John Mifflin Hood

John Mifflin Hood (1843–1906) was an American railroad and electric streetcar system executive.

Hood was President of the Western Maryland Railway from 1874 to 1901. In 1901-1902, he became President of United Railways and Electric Company, a streetcar system company in the Baltimore metropolitan area. As the head of the UREC system at the turn of the 20th century, he oversaw completion of the massive construction project of the Pratt Street Power Plant.

Life and early educational/travel career Hood was born near the village of Bowling Green in Howard County, Maryland, (which had just been erected/set up five years before by cutting portions of northwestern Anne Arundel County off, formerly known as the Western District, then later as the Howard District), which is now near Sykesville, on April 5, 1843. He was the son of Dr. Benjamin Hood of the district and Miss Hannah Mifflin Hood of Baltimore. He studied at Rugby's Institute of Mount Washington, north of the city, from which he graduated in 1859. From 1859 to 1861 he traveled to the continent of South America and to Brazil exploring the technical opportunities and challenges there. He studied civil engineering and was intrigued by the Sciences and mathematics. His career was briefly interrupted by his service in the American Civil War when he returned from the Southern Hemisphere.

American Civil War career (1861-1865) When he arrived back home in North America after a two-year absence, the country was embroiled in civil strife and secession with a split home border state of Maryland. He enlisted in August 1861 in Company C of the Second Maryland Regiment, then serving in exile in the southern Army of Northern Virginia of the newly organized Confederate States Army. Later on, Hood was noted for his topographical engineering abilities and transferred to Company B of the Second Maryland with engineering duties greatly needed in the Southern army's limited industrial railroad experience. He was wounded seven times and suffered shattering injuries to his left arm which necessitated a lengthy healing process.

Post-war railroading engineering/construction career (1865-1874) After the war, Hood worked as an engineer on construction projects for several railroads in the mid-Atlantic states region, beginning on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad (P.W.& B.), the Delaware Railroad, followed by the Eastern Shore Railroad on the Delmarva peninsula and later including the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad, where he was appointed Superintendent and Chief Engineer. He oversaw a major improvement in the railway's financial condition. During his quarter-century long tenure, the W.M. Company's annual gross earnings increased from about $218,000 in 1874 to $2.1 million in 1902.

A bronze statue of Hood on a stone pedestal was erected around 1911 by his friends in the old Hopkins Place. After 1963 it was relocated to the terraced "Preston Gardens".