William H. Galvani

William H. Galvani (June 27, 1861 – October 23, 1947) was a Russian-American civil engineer, vegetarianism activist and writer.

Biography

Galvani was born in Russia and emigrated to the United States in 1882. He worked as a railway engineer under Hans Thielsen, chief engineer of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. Throughout his career in engineering, he worked for the Oregon Electric Railway Company and the Pacific Power & Light Company. He worked as a civil engineer on principal railways in the Pacific Northwest. He was also a writer and contributed to periodical literature. He was an exponent of pantheism and a member of the Theosophical Society. He was President of the Oregon Vegetarian Society. He was a 32nd-degree Mason of the Scottish Rite.

Selected publications

Vegetarianism (Twentieth Century, 1891) Meat and Murder (Good Health, 1893) The Early Explorations and the Origin of the Name of the Oregon Country (The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, 1920) Recollections of J. F. Stevens and Senator Mitchell (Oregon Historical Quarterly, 1943)