Frank P. Sargent

[3] With his term of enlistment served, Sargent was discharged from the cavalry in December 1880 and went to work in the rail transport industry as engine wiper for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

[3] After three months in this position, Sargent was promoted to a place as fireman on a construction train, later moving to a similar post on the regular road service.

[2] Sargent was regarded as a conservative voice in union affairs, not prone to aggressiveness in labor disputes – a tendency which gained him the nickname "Safety Valve.

[2] Sargent was first tapped for government service during the Republican administration of William McKinley, when he declined appointment to head the nation's currency-issuing authority, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

[2] At the next such opportunity Sargent answered in the affirmative, however, and in April 1902 he was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as Commissioner General of Immigration.

[5] Sargent died in Washington DC on September 4, 1908 as the result of "stomach trouble," coming in the wake of three severe strokes which rendered him partially paralyzed.