The Topeka Daily Capital Saturday January 31, 1921 Mudge, Former Santa Fe General Manager, Dies. President of Rock Island and Rio Grande. Career of Pioneer Kansan Began With Job as Section Hand--Reached Pinnacle in His Profession. H.U. MUDGE, former president of the Rock Island and of the Denver & Rio Grande, general mannager of the Santa Fe with headquarters in Topeka, and former one of the most widely known railroad officials in the country, died yesterday in Denver, Colo. Death was due to a cerebral hemorrhage. He was stricken Monday night in his Denver home. He was 64 years of age. Mr. Mudge began his railroad career with the humbliest of jobs--that of working on the section. In 1871 at the age of 15, he came with his parents in a wagon from Michigan to Sterling, Kan. The Santa Fe at that time had reached a point of twelve miles west of Sterling and was being pushed westward at the rate of two miles a day. He applied to the foreman of the track-laying gang for a job. He first was employed as water boy and soon afterward became a common laborer. When the road reached the Colorado line, he returned to Sterling. His Advance Was Rapid. By this time Mudge was interested in railroad work and asked the agent at Sterling to teach him telegraphy. In three months he had become well enough acquainted at the key to be give the position of extra operator. In June 1872, he became night operator at Pease, a small station west of Hutchinson. From there he was transferred to Carbondale, where he spent the next three years as night operator. After leaving Carbondale he became a baggageman on the run to Denver and during the next twelve years, he was successively brakeman, conductor, train dispatcher, and roadmaster. In 1889 Mr. Mudge became train master at San Marcial and later assistant superintendent of the Rio Grande division. In 1896 he was promoted general superintendent of the entire Santa Fe system with headquarters at Topeka. He became general manager of the road in January, 1900. FIve yeras later he resigned to become second vice president of the Rock Island in charge of the operating department. President of R.I. in 1910. In 1910 Mr. Mudge was elected president of the Rock Island, a position he held until he resigned in 1915 to become president of the Rio Grande retiring in 1918. Since his retirement from railroad life two years ago, he had made his home in Denver, tho he spent much of his time on his New Mexico ranch. He is survived by his widow and four sons, Burton W. Mudge who is in the railroad supply business at Chicago, Charles M. Mudge, George Paul Mudge and Hugh U. Mudge.