Solomon Davies Warfield (September 4, 1859 – October 24, 1927) was an American

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

executive and

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

. He is primarily remembered for extending the

Seaboard Air Line Railway The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...

into

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of ...

in the 1920s and for connecting the east and west coasts of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

by rail. To this day,

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

trains travel from Central Florida to South Florida on the route built by Warfield.

Personal life

Warfield was born in

Baltimore County Baltimore County ( , locally: or ) is the third-most populous county in the U.S. state of Maryland and is part of the Baltimore metropolitan area. Baltimore County (which partially surrounds, though does not include, the independent City of ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

, the son of

Henry Mactier Warfield The Adjutant General of Maryland is the head military official of the Maryland National Guard, the Maryland Defense Force, and any other military or paramilitary units that may be maintained by the State of Maryland. The adjutant general is respo ...

and Anna W. Emory Warfield, and was named for a friend of his father's, Sol B. Davies. Warfield's father was a prominent

grain merchant The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike ...

and director of the

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

. He was a paternal uncle of

Wallis Warfield Simpson Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (born Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Simpson; June 19, 1896 – April 24, 1986), was an American Socialite#United_States, socialite and wife of the former King Edward VIII. Their intention to marry and her status ...

, (later the Duchess of Windsor), for whom King

Edward VIII of the United Kingdom Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 1 ...

, (later the

Duke of Windsor Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937 for the former monarch Edward VIII, following his abdication on 11 December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a ...

) abdicated his throne in 1937. Warfield never married.

Corporate positions

*President of the

, *President of the Continental Trust Company of

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, *President of the

Baltimore Steam Packet Company The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, nicknamed the , was an American steamship line from 1840 that provided overnight steamboat service on Chesapeake Bay, primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia. Called a " packet" for the ma ...

, ("Old Bay Line"), *Director of the

Maryland Casualty Company Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to it ...

, *Director of the

New York Life Insurance Company New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) is the third-largest life insurance company in the United States, the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States and is ranked #67 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States ...

SS ''President Warfield''

A few months after Warfield's death, the SS ''President Warfield'' was built in 1928 by

Pusey and Jones The Pusey and Jones Corporation was a major shipbuilder and industrial-equipment manufacturer. Based in Wilmington, Delaware, it operated from 1848 to 1959. Shipbuilding was its primary focus from 1853 until the end of World War II, when the comp ...

Corporation, in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christin ...

, for the century-old

, also known as the "Old Bay Line," operating steamships on

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

between Baltimore and

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 cen ...

, their

. The Old Bay Line was controlled by the Seaboard Air Line Railway; Warfield was president of both companies in the 1920s. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the ''President Warfield'' was acquired by the U. S. government and transferred to Great Britain in 1942 under the

Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

program to serve as a troop transport. In 1944, the ship was put under U. S. Navy control, and was laid up as surplus in 1945 after the war ended. Purchased secretly in 1946 by the Jewish nationalist organization

Haganah Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the Is ...

and renamed ''Exodus 1947'', the ship was briefly in the world spotlight as one of several vessels illegally attempting to carry Jewish refugees to British-controlled

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East J ...

. This unsuccessful incident was later the subject of the 1958 novel ''

Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Exo ...

'' by

Leon Uris Leon Marcus Uris (August 3, 1924 – June 21, 2003) was an American author of historical fiction who wrote many bestselling books including '' Exodus'' (published in 1958) and '' Trinity'' (published in 1976). Life and career Uris was born in B ...

, (1924-2003) and the motion picture based upon it, released in 1960. The ship remained in

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropoli ...

harbor until it burned to the waterline in 1952, and was later scrapped.

References

External links

"S. Davies Warfield," ''The Postal Record'', November 1894, p. 251.

Carroll, David H., and Thomas S. Boggs. "S. Davies Warfield," ''Men of Mark in Maryland'', Vol. 3, pp. 24-43.
Baltimore: B. F. Johnson, Inc., 1911.
Exodus 1947
documentary film, PBS,1997, detailing the secret American involvement in the last voyage of the SS President Warfield.

Bibliography

*New York Times obituary, October 25, 1927. {{DEFAULTSORT:Warfield, S. Davies 1863 births 1927 deaths 19th-century American railroad executives 20th-century American railroad executives Baltimore and Ohio Railroad people Businesspeople from Baltimore Seaboard Air Line Railroad Solomon