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Family
Marriage: Children:
  1. May Meriwether: Birth: 25 OCT 1856 in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. Death: 11 SEP 1866 in Winchester, Franklin County, Tennessee

  2. Martha Meriwether: Birth: 9 AUG 1860 in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. Death: 10 FEB 1938 in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee

  3. Lucy Virginia Meriwether: Birth: 18 APR 1862 in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee. Death: 21 APR 1949 in Congers, Rockland County, New York


Notes
a. Note:   N1778 Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers (New York, New York)
 Memoir written by his daughter, Mrs. M. M. Betts
 June 1901, page 632
  Niles Meriwether, M. Am. Soc. C. E.
 Died December 28th, 1900
  Niles Meriwether was born in Christian County, Ky., on January 26th, 1830, of parents who came from old Virginia stock, and who had gone to Kentucky in the early part of the century.
  At the age of eighteen, both his parents being dead, he entered the engineering field, taking a position as a rodman on the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, then in process of location. He remained on this railroad, in various positions, for five years.
  In 1853, he became First Assistant Engineer on the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad (now a branch of the Illinois Central Railroad), his brother, Minor Meriwether, being Chief Engineer. In 1857, his brother resigned, and Niles became Chief Engineer, which position he held until 1862, when the occupation of Memphis by the Union Army made further railroad work impossible.
  In 1865, this road being practically destroyed by the contending armies, he interested himself in securing the means to rebuild it, in which he was successful.
  In 1868, he became Chief Engineer of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad (now a part of the Southern System), and held that position for eight years, during which time he built the Middleton and Ripley Branch and extended the Tullahma and McMinnville Branch to Jasper, Tenn. He also constructed most of the important bridges of this line which had been much injured during the war.
  In 1875, as Chief Engineer, he took charge of the consolidated roads formerly known as the Southern and Mississippi Central, and extended from New Orleans to Cairo, Ill.
  In 1877, he began the construction of the Natchez and Jackson Railroad, from Natchez to Jackson, Miss., but the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 so depleted the finances of that county that in the following winter the construction was suspended.
  In February, 1879, Major Meriwether accepted the position of City Engineer of Memphis, and held that office for fourteen years, during which time he did more than any other man to restore an almost ruined city to its present prosperous condition.
  In March, 1897, he took charge of the construction of a branch of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, running from Montgomery, Ala. To Columbus, Miss., and completed the line in May, 1899. His last work was as Superintending Engineer of Elmwood Cemetery, in Memphis, which occupied his time until two weeks previous to his death.
  During these fifty-two years of active work Major Meriwether was frequently called on to act as arbitrator or consulting engineer on many important pieces of engineering work all over the South.
  He was elected a Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers on November 1st, 1871, and, at the time of his death was President of The Engineering Association of the South.
  In 1855 he married Miss Lide Parker Smith, of Accomac Co., Va., and their union of forty-five years was a rarely happy one. His wife and two daughters, Dr. Lucy V. Davies, of New York, and Mrs. M. M. Betts, of Memphis survive him and cherish his memory.


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