William Dalton (1869-1968) [Section 21 Lot 34]
Chief Engineer of American Locomotive Company (ALCO)
In 1896 he married Ida May Hill of New York City and together they had had six children. They lived in Schenectady, eventually moving to Spring Road in Glenville. Ida passed away in 1928 with Dalton remarrying Sylvia Loines, sixteen years his junior, in 1929.
Dalton died on February 1, 1968, at the age of 98 of Bronchopneumonia at Ellis Hospital. His remains were cremated at Gardner Earl Crematorium, Oakwood Cemetery in Troy. He is interred in the family’s cinerarium in Lot 34, Section 21. The Dalton Cinerarium was designed by Albany architect Marcus Reynolds and considered to be one of the “finest classical design, among numerous large-scale monuments he designed” at Albany Rural Cemetery. He is also credited for designing their home in Glenville in 1910.
William Dalton was born September 12, 1869, to Philip Welsey Dalton, a retail merchant and Harriet Ann Ertzberger. He attended Albany schools, graduating in 1890. He attended Cornell University where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering.
He moved to Schenectady and became the Chief Engineer to American Locomotive Company (ALCO), which built locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks. Later on, it looked at producing nuclear energy in the 1950s. Its proximity to General Electric in Schenectady served them well as ALCO consulted on many projects in the early twentieth century. During WWI, Dalton managed the ALCO Ordnance plant in Providence, R.I. Upon retiring from ALCO in 1939, he worked as a consulting engineer with G.E. - during his lifetime he furnished him several patents.