History of Dobbs Ferry, (Westchester County) New York United States of America

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Henry Villard, financier, was born in Speyer, Bavaria, April 11, 1835; son of Gustav Hilgard, judge of the district court of M?nich. He attended the University of Munich and W?rzburg; emigrated to the United States in 1835, changing his name to Villard, and resided first in New York and later in Illinois. He engaged in journalism, and in 1858 reported the Lincoln-Douglas debates. He became a political correspondent of the eastern press; resided in Washington, D.C., and served as war correspondent in the field, 1861-64. He was married, Jan. 3, 1866, to Fanny, daughter of William Lloyd and Helen Eliza (Thurber) Garrison, and went to Europe as correspondent of the New York Tribune, residing in Germany during the Franco-German war; again visited Germany in 1870, and became the representative of German bondholders of the Oregon and California railroad company. He was secretary of the American Social Science association, 1868-71, and subsequently president of the railroad, and in 1875 of the Oregon steamship company. He was receiver of the Kansas Pacific railroad, 1876-78, and in 1879 formed an American syndicate, purchasing the Oregon and San Francisco steamship line. He merged the three companies that he controlled into the Oregon Railway and Navigation company, which, after his acquisition of the Northern Pacific property, became the Oregon and Transcontinental company. He was elected president of the Northern Pacific railway, Sept. 15, 1881, but lost his fortune in the financial panic of 1883, and was obliged to resign. He traveled in Europe, 1883-86; was appointed a director of the Northern Pacific railway, and president of the Oregon Transcontinental company, June 21, 1888. He organized the Edison Electric company, and was its president for two years; purchased the Evening Post and the Nation in 1881; was a generous contributor to the universities of Oregon and Washington; established and maintained an industrial art school in Bavaria, and a hospital and school for nurses at Speyer, Germany. He is the author of: The Pike's Peak Gold Region (1860), and of his autobiography, published privately in 1897. He died at Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., Nov. 11, 1900.

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

History of Dobbs Ferry, (Westchester County) New York

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