PETER BETZ
When well-respected former State Senator Titus Sheard died suddenly of heart disease at his Little Falls home on April 13, 1904, his death was roundly lamented. His was one of many rags to riches 19th Century success stories. He had, according to the April 14 New York Times, come to America from England with only an older sister as a companion at the age of 15 in 1841, carrying nothing but pocket change, just enough to travel as far west as Little Falls, where he found work in textile factories.
Sheard must have be a real go-getter, for by 1864 he was sole owner of the Eagle Woolen Mill. In 1877, he was elected to the state Assembly and later beat out Theodore Roosevelt as House Speaker. In 1880, he was elected state senator, so there’s no surprise both a railroad engine and a steam canal boat would be named after him, and so they were. The railroad engine didn’t explode. The canal boat did.