David W. Flickwir
American civil engineer and railroad executive
David Williamson Flickwir (1852-1935) was a civil engineer and railroad engineering contractor. His company built one of the world's largest concrete bridges, the Tunkhannock Viaduct.
Early life and career
David W. Flickwir was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 26, 1852, to Joseph Williamson Flickwir (1809-1899) and Rebecca Barton (1824-1907). He entered railroad work in 1871 as a rodman in an engineering corps for a railroad.
In 1875, Flickwir was an engineer for the construction of the buildings for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. An 1876 Philadelphia business directory lists Flickwir as a consulting civil engineer.
In 1893, Flickwir married Charlotte Nalle (1856-1923) of Orange County, Virginia. Nalle died in October 1923. Flickwir remarried in May 1925 to Mildred A. Elder (1892-1991) who was the nursing superintendent at Roanoke Hospital (today Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital).
Railroad engineer and contractor
In 1879, he was a construction engineer on the Shenandoah Valley Railroad.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “David W. Flickwir” as american civil engineer and railroad executive. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american civil engineer and railroad executive. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 27, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q19666398. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1852, 1935, 1809 and 1899.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “David W. Flickwir”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow David W. Flickwir primary sources, David W. Flickwir archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “David W. Flickwir”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “David W. Flickwir” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.