A. L. A. Himmelwright

Abraham Lincoln Artman Himmelwright (February 7, 1865 – March 24, 1936), a civil engineer, author, adventurer, and marksman was the general manager of The Roebling Construction Company, the New York City firm created by John A. Roebling's Sons Company of Trenton, New Jersey. Himmelwright's first and second names were given to him by his parents to honor the slain president, Abraham Lincoln, assassinated the year Himmelwright was born. In most of the works he authored he went by the name "ALA Himmelwright".

He was born on February 7, 1865, in Milford, Pennsylvania. In 1894 he was with the Carlin hunting party which left its cook, George Colgate behind to die. He purchased land in and in 1907 completed a fireproof house made of stone. He died in 1936.

Himmelwright authored many books and articles, including a harrowing tale of a hunting trip in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho and a first-hand account of the famous Johnstown flood in Pennsylvania, published in Harper's Magazine. The former recounted the fate of the "Carlin Hunting Party", in which Himmelwright participated. He wrote the account under the pseudomymn Heclawa because of the national notoriety which occurred when the disaster reached the nation's newspapers. The group's cook, George Colgate, died in difficult but disputed circumstances and some accused the men of abandoning him needlessly. For a discussion of the matter not entirely sympathetic to Himmelwright, see Ladd Hamilton's Snowbound (1997). For Himmelright's perspective, see his book In the Heart of the Bitter-Root Mountains.

Himmelwright's books on pistol shooting technique were among the most popular American books on the subject and remained in print from 1904 into the early 1940s. He was president of the U.S. Revolver Association, an early sport governing body, from 1904–1906 and won the Association's inaugural national revolver shooting championship match in 1900.

An expert on the danger of fire, in 1899 The Roebling Construction Company published the first of many articles and books by Himmelwright concerning fireproof construction, "Tests of the Roebling System of Fireproof Construction". In 1906, The Roebling Construction Company sought to reinforce its brand and expertise in fireproof development when it published the Himmelwright book, The San Francisco Earthquake and Fire : A Brief History of the Disaster ; A Presentation of Facts and Resulting Phenomena, With Special Reference to the Efficiency of Building Materials, Lessons of the Disaster.

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