4 sources
The family research collections
Held in the private Ferris Archive and cited by collection and record. Collection guides are not yet published; registered readers can open the records in the archive.
Ferris Families of Knox County, Illinois
James G. Ferris's compilation on Silvanus Ferris of Galesburg and his descendants, including George Washington Gale Ferris Sr. and Jr. Transcribed obituaries, county histories, letters, Find a Grave references and the compiler's own notes, organised by a numbered lineage scheme.
James Ferris, Part I
The descendants of James Ferris, son of the immigrant Jeffrey Ferris of Greenwich, Connecticut, from the seventeenth century into the twentieth, including the Revolutionary-era Sylvanus Ferris (1737–1824) and the Westchester and Herkimer County generations from which the Galesburg family came.
Mary Ferris
The descendants of Mary Ferris, Jeffrey's daughter, through the Lockwood family of Greenwich and its allied lines (Mead, Peck, Hoyt and others).
Jeffrey Ferris
A narrative compilation on Jeffrey Ferris (c.1610–1666), the immigrant ancestor at Watertown, Wethersfield, Stamford and Greenwich, his three marriages, his will, and the traditions about the family's English origins.
37 sources
Contemporary documents
Newspapers, journals, and papers from the period. Preferred over every later account.
Luther V. Rice, 'Ferris Wheel', in Report of the Committee on Awards of the World's Columbian Commission: Special Reports upon Special Subjects or Groups, vol. 1 (Washington: GPO, 1901), pp. 475–480
The construction superintendent's own account of the Wheel's conception, approval, construction and operation, written for the Exposition's awards committee. This is the 'Rice 1901' that Weingardt cites throughout; located and read on the Internet Archive on 2026-09-16.
William F. Gronau's 1893 account of designing the Ferris Wheel (as cited by Weingardt, 'Gronau 1893')
The design engineer's contemporary account, quoted by Weingardt (pp. 74–75, 86). PASS D (2026-09-17) did not locate it as a journal article. The quotations in later books ('I could have yelled out loud for joy'; the chair-cheer) circulate from Weingardt, not from an opened Gronau text. Rice 1901 and Searles 1893 independently name Gronau; they are not this document.
Garden City Observation Wheel Company v. The Ferris Wheel Company, U.S. Circuit Court, Northern District of Illinois, Case 22941 (depositions from 10 July 1893)
The patent-infringement suit whose depositions Weingardt quotes for Ferris's 1890 Atlantic City ride and the Wheel's drive. PASS D located a matching National Archives file unit (NAID 235900749) but the papers are not digitized and have not been read.
William H. Searles, 'The Ferris Wheel', Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies, vol. 12 (1893), pp. 614–621 (read 14 November 1893)
A contemporary engineering paper, opened on the Internet Archive in PASS D. Searles states that the designers declined to furnish a complete description; the paper is therefore not Gronau 1893. It describes a 250-foot pin-connected tension wheel, a 33-inch hollow axle of 93,000 pounds, cars of sixty-person maximum, one revolution in nine minutes, 34,451 passengers on the busiest day, and 1,500,000 for a twenty-week season. The discussion records weights obtained from Gronau and comments on Gronau's tie-rod calculations.
'A Great Ferris Wheel', Chicago Tribune, 18 June 1893, p. 25 (the article Scientific American of 1 July 1893 abstracts)
The pre-opening Tribune feature: Ferris Wheel Company capitalised at $600,000 with $300,000 of bonds; a concession obtained and later revoked; a replacement concession in December under which the Exposition took half the receipts after they equalled the cost of the wheel; scaffolding begun 20 March; fifty cents for two revolutions, expected to revolve once every twenty minutes; 32-inch axle; bicycle-wheel / 2½-inch spoke description. Read 2026-09-17 from the public reprint on Chicagology, matching the Scientific American abstract already on the ledger.
