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'''Collis Potter Huntington''' (]<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=527| title=Collis P. Huntington| work=FindAGrave| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.huntington.tierranet.com/bios/collis.htm| title=Collis Potter Huntington| author=Huntington Family Association| date=1915| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref> or ]<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9041577/Collis-P-Huntington| title=Collis P. Huntington| work=Encyclopedia Brittanica Online| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/FGS/H/HuntingtonCollisPotter-ESStoddard-ADYarrington.shtml| title=Collis Potter HUNTINGTON & Elizabeth Stillman STODDARD & Arabella Duval YARRINGTON| work=Diana's Genealogy Home Page| author=Matthiesen, Diana Gale| accessdate=2007-04-05}} shows research notes from 1900 US census listing his birth as October 1820.</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.inn-california.com/Articles/biographic/cphuntingtonbio.html| title=Collis P. Huntington| author=Cristalen| work=Wandering Lizard| date=2007| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.bushong.net/dawn/about/college/ids100/biographies.shtml| title=Biographies of the Leaders of the Central Pacific Rail Road Company| work=The Transcontinental Railroad| author=Emord, Dawn, and Bushong, David| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhuntington.htm| title=Collis Huntington| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.netstate.com/states/peop/people/ct_cph.htm| title=Collis Potter Huntington| date=2005-02-25| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad| author=Ambrose, Stephen E.| year=2000| publisher=Touchstone| id=ISBN 0-7432-0317-8| pages=pp 47-48}} A footnote within this book cites the data to "Collis Huntington Memoir, Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley."</ref> 1821 – ] ]) was one of ] of western railroading (along with ], ], and ]) who built the ] as part of the first U.S. ]. Huntington then helped lead and develop other major interstate lines such as the ] and the ]. In ], he was responsible for the development of ] and the incorporation of ] into an ]. Another ] town, the city of ] was named in his honor. '''Collis Potter Huntington''' (]<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=527| title=Collis P. Huntington| work=FindAGrave| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.huntington.tierranet.com/bios/collis.htm| title=Collis Potter Huntington| author=Huntington Family Association| date=1915| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref> or ]<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9041577/Collis-P-Huntington| title=Collis P. Huntington| work=Encyclopedia Brittanica Online| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://dgmweb.net/genealogy/FGS/H/HuntingtonCollisPotter-ESStoddard-ADYarrington.shtml| title=Collis Potter HUNTINGTON & Elizabeth Stillman STODDARD & Arabella Duval YARRINGTON| work=Diana's Genealogy Home Page| author=Matthiesen, Diana Gale| accessdate=2007-04-05}} shows research notes from 1900 US census listing his birth as October 1820.</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.inn-california.com/Articles/biographic/cphuntingtonbio.html| title=Collis P. Huntington| author=Cristalen| work=Wandering Lizard| date=2007| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.bushong.net/dawn/about/college/ids100/biographies.shtml| title=Biographies of the Leaders of the Central Pacific Rail Road Company| work=The Transcontinental Railroad| author=Emord, Dawn, and Bushong, David| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhuntington.htm| title=Collis Huntington| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.netstate.com/states/peop/people/ct_cph.htm| title=Collis Potter Huntington| date=2005-02-25| accessdate=2007-04-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad| author=Ambrose, Stephen E.| year=2000| publisher=Touchstone| id=ISBN 0-7432-0317-8| pages=pp 47-48}} A footnote within this book cites the data to "Collis Huntington Memoir, Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley."</ref> 1821 – ] ]) was one of ] of western railroading (along with ], ], and ]) who built the ] as part of the first U.S. ]. Huntington then helped lead and develop other major interstate lines such as the ] and the ], which he was recruited to help complete. The C&O, completed in 1873, fulflled a long-held dream of Virginians of a rail link to the ]. The new railroad facilities adjacnet to the river there resulted in expansion of the former small town of ] into a new city which was named ] in his honor.

Turning attention back to the eastern end of the line at ], he was responsible for the C&O's ] in 1881-82 which opened a pathway for ] ] to reach new ]s on the harbor of ] for export shipping. He also is credited with the development of ], as well as the incorporation of ] as a new ]. After his death, both his nephew ] and his stepson ] continued his work at Newport News, and all three are considered founding fathers in the community, with locakl features named in honor of each.

Much of the railroad and industrial development Collis P. Huntington envisioned and led are still important activities in the United States in the early 21st century.

