Webster Wagner

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title: "Webster Wagner" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1817-births", "1882-deaths", "republican-party-new-york-(state)-state-senators", "republican-party-members-of-the-new-york-state-assembly", "politicians-from-buffalo,-new-york", "american-people-in-rail-transportation", "american-railway-entrepreneurs", "railway-accident-deaths-in-the-united-states", "accidental-deaths-in-new-york-(state)", "people-from-palatine-bridge,-new-york", "businesspeople-from-buffalo,-new-york", "19th-century-american-businesspeople", "19th-century-members-of-the-new-york-state-legislature"] description: "American politician" topic_path: "people/1810s" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster_Wagner" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American politician ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Webster Wagner
image	Sen. Webster Wagner 1882.jpg
alt	A black and white photograph of a standing elderly bespectacled man wearing a bow tie and dark frock coat with his right hand in between the seam. His body is angled to the right while he looks straight at the camera.
caption	Wagner shortly before his death in 1882
birth_date
birth_place	Palatine Bridge, New York, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, New York
occupation	Inventor, businessman, politician
years_active	1853-82
known_for	Inventing early railroad sleeper car
::

| name = Webster Wagner | image = Sen. Webster Wagner 1882.jpg | alt = A black and white photograph of a standing elderly bespectacled man wearing a bow tie and dark frock coat with his right hand in between the seam. His body is angled to the right while he looks straight at the camera. | caption = Wagner shortly before his death in 1882 | birth_date = | birth_place = Palatine Bridge, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Spuyten Duyvil, Bronx, New York | occupation = Inventor, businessman, politician | years_active = 1853-82 | known_for = Inventing early railroad sleeper car Webster Wagner (October 2, 1817 – January 13, 1882) was an American inventor, manufacturer and politician from New York.

Life

Wagner was born near Palatine Bridge, New York. He developed a wagon-making business with his brother James. The business had folded by 1842, largely due to the Panic of 1837. After serving as an employee for the New York Central Railroad, Wagner invented the sleeping car and luxurious parlor car. He also perfected a system of ventilating railroad cars. His inventions were first used on the NY Central and later spread to other lines. He founded the Wagner Palace Car Company, located in Buffalo, New York. Several legal battles with the Pullman Company failed to put him and his partners out of business; at the time of his death the two companies were completing a merger.

He was married to Susan Davis, and they had five children.

He was a Republican member of the New York State Assembly (Montgomery Co.) in 1871; and of the New York State Senate from 1872 until his death, sitting in the 95th, 96th, 97th, 98th, 99th, 100th, 101st, 102nd (all eight 15th D.), 103rd, 104th and 105th New York State Legislatures (all three 18th D.).

Wagner was killed in the 1882 Spuyten Duyvil train wreck while returning from Albany to New York City when two trains of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad collided in between the Kingsbridge and Spuyten Duyvil stations in The Bronx, two weeks into his sixth Senate term, on January 13, 1882. His body was found crushed between two of his company's cars.

Webster Wagner House at Palatine Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Notes

References

References

1. "Webster Wagner Wagon-making Papers, 1837-1842 (finding aid)". [[New York State Library]].
2. (January 14, 1882). "Meeting a Terrible Fate – Nine Persons Crushed and Burned in a Collision – A Train Crashing Into the Rear of the Atlantic Express – Nine, Perhaps Twelve, Victims Caught in the Burning Cars – State Senator Wagner Among the Dead – Narrow Escape of Many Others – Terrible Scene at the Wreck". New York Times.
3. {{NRISref. 2009a

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