next, for a short time, with the Pennsylvania Steel Company. During 1871, when the Logan Iron & Steel Company of Burnham, Pennsylvania, failed, Neilson was appointed its receiver and upon subsequent reorganization of the company was made its general manager. In the meantime, he became interested in the Freedom Forge of the same place, and with William Burnham of Philadelphia laid the foundations for what later became the Standard Steel Works, an affiliated interest of what was then called Burnham, Parry, Williams & Company, and is now known as the Baldwin Locomotive Works.

He was manager of the Standard Steel Works for thirteen years (1877 - 90), and in 1878 was given charge of the first consignment of American-made locomotives to Russia. He was accompanied by a picked crew of men from Baldwin's for the purpose of placing these engines in service at Eydtkuhnen, an important railroad point on the border of East Prussia (now Lithuania).

In 1890 he resigned from the Standard Steel Works to accept a position with the Chester Rolling Mills, later becoming vice-president of the Wellman Iron & Steel Company (1890 - 92).

From 1893 to 1895 he was general manager of the Taylor Iron & Steel Company of Highbridge, New Jersey, and subsequently, for a period of eight years, treasurer of the Keystone Drop Forge Works at Chester, Pennsylvania. With William Burnham and Edward Nichols, who subsequently became the president of the Brooks Locomotive Works, Tarrytown, New York, now a part of the American Locomotive Works system, Neilson, in 1882, purchased the Ridge Valley Iron Company, makers of charcoal pig iron, in Floyd County, Georgia; and in that year formed the Republic Mining & Manufacturing Company for purchasing and operating mineral properties in the South. Bauxite, the ore from which aluminum metal is derived, was first discovered in the United States the following year at Hermitage, about one mile from the Ridge Valley Furnace.

Neilson served as president of the controlling organization from its formation until 1903.

He was secretary of the centennial committee of the American Institute of Mining Engineers and his tact and the charm of his personality are attested by the successful manner in which he carried out the work of this office at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876.

Neilson became a pioneer in the bauxite industry and was closely associated with its remarkable development. He was president of the Republic Mining & Manufacturing Company from 1892 until his death.

His religious interests covered a broad field, his activities centering chiefly in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Philadelphia, of which he was long a vestryman, and in the Philadelphia Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, which he served as director and for three years as president.

Neilson was a member of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association for many years.

In 1872 he married Mary Louise Cunningham, of Philadelphia. He was survived by two sons and four daughters.

Father: William Smith Neilson Mother: Esther (LaCoste) of Trinidad Spouse: Mary Louise Cunningham

Neilson enjoyed Summer Residency in the Keene Valley New York, Adirondack High Peak Area. In the 1860's Neilson built the first Summer Residence in the Keene Heights area and named it Noon Mark Lodge. William Neilson is noted for initiating and securing the support and purchase of a section of old growth forest now known as the Adirondack Mountain Reserve in 1886 and 1877. In 1889, Neilson approached his friend Smith Beede- owner of the Beede Hotel and upon Beede's approval to sell the Hotel, took out a purchase option and presented the opportunity to the members of the newly formed Adirondack Mountain Reserve who then agreed to purchase the Hotel and accompanying property in 1890. Notably as well, William, during the same time period as the Hotel transaction, purchased a separate 40-acre property from the "Widow Beede, which in turn, he graciously donated to the Hotel company which was soon renamed the Ausable Club. At this time Neilson initiated the renaming of the village of Keene Heights to- "St. Huberts."

William George Neilson was on the forefront of the Environmentalist movement in the Adirondack area. The Adirondack Mountain Reserve, which at one point encompassed 40,000 acres of Wilderness, was actually created before the formation of the Adirondack Park and was given notable mention by his close friend Verplanck Colvin.