==Biography== ==Biography==
===Education and early career=== ===Education and early career===
Collis Potter Huntington was born in ], USA in 1821; while some references state his birth date as ], others list ]. In 1842 he and his brother established a successful business in ], selling general merchandise. Collis Potter Huntington was born in ], USA in 1821; while some references state his birth date as ], others list ]. At the age of 16, he visited rural Newport News Point in ] in his travels as a salesman. It was later to become quite clear that he never forgot the untapped potential of the location he observed at that early point in his career. In 1842 he and his brother established a successful business in ], selling general merchandise.


When he saw opportunity blooming in America's West, he set out for California, and established himself as a merchant in ] at the start of the ]. Huntington succeeded in his California business, too, and it was here that he teamed up with ] selling miners' supplies and other hardware. When he saw opportunity blooming in America's West, he set out for California, and established himself as a merchant in ] at the start of the ]. Huntington succeeded in his California business, too, and it was here that he teamed up with ] selling miners' supplies and other hardware.
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===Chesapeake and Ohio Railway=== ===Chesapeake and Ohio Railway===
Beginning in 1871, he oversaw completion of the ] (C&O) from ] across ] and ] to reach the ]. There, he established the planned city of ]. He became active in developing the emerging southern West Virginia ] business for the C&O. In the 1880s, he led the building of the C&O's ] which extended from the ] in Richmond east down the ] through ] to the southeastern end of the Peninsula on the harbor of ] in ] where he established ]s in at a location which became the ] in 1896. Nearby, he also founded ], the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States. Beginning in 1871, he oversaw completion of the ] (C&O) from ] across ] and ] to reach the ]. There, he established the ] of ]. He became active in developing the emerging southern West Virginia ] business for the C&O. After 15 years of acquiring land in Virginia's eastern ], he formed the Old Dominion Land Copnay, and turned these holdings over to it.

In the 1880s, he led the building of the C&O's ] which extended from the ] in Richmond east down the ] through ] to the southeastern end of the Peninsula on the harbor of ] in ]. Through the new railroad and his land company, coal piers were established at Newport News Point. He set about other developments locally there, notably founding the ], which became the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States. The 15 years of rapid growth and development led to the incorporation of ] as a new ] in 1896, one of only 2 in Virginia to have ever been so formed without developing first as an ].


In order to supply ]s to the C&O, and by extension to the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads as well, Huntington was a major financier behind ], basing the company in Huntington, West Virginia, directly connecting to the C&O; Ensign was incorporated on ] ].<ref name=MCRM-Ensign>{{cite web| url=http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/ensign.htm| title=Ensign Manufacturing Company| publisher=Mid-Continent Railway Museum| date=2006-04-09| accessdate=2008-04-15| }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=The American Railroad Freight Car| author=White, John H., Jr.| publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press| location=Boston and London| year=1993| isbn=0-8018-5236-6| pages=p 142| }}</ref> In order to supply ]s to the C&O, and by extension to the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads as well, Huntington was a major financier behind ], basing the company in Huntington, West Virginia, directly connecting to the C&O; Ensign was incorporated on ] ].<ref name=MCRM-Ensign>{{cite web| url=http://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/ensign.htm| title=Ensign Manufacturing Company| publisher=Mid-Continent Railway Museum| date=2006-04-09| accessdate=2008-04-15| }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=The American Railroad Freight Car| author=White, John H., Jr.| publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press| location=Boston and London| year=1993| isbn=0-8018-5236-6| pages=p 142| }}</ref>

After Collis' death in 1901, his nephew, ], assumed leadership of many of his industrial endeavors,


===Death, burial=== ===Death, burial===
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Collis Huntington was the adopted father of Clara Elizabeth Prentice, born in Sacramento, in 1860. She was a niece of the first Mrs. C. P. Huntington, and was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Huntington. Clara Elizabeth Prentice-Huntington (1860-1928), as she was called, married ] of ], ], on ] ]. They made their home in ]. Collis Huntington was the adopted father of Clara Elizabeth Prentice, born in Sacramento, in 1860. She was a niece of the first Mrs. C. P. Huntington, and was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Huntington. Clara Elizabeth Prentice-Huntington (1860-1928), as she was called, married ] of ], ], on ] ]. They made their home in ].


Collis Huntington was also the adopted father of renowned hispanist ], son of Collis P. Huntington's second wife, by her first husband, who founded a Spanish museum and rare books library ] in upper Manhattan, which is still free and open to the public. Collis Huntington was also the adopted father of renowned hispanist ], son of Collis P. Huntington's second wife ], by her first husband. Archer and his wife, sculptress ], founded a Spanish museum and rare books library ] in upper Manhattan, which is still free and open to the public, as well as the ] in Newport News, one of the lergest of its kind in the world.


