Another Vineland First
Traveling in Style
On February 21, 1934, the Vineland Times Journal included a small article titled “Car Inventor Buried Here” in that day’s edition. The subheading read “E.T. Woodruff Mentioned on Radio Last Night by Harvey Firestone.” Once again, it seems, a local person had made a major contribution to American culture that was essentially unrecognized until Day Otis (D.O.) Kellogg unearthed it. The article read: "The inventor of the sleeping car is buried in a Vineland cemetery. His name was not Pullman, but E.T. Woodruff. Tribute to Woodruff as the first man to build a sleeping car was paid last night by Harvey Firestone, tire manufacturer, in a radio address dealing with the development of the American railroad. When Mr. Firestone mentioned Woodruff’s contribution to American transportation, Herbert Walls, of Howard street, recalled the fact that the inventor lived and died in South Vineland. 'He is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery under a large slab marked 'E.T. Woodruff, Inventor,' Mr. Walls said today.
An old edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica makes the following mention of the South Vineland man’s invention: “In 1854 sleeping cars having the same general features as those now in use were introduced. This car provided seats for about sixty passengers and at night these seats were converted into flat berths. The inventor was Theodore T. Woodruff. The right to build and operate the car was later acquired by Webster Wagner.” (The “E” in “E.T.” was probably a typographical error on the newspaper’s part.)
It was not until ten years later that the Pullman cars were introduced. The edition of the encyclopedia in which the reference to Woodruff appeared was prepared by Kellogg, himself a Vineland resident.