History of Harwinton, (Litchfield County) Connecticut United States of America

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Collis Potter Huntington, railroad builder and manager, was born in Harwinton, Conn., April 16, 1821; son of William and Elizabeth (Vincent) Huntington; grandson of Joseph and Rachel (Preston) Huntington; great grandson of John and Mehitabel (Metcalf) Huntington; great2 grandson of Lieut. Samuel and Mary (Clark) Huntington; great3 grandson of Dea. Simon and Sarah (Clark) Huntington; and great4 grandson of Simon and Margaret (Baret) Huntington the immigrants. His father was poor and Collis, who was one of nine children, was brought up to work hard. As he himself tells it, "when he was too young to carry wood he picked up chips." He attended district school until he was fourteen, and then went to work for a neighboring farmer at seven dollars a month and his board and clothes. He saved all of this, and on the strength of his good name, and armed with letters of commendation from the merchants of his section, he went to New York, and purchased a bill of goods on credit. He travelled in the southern states extensively during his early years of business until in 1843 he established, in conjunction with his brother Solon, a merchandise store in Oneonta, N.Y. In March, 1848, young Huntington started with a number of other young men for California, via the isthmus of Panama. During a delay of three months on the isthmus, he increased his capital stock from $1200 to $5000, by means of trading. He had previously sent a consignment of goods around Cape Horn in 1848, and on his arrival in San Francisco he immediately went to Sacramento on a schooner, paying for his passage and the freight on his stock of hardware by assisting in loading and unloading freight at one dollar per hour. In Sacramento he erected a tent and placing in it his stock of hardware, such as was used in the mines, he began business on his own account. He soon after met and formed a partnership with Mark Hopkins and by 1856 the firm of Huntington & Hopkins was was one of the wealthiest on the Pacific slope. He confined his business to trade, and did not engage in mining or in speculation in mining stock. In 1860, when the necessity for a transcontinental railroad became apparent, and the only question to be solved was the possibility of crossing the Sierra Nevada, Mr. Huntington agreed with Theodore D. Judah, a skilful civil engineer, to raise the funds with which to make the survey across the mountains, both men having faith in the success of the route proposed by Mr. Judah. Through Mr. Huntington's representations made to Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins, the fund was raised, and the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California was organized in 1861, with a capital of $8,500,000, with Mr. Stanford as president, Mr. Huntington as vice-president and Mr. Hopkins as treasurer. With Mr. Judah, Mr. Huntington visited Washington, D.C., and obtained from congress authority to build a railroad from the navigable waters of the Sacramento river eastward to the Union Pacific railroad. The government conceded to the company every alternate square mile of the public lands through a strip extending ten miles on each side of the railroad, and a loan of six per cent thirty-year bonds of the United States, to the extent of $32,000 to $48,000, for every mile of road built. With this franchise secured, Mr. Huntington telegraphed to California: "We have drawn the elephant, now let us see if we can harness him." He offered $1,500,000 of the bonds at par for cash, and after making himself and his associates responsible for the whole amount, he succeeded in obtaining the money. As vice-president and practical manager, he built the first, say, fifty miles of the road. It was not the government subsidy, but the private fortunes of C. P. Huntington and his associates, that secured the first fifty miles of the first transcontinental railroad, on which the government then held the first mortgage. He afterward controlled and operated, as president, or chief head, the Southern Pacific system, including the Central Pacific, the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Chesapeake, Ohio & SouthWestern, the Kentucky Central, the Louisville, New Orleans & Texas, and many other lines of railroad, including the Mexican International R. R., and the Guatemala Central R. R., a total of 8900 miles of steel track lines. He also became largely interested in steamship lines to Newport News, Va., to Brazil, to China andre Japan, covering 16;900 miles of steam water lines, and founded at Newport News, a prosperous city, where he established a great shipyard. He was a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was twice married: first, in 1844, to Elizabeth C. Stoddard, of Litchfield, Conn., who died in 1883; and secondly, July 12, 1884, to Mrs. Arabella D. Worsham, of New York city. In 1897 he gave to the Metropolitan Museum of Art a portrait of George Washington, painted by Charles Wilson Peale; and in 1898 Mrs. Huntington presented to the Normal and Industrial institute, Tuskegee, Ala., the sum of $10,000 for a girls' dormitory. Mr. Huntington erected a mansion on Fifth avenue, New York city, which, with the picture gallery, was, at the time of his death, valued at about $3.000,000; a country home at Throggs Neck, N.Y.; a mansion in San Francisco, Cal., and an ample camp in the mountains of northern New York. He also erected, in 1885, a massive granite chapel at a cost of $60,000, in his native town, and presented it to the Congregational church of Harwinton, as a memorial to his mother, who had been a member of that church. He also caused to be erected in Woodlawn cemetery, New York city, at a cost of over $100,000, a mausoleum, no single stone in the structure, it is said, weighing less than eighteen tons. His nephew, Henry Edwards Huntington, was at the time of his uncle's death first vice-president of the Southern Pacific railway. Mr. Huntington bequeathed his collection of pictures to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the bequest to take effect after the death of his widow and of his adopted son, Archer M. Huntington. He bequeathed his New York residence to Mrs. Huntington for life, at her death to Archer M. Huntington absolutely, or in default of issue by him, to Yale university absolutely. This was his only bequest to the cause of higher education, as he frequently expressed his regret at the tendency to the increase of higher education for the masses at the expense of valuable time which should be devoted to learning practical business methods. His other public bequests were $100,000 to the Hampton Normal and Agricultural institute, Hampton, Va., for the practical education of the Negro and Indian youths, and $25,000 to the Chapin Home, New York city. At the time of his death his fortune was estimated at from $50,000,000 to $80,000,000. Mr. Huntington died suddenly at Pine Knot Camp, Raquette Lake, N.Y., Aug. 13, 1900.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Harwinton, (Litchfield County) Connecticut

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