Untitled item, Ocean City Sentinel (Ocean City, N.J.), 23 November 1893, p. 3
A New Jersey paper reporting that the Chicago Ferris wheel had been found an infringement of an Atlantic City patent, that 'the highest court' had so decided, and that several thousand dollars in royalty would have to be paid. Read 2026-09-17 from the Cape May County Library digitisation.
Henry B. Nason (ed.), Biographical Record of the Officers and Graduates of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1824–1886 (Troy, N.Y.: W. H. Young, 1887), pp. 515–516
RPI's own register, compiled in Ferris's lifetime and evidently from a questionnaire he returned: birth at Galesburg 14 February 1859, parents G. W. G. and Martha (Hyde) Ferris, the 1864 move to Carson City, Oakland military academy 1873–76, RPI 1876–81, and a year-by-year account of his work to 1886.
'Memorial on the Death of George Washington Gale Ferris', Proceedings of the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania, vol. 13 (1897), pp. 32–34, signed Gustave Kaufman and D. W. McNaugher
The society's memorial, written by Ferris's own business partners and read at its meeting of 16 February 1897: birth, schooling, career, the founding of G. W. G. Ferris & Co. in 1886 with James C. Hallsted, the 1889 reorganisation, Ferris, Kaufman & Co., his marriage on 18 September 1886, his death on 22 November 1896, and a measured account of the Wheel's finances.
Proceedings of the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania, vol. 11 (1895): membership roll and the Sixth Street bridge paper
Records Ferris's election to membership in June 1891 and, in a paper on the Allegheny River bridges, that the Ninth (Hand) Street bridge was rebuilt 'under the direction of Messrs. Ferris and Kaufman, members of this society'.
'The Great Wheel at Chicago', Scientific American, vol. 69 no. 1 (1 July 1893), p. 8, with cover engraving
A contemporary technical description, explicitly abstracted from the Chicago Tribune of 18 June 1893: 250-foot diameter, towers about 140 feet, the bicycle-wheel principle, 36 cars of 40 chairs, the 1,000-horsepower reversible engine, the concession terms, and the company's capitalisation.
John P. Barrett, Electricity at the Columbian Exposition (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley, 1894), 'Lighting of the Ferris Wheel', pp. 19–21
The Exposition's own electrical record: 1,540 sixteen-candlepower Edison lamps on the Wheel, 2,900 in all; Western Electric wiring; the collector rings; the boiler and dynamo plant 700 feet outside the grounds.
Trumbull White and William Igleheart, The World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893 (Philadelphia: P. W. Ziegler, 1893), pp. 274, 576–577
A contemporary fair history with a short technical description of the Wheel (264 feet high, 36 cars of 60, two engines) and the Bethlehem Iron Company's exhibit note on the 65-ton ingot from which the axle was forged.
Engineering News and American Railway Journal, vol. 30 (July–December 1893): Ferris Wheel notes of 13 July, 3 August, 7 and 14 September, and 16 November 1893
The engineering weekly's contemporary notes: the editor's reply on the 9 July storm ('a 250-ft. wheel extending 264 ft. above the ground'), the 2,200 tons fabricated at Detroit, the $392,000 reported cost, and the stockholders' report of 1,453,611 passengers at fifty cents.
'The Great Ferris Wheel', The Mason County Journal (Shelton, Wash.), 27 October 1893, p. 2
Carries Ferris's own first-person account of sketching the Wheel at a Chicago chop house, the 16 December 1892 concession 'just four and a half months before the Fair opened', the $300,000 threshold passed on 8 September 1893, and a cost of $392,000.
Untitled Ferris Wheel item, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 27 September 1893, p. 2
Reports Ferris, asked how he planned the wheel, describing the chop-house lunch at which he drew a complete plan, and the concession 'taken away again'.
'The Ferris Wheel', Morning Appeal (Carson City, Nev.), 21 December 1892, p. 3
Ferris's home-town paper reporting, days after the concession, engineers taking borings on the Midway Plaisance site.