Collis was also uncle to another California railroad magnate, ], founder of the ] in ] and the main force behind the ] system in ]. Collis was also uncle to another California railroad magnate, ], founder of the ] in ] and the main force behind the ] system in ].


He was also related to ], who was a president of the ]. He was also related to ], who was a president of the ], suceeeding ], son-in-law of the VGN's founder, industrialist ].


==Charity== ==Charity==

Revision as of 08:57, 31 October 2008

Collis Potter Huntington
BornApril 16 or October 22 1821
Harwinton, Connecticut, U.S.
Died(1900-08-13)August 13, 1900
Long Lake, New York, U.S.

Collis Potter Huntington (April 16 or October 22 1821 – August 13 1900) was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker) who built the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. Huntington then helped lead and develop other major interstate lines such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which he was recruited to help complete. The C&O, completed in 1873, fulflled a long-held dream of Virginians of a rail link to the Ohio River Valley. The new railroad facilities adjacnet to the river there resulted in expansion of the former small town of Guyandotte into a new city which was named Huntington, West Virginia in his honor.

Turning attention back to the eastern end of the line at Richmond, Virginia, he was responsible for the C&O's Peninsula Extension in 1881-82 which opened a pathway for West Virginia bituminous coal to reach new coal piers on the harbor of Hampton Roads for export shipping. He also is credited with the development of Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, as well as the incorporation of Newport News, Virginia as a new independent city. After his death, both his nephew Henry E. Huntington and his stepson Archer M. Huntington continued his work at Newport News, and all three are considered founding fathers in the community, with locakl features named in honor of each.

Much of the railroad and industrial development Collis P. Huntington envisioned and led are still important activities in the United States in the early 21st century.

Biography

Education and early career

Collis Potter Huntington was born in Harwinton, Connecticut, USA in 1821; while some references state his birth date as April 16, others list October 22. At the age of 16, he visited rural Newport News Point in Warwick County, Virginia in his travels as a salesman. It was later to become quite clear that he never forgot the untapped potential of the location he observed at that early point in his career. In 1842 he and his brother established a successful business in Oneonta, New York, selling general merchandise.

When he saw opportunity blooming in America's West, he set out for California, and established himself as a merchant in Sacramento at the start of the California Gold Rush. Huntington succeeded in his California business, too, and it was here that he teamed up with Mark Hopkins selling miners' supplies and other hardware.

Building the first U.S. transcontinental railroad

In the late 1850s, he and Hopkins joined forces with two other successful businessmen, Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker, to pursue the idea of creating a rail line that would connect the America's East and West. In 1861, these four businessmen (sometimes referred to as The Big Four) pooled their resources and business acumen, and formed the Central Pacific Railroad company to create the western link of America's transcontinental railway system. Of the four, he had a reputation for being the most ruthless in pursing the railroad's business and the ouster of his partner, Stanford.

On May 10 1869, at Promontory, Utah, the tracks of the Central Pacific Railroad joined with the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad, and America had a transcontinental railroad. The joining was celebrated by the driving of the golden spike.

Southern Pacific Railroad

He was later involved in the establishment of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was purchased by the Big Four principals of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1868. The railroad's first locomotive, C. P. Huntington, was named in his honor.

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway

Beginning in 1871, he oversaw completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) from Richmond across Virginia and West Virginia to reach the Ohio River. There, he established the planned city of Huntington, West Virginia. He became active in developing the emerging southern West Virginia bituminous coal business for the C&O. After 15 years of acquiring land in Virginia's eastern Tidewater region, he formed the Old Dominion Land Copnay, and turned these holdings over to it.

In the 1880s, he led the building of the C&O's Peninsula Subdivision which extended from the Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond east down the Virginia Peninsula through Williamsburg to the southeastern end of the Peninsula on the harbor of Hampton Roads in Warwick County, Virginia. Through the new railroad and his land company, coal piers were established at Newport News Point. He set about other developments locally there, notably founding the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, which became the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States. The 15 years of rapid growth and development led to the incorporation of Newport News, Virginia as a new independent city in 1896, one of only 2 in Virginia to have ever been so formed without developing first as an incorporated town.

In order to supply freight cars to the C&O, and by extension to the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads as well, Huntington was a major financier behind Ensign Manufacturing Company, basing the company in Huntington, West Virginia, directly connecting to the C&O; Ensign was incorporated on November 1 1872.

After Collis' death in 1901, his nephew, Henry E. Huntington, assumed leadership of many of his industrial endeavors,

Death, burial

He died in 1900 and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York.

