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Collis Potter Huntington (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 Southern Pacific Railroad and other major interstate train lines.

Collis Potter Huntington was born in Harwinton, Connecticut, in 1821. He was a successful Sacramento, California businessman, and he helped fund the Central Pacific Railroad during the 1860s. This railroad was linked with the Union Pacific Railroad in 1869 by the golden spike and became the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. He was later involved in the establishment of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Beginning in 1871, he oversaw construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway across Virginia and West Virginia to reach the Ohio River. He established the planned city of Huntington, West Virginia, as well as the coal piers in Warwick County, Virginia at a location which became the City of Newport News in 1896. He also founded Newport News Shipbuilding, the largest privately owned shipyard in the world.

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

Collis Huntington was the father of renowned hispanist Archer M. Huntington, who 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.

Collis was also related 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, CA.

He was also related to Clarence Huntington, who was a president of the Virginian Railway.

References

• 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.

• 1821 births
• 1900 deaths
• American railroad executives of the 19th century
• Southern Pacific Railroad
• Huntington, West Virginia