'To Revolve With 2,150 Persons', The Evening World (New York), 22 December 1892, p. 5 (Associated Press, Detroit)
AP dispatch announcing the Detroit Bridge and Iron Works as contractor at $300,000; the same wire ran in the Madison Daily Leader (23 Dec.) and Big Stone Gap Post (29 Dec.).
'For the Big Ferris Wheel', New-York Tribune, 20 March 1893, p. 2 (dateline Bethlehem, Pa., 19 March)
The Bethlehem Iron Company 'shipped to the World's Fair yesterday the largest piece of steel ever forged in this country': the axle, 45 feet 2 inches long, 33 inches in diameter, 89,320 pounds (the Salt Lake Herald of 25 March prints the same wire).
'The Great Ferris Wheel at the World's Fair — Technical Details of the Construction', The Citizen (Chicago), 12 August 1893, p. 5
An extended contemporary technical feature: work begun 8 January 1893, a 35-foot excavation through quicksand, steam pumps and live steam on the concrete, towers 140 feet, highest point 265 feet, $25,000 spent on plans before the concession, $12,000 of scaffolding lumber.
'The Wheel Goes Round', The Beatrice Daily Express (Beatrice, Neb.), 22 June 1893, p. 1
Opening-day report: 5,000 invited guests, the Iowa State Band in the topmost car, 36 cars of 40 seats.
'The Triumph of Engineering', The Wilmington Daily Republican (Wilmington, Del.), 22 June 1893, p. 2
The fullest opening-day programme: Hunt presiding, Ferris, Miles, Harrison, Higinbotham, Handy, Scott and Vincent speaking, the whistle, the first twenty-minute trip; 22,000 spectators.
'Great Ferris Wheel in Midway Plaisance Opened to the Public', St. Paul Daily Globe, 22 June 1893, p. 5
Reports the start delayed from 3 o'clock to 4:30, 265 feet high, 1,200 tons with passengers, and compares the Wheel to the Eiffel Tower.
Syndicated storm report, 10 July 1893 (St. Paul Daily Globe, Omaha Daily Bee, Daily Public Ledger, Helena Independent, p. 1 each)
'The gale struck the Ferris wheel with all its force. The cars were all filled … it did not move the gigantic structure a hair's breadth.'
'Ferris Wheel — World's Fair Guards Attempt to Stop the Huge Toy', Daily Public Ledger (Maysville, Ky.), 2 November 1893, p. 2
Contemporary report of the 1 November confrontation, with Ferris quoted on the $75,000 the company refused to pay, its $25,000 removal bond, and his intention to run 'until November 30, guards or no guards'.
Obituary report, Kansas City Daily Journal, 23 November 1896, p. 1
Death at Mercy Hospital at 11 o'clock 'this morning' of typhoid fever after admission on Friday; his wife 'came here from Canton yesterday'; firm founded 1887 (sic).
Obituary report, The San Francisco Call, 23 November 1896, p. 3 (dateline Pittsburg, 22 Nov.)
'George W. Ferris, inventor and builder of the Ferris wheel, died to-day at Mercy Hospital, where he had been treated for typhoid fever for a week.'
Obituary report, Rock Island Argus, 23 November 1896, p. 6
Illinois paper: born at Galesburg 14 February 1859; died at Mercy Hospital 'at 11 o'clock yesterday morning of typhoid fever'.
'Ferris' Ashes Held for Debt', Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 28 February 1898, p. 2
Reports the remains still at Samson's crematory fifteen months on, that Ferris was 'practically penniless at his death, but carried insurance to the amount of $25,000', and that the claims exceeded it.
'Ashes Held for a Debt', Kansas City Journal, 9 March 1898, p. 6
The fullest account: cremation 'in deference to a dying request' before relatives including Mrs. Ferris; the ashes 'placed in a two-quart tin can and stored in the vault'; the widow's repeated requests refused; $150 allowed the undertaker by the orphans' court in January 1898.
'Ferris Wheel Goes — Famous Amusement Device Destroyed By Dynamite', The Morning Astorian (Astoria, Ore.), 13 May 1906, p. 8 (Chicago Tribune dispatch of 12 May)
The demolition report: 200 pounds of dynamite in two stages, the wheel crumpling rather than toppling, the 45-ton axle dropping with the wreck, a lifetime of 2,500,000 riders, scrap estimated at $8,000.
William Somers, 'Roundabout', U.S. Patent No. 489,238, filed 28 October 1891, issued 3 January 1893
The Atlantic City patent at issue in the Garden City suit: wooden rims on radial spokes, swinging seats, and a cable drive running in grooves on the rim.
Rossiter Johnson (ed.), A History of the World's Columbian Exposition Held in Chicago in 1893, by Authority of the Board of Directors (New York: D. Appleton, 1897)
The authorised history, quoting the enabling act (dedication 12 October 1892; open by 1 May 1893; close not later than 30 October 1893) and naming the officers.
John J. Flinn, Official Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago: Columbian Guide Co., 1893)
Admission 50 cents; the Midway Plaisance 80 acres connecting Jackson and Washington Parks; the Ferris Wheel 'carrying the passenger 250 feet in the air; 50 cents for two revolutions'.
Martha Farnham Webster, Seventy-Five Significant Years: The Story of Knox College, 1837–1912 (Galesburg: Wagoner Printing Co., 1912)
The college's own anniversary history: Silvanus Ferris on the exploring committee of 1835 and the purchasing committee appointed 19 August 1835 with Gale and Nehemiah West; among the first trustees; among the 1837 arrivals; and the Gale–Olmsted–Ferris kinship.
The Carson Daily Appeal (Carson City, Nev.), 29 April 1870, p. 3: G. W. G. Ferris's fruit and shade trees
Reports the nursery stock 'on the premises of Mr. G. W. G. Ferris, Third Street the old Sears place' — cherry trees from Illinois, and maples, beeches and box-elders grown from eastern seed to replace the town's cottonwoods. The 2000 National Register amendment cites this item as its proof that Sears built the house.
The Dalles Times-Mountaineer, 10 November 1893, page 1
Contemporary newspaper page carrying the stockholders' report of paid admissions to the Ferris Wheel.
The Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. 62 no. 22, 28 November 1896
Scanned issue containing an obituary notice of George W. G. Ferris; the scan's text has not yet been read for this project.
8 sources
Catalogued items in libraries and museums
Photographs and objects with an institutional record and a rights statement.
National Register of Historic Places Inventory–Nomination Form: G. W. G. Ferris House, Carson City, Nevada (reference 79003438)
The 1978 nomination of the Ferris family's Carson City house (311 West 3rd Street, at Division Street), quoting the Historic American Buildings Survey report by S. Allen Chambers Jr. and Thompson & West's 1881 History of Nevada. Gives George Jr.'s birth date, schooling, early career, and the house's ownership through Mary Ferris Ardery to 1922.
National Register amendment: Sears-Ferris House, Carson City, Nevada (reference 79003438)
The amendment to the 1978 nomination, prepared after Nevada state archivist Guy Rocha traced the house to Gregory Alvin Sears. Changes the historic name, sets significant dates 1863 and 1868, and quotes the Carson Daily Appeal of 29 April 1870 ('Third Street the old Sears place'). Deed books: G. W. G. Ferris Sr. purchased Block 28 on 10 March 1868.
Garden City Observation Wheel Company vs. Ferris Wheel Company, Robert W. Hunt, Andrew Underdonk, William A. Vincent and George W. G. Ferris (NARA file unit NAID 235900749)
National Archives catalog listing for the federal patent-infringement file. Located 2026-09-17. The catalog title misspells Onderdonk as 'Underdonk'. The case papers themselves were not opened.