Family relationships

Collis Huntington was the son of William and Elizabeth (Vincent) Huntington; born October 22 1821, in Harwinton, Connecticut; he married, first, on September 16 1844, Elizabeth T. Stoddard, of Cornwall, Connecticut. She died in 1883. He remarried on July 12 1884, Mrs. Arabella D. Worsham. He died at his camp, Pine Knot, in the Adirondacks, August 13 1900.

The children of William Huntington and Elizabeth Vincent were

  1. Mary Huntington, born 17 February 1810; married 2 June 1840, Daniel Sammis of Warsaw, New York.
  2. Solon Huntington, born 13 January 1812.
  3. Rhoda Huntington, born 13 October 1814; married 10 May 1834, Riley Dunbar of Wolcottville.
  4. Phebe/Phoebe Huntington, born 17 September 1817; married 4 October 1840, Henry Pardee of Oneonta, New York.
  5. Elizabeth Huntington, born 19 December 1819; married 5 April 1842, Hiram Yaker of Kortright, New York.
  6. Collis Potter Huntington, born 22 October 1820 or 1821 (sources differ on the year).
  7. Joseph Huntington, born 23 March 1823; d. 23 February 1849; never married
  8. Susan L. Huntington, born August 1826; married 16 November 1849, William Porter, M.D., of New Haven, Connecticut
  9. Ellen Maria Huntington, born 12 August 1835; married Isaac E. Gates of Orange, New Jersey

Collis Huntington was the adopted father of Clara Elizabeth Prentice, born in Sacramento, in 1860. She was a niece of the first Mrs. C. P. Huntington, and was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Huntington. Clara Elizabeth Prentice-Huntington (1860-1928), as she was called, married Prince Francis Edward von Hatzfeldt of Wittenburg, Germany, on October 28 1889. They made their home in England.

Collis Huntington was also the adopted father of renowned hispanist Archer M. Huntington, son of Collis P. Huntington's second wife Arabella Huntington, by her first husband. Archer and his wife, sculptress Anna Hyatt Huntington, founded a Spanish museum and rare books library The Hispanic Society of America in upper Manhattan, which is still free and open to the public, as well as the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, one of the lergest of its kind in the world.

Collis was also uncle to another California railroad magnate, Henry E. Huntington, founder of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California and the main force behind the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles, California.

He was also related to Clarence Huntington, who was a president of the Virginian Railway, suceeeding Urban H. Broughton, son-in-law of the VGN's founder, industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers.

Charity

He acquired a substantial collection of art, and was generally recognized as one of the country's foremost art collectors. He left most of his collection, valued at some $3 million, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Places named for Collis P. Huntington

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

Collis Huntington in popular culture

For reasons that are unclear, he was referred to in Black Beetles in Amber by Ambrose Bierce as "Happy Hunty". Huntington was also referenced in Carl Sandburg's poem, Southern Pacific.

Sources

  • Ambrose, Stephen E. (2000). Nothing Like It In The World; The men who built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-84609-8.

References

  1. "Collis P. Huntington". FindAGrave. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  2. Huntington Family Association (1915). "Collis Potter Huntington". Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  3. "Collis P. Huntington". Encyclopedia Brittanica Online. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  4. Matthiesen, Diana Gale. "Collis Potter HUNTINGTON & Elizabeth Stillman STODDARD & Arabella Duval YARRINGTON". Diana's Genealogy Home Page. Retrieved 2007-04-05. shows research notes from 1900 US census listing his birth as October 1820.
  5. Cristalen (2007). "Collis P. Huntington". Wandering Lizard. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  6. Emord, Dawn, and Bushong, David. "Biographies of the Leaders of the Central Pacific Rail Road Company". The Transcontinental Railroad. Retrieved 2007-04-05.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. "Collis Huntington". Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  8. "Collis Potter Huntington". 2005-02-25. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  9. Ambrose, Stephen E. (2000). Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad. Touchstone. pp. pp 47-48. ISBN 0-7432-0317-8. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help) A footnote within this book cites the data to "Collis Huntington Memoir, Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley."
  10. The Builders of the Central Pacific Railroad @ CPRR.org as retrieved January 13 2007.
  11. "Ensign Manufacturing Company". Mid-Continent Railway Museum. 2006-04-09. Retrieved 2008-04-15. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  12. White, John H., Jr. (1993). The American Railroad Freight Car. Boston and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. p 142. ISBN 0-8018-5236-6. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. Bierce, Ambrose. "Black Beetles in Amber". Retrieved 2006-05-17. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)

External links

Preceded byLeland Stanford President of the Southern Pacific Company
1890 – 1900 		Succeeded byCharles Hayes
Central Pacific Railroad · The Big Four
Categories: