Hugh Pitcairn

Hugh Pitcairn (August 16, 1845 – July 19, 1911) served as the first United States consul general to Hamburg, German Empire, from 1903 to 1908. He was the brother of Pennsylvania railroad magnate Robert Pitcairn and industrialist John Pitcairn. Early life Pitcairn was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland, to John Pitcairn Sr. (1803–1884) and Agnes McEwan. He was one of six children resulting from the marriage, and also had two older half-siblings from his father's first marriage. In 1846, he emigrated with his family to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where his uncle, Alexander Pitcairn, had started a woolens business. He received a public school education in Allegheny and Altoona, Pennsylvania. He began his career in the railroad service, and held a series of executive positions in the field: first as superintendent of the Susquehanna Division of the Northern Central Railway, in 1866; then as superintendent of the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad in 1868, next as superintendent of the Evansville, Henderson and Nashville Railroad in 1870, and finally, as superintendent of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railway from 1872 to 1875.