Chicago History Museum, History Lab: 'The First Ferris Wheel — Talking with Telegrams!' (lesson packet reproducing Rice–Ferris telegrams of 9 and 10 June 1893 from the George Washington Gale Ferris papers, Chicago Historical Society)
Reproduces and transcribes Rice's telegram of 9 June 1893 (steam on at six o'clock, one complete revolution, twenty minutes) and Ferris's reply of 10 June; also states the Wheel ran 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
National Register of Historic Places Inventory–Nomination Form: Dangberg Ranch (Home Ranch), Minden, Douglas County, Nevada (reference 80002466)
The ranch H. F. Dangberg Sr. settled in the early 1860s, at one time 48,000 acres; the nomination describes the house begun in the early 1860s and enlarged over the years.
Large Ferris wheel at the World's Columbian Exposition (photograph, c. 1892–1893)
Photograph used as the hero image on /heritage and /story/george-ferris.
GWFerris.jpg (portrait of George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.)
The portrait reproduced on /heritage and /story/george-ferris.
World's Columbian Exposition Ferris Wheel, Chicago (Starks W. Lewis, 1893)
Photograph used on the homepage and /heritage.
12 sources
Institutions speaking for their own history
Museums, universities and government bodies describing their holdings or their past.
Rensselaer Alumni Hall of Fame (RPI alumni site)
The Institute's own Hall of Fame pages: conceived in 1995; inaugural class inducted September 1998. The 1998–1999 inductees page lists George W.G. Ferris, Class of 1881. Read 2026-09-17 from the Institute pages (the live alumni host is Cloudflare-gated; the same institutional wording is what the pages publish).
Hyde Park Historical Society, 'Ferris Wheel' (Patrick Meehan's 1964 history with a follow-up by archivist Stephen Treffman)
Reprints the Chicago Tribune of 3 June 1903 ('Brings $1800 at receiver's sale') and 12 May 1906 verbatim; gives 1,453,611 paid admissions by 6 November 1893 and gross earnings of $726,805; dates the 1894 dismantling and the Clark Street years.
John A. Lupton, 'Illinois Supreme Court history: Ferris Wheel', Office of the Illinois Courts, 17 December 2024
The court's own account of Swift v. People ex rel. Ferris Wheel Co. (1896): the company's mandamus petition for a dram-shop licence, reversed on appeal and denied by the Supreme Court in an opinion by Justice Jacob Wilkin.
'St. Louis and the Ferris Wheel', PastPorts (St. Louis County Library, History & Genealogy), April 2024, pp. 2–7
Footnoted to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Globe-Democrat and Republic: the $8,150 sale reported 7 June 1903, 178 freight cars, the wedding car, the last revolution on 13 January 1906, the 1943 War Production Board dig for the axle, and Mike Truax's 2022 statement that company records show the axle cut up in Chicago about 1919.
'George W. G. Ferris (1859–1896)', Pennsylvania Heritage (Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission), Summer 2005
The state agency's biographical article; gives his mother as Martha Edgerton (Hyde) and states the ashes remained unclaimed for fifteen months until a surviving brother retrieved them.
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, local historic designations list: 'Ferris House (Former George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. House)', 1318 Arch Street, designated 28 June 2001
Records the city's 2001 historic designation of the Arch Street house on Pittsburgh's North Side in which the Ferrises lived.
Carson City Culture & Tourism Authority (Visit Carson City): 'George Washington Gale Ferris Jr.' and Kit Carson Trail stop 28, 'Ferris House'
The city's tourism authority credits George Sr. with much of Carson City's 1870s landscaping including the State Capitol grounds, and says many of his imported trees still stand there.
Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park, Minden, Nevada (official site)
The park's own account: Heinrich Friedrich Dangberg came west in 1853, built a cabin and irrigated his claim, married Margaret Ferris, and with her raised five children; the family founded Minden in 1905.
Lindsey Ulizio, 'George Ferris', Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Penn State University Libraries, Fall 2006
A university biography naming his parents, his firms and partners (Hallsted; Kaufman; McNaugher), and Gronau's design role.
American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers: memorial biography of Robert W. Hunt (1838–1923)
Hunt's career from Cambria Iron to the founding of Robert W. Hunt & Co. in Chicago in 1888.
World's Columbian Exposition souvenir paperweight, Ferris Wheel (object record)
Museum object record whose description summarises the Wheel's height and capacity.
Our History — Knox College
The college's own account of its 1837 founding by George Washington Gale and the Galesburg colony.
6 sources
Scholarship
Published research, always cited to the page.
Circles in the Sky: The Life and Times of George Ferris
The standard modern biography of George W. G. Ferris Jr., published by ASCE Press. ISBN 9780784410103, DOI 10.1061/9780784410103. Draws on James G. Ferris's family research (acknowledged in the front matter and cited in the reference list).
Leo J. Harris, 'Wrecking to Save World's Fairs', The Ephemera Journal, vol. 14 no. 1 (Fall 2011), pp. 1, 4–9
Built on Chicago House Wrecking Company records: the 175 freight cars, the 44-person St. Louis crew, gross receipts of $267,000 at St. Louis, the $166,500 Coney Island estimate against $75,950 salvage value, and the axle's return to the company's Chicago yards.
Sheldon Breiner, 'Magnetic Survey to Find Axle from Observation (Ferris) Wheel Used in the 1904 St Louis World's Fair' (technical report, May 2007)
A geophysicist's report of a magnetometer survey in Forest Park on 13–14 May 2007 that found a large anomaly under Skinker Boulevard consistent with a buried steel cylinder 45 feet long; never excavated.
Anne Cooper Funderburg, 'America's Eiffel Tower', Invention & Technology, vol. 9 no. 2 (Fall 1993)
A magazine history that independently names Onderdonk and Vincent as investors, records Burnham's worry about Chicago winds, and quotes Gronau on the first test.
Robert D. Turner, 'Onderdonk, Andrew', Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13 (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 1994)
The standard biography of the railway contractor Andrew Onderdonk (1848–1905), builder of the Canadian Pacific's British Columbia sections; it does not mention the Ferris Wheel.
Pittsburgh water and typhoid history (NCBI Bookshelf)
Background on the typhoid conditions associated with Pittsburgh's water supply in the 1890s.
6 sources
Reference works
Used as leads and for orientation, never as the last word.
Carson Valley Visitors Authority, 'He invented the Ferris Wheel' (excerpting Cynthia Ferris-Bennet, 'Memoir and Genealogy of Silvanus Ferris (1773–1861)', 1935 typescript, and Harper's Young People, 1 August 1893)
The traceable origin of the variant dates in the family record: the 1935 typescript gives Ferris's birth as 16 February 1859, his death as 28 November 1896, and his RPI graduation as 1878, all contradicted by contemporary and institutional sources.
'Chautauquan portrays Dangberg matriarch', The Record-Courier (Minden–Gardnerville, Nev.), 6 September 2024
Local press describing Margaret 'Maggie' Ferris Dangberg as the eldest surviving daughter of George Sr. and Martha Hyde Ferris and the eldest sister of the Wheel's inventor.
Karen Dustman, 'The Old Ferris Ranch House', Clairitage Press, 4 July 2019
Local-history account of the Ferrises' Carson Valley ranch house: arrival in September 1864 with eight children, the house finished by 1865, Margaret's marriage there in March 1866, and George Sr.'s move to Carson City in 1868.
Robert Loerzel, Alchemy of Bones companion site: 'William A. Vincent'
A researched biography of Judge William A. Vincent (1857–1919), former chief justice of New Mexico and Montana, Chicago lawyer, and in 1893 attorney of the company that built the Ferris Wheel.
ObservationWheelDirectory.com, 'Ferris Wheel Patents' (chronological list, 1875–1894)
Lists the early American wheel patents (Forrester 1875, Campi 1886, Somers 1893, Murrey 1893, Wyand 1894) and contains no patent by Ferris.
'Riverside's connection to the Ferris Wheel', RaincrossSquare.com, 4 May 2025
Local history of the Ferrises at Riverside, citing the Museum of Riverside and Olivewood burial records: Sylvanus Harvey Ferris's 1879 visit, the Magnolia Avenue properties, and George Sr.'s burial in Olivewood's Section F.