Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/473

 HUNTINGTON

HUNTINGTON

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 %vith Theodore D. Judah, a skilful civil engineer, to raise the funds with which to make the survey across the mountains, both men hav- ing faith in the success of the route proposed by Mr. Judah. Through Mr. Huntington's repre- sentations made to Charles Ci'ocker, Leiand Stan- ford and Mark Hopkins, the fund was raised, and the Central Pacific Railroad Com^iany of Califor- nia 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 east- ward to the Union Pacific railroad. Tlie go\ern- ment conceded to the company every alternate square mile of the public lands througli 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. Wilh 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 respon- sible for the whole amount, he succeeded in ob- taining the money. As vice-president and prac- tical manager, he built the first, say, fifty miles of the road. It was not the government sub- sidy, 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 mort- gage. He afterward controlled and operated, as president, or chief head, the Southern Pacific system, including the Central Pacific, the Chesa- peake & Ohio, the Chesapeake, Ohio & South- western, 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 be- came largely interested in steamship lines to New- port News, Va., to Brazil, to China and to Japan, covering 16,900 miles of steam water lines, and founded at Newport News, a prosperous city, where he established a great shipyai-d. He was a fellow of the American Society of Civil En- gineers. He was twice married : first, in 1844, to Elizabeth C. Stoddard, of Litchfield, Conn., who died in 1883 ; and secondly, July 13, 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, jiaintcd by Charles Wilson Peale ; and in 1898 Mrs. Hunting- ton presented to the Normal and Industrial insti- tute, 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 Tliroggs Neck, N.Y. ; a mansion in San Francisco, Cal., and an ample camp in the moun- tains 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 AVoodlawn 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 rail- way. 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. Hunting- ton. He bequeathed his New York residence to Mrs. Huntington for life, at lier death to Arclier M. Huntington absolutely, or in default of issue by him, to Yale university absolutely. This was his only bequest to the cause of higher edu- cation, 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 otlier public bequests were $100,000 to the Hampton Normal and Agri- cultural institute, Hampton, Ya., for the practi- cal education of the Negro and Indian youtlis, and $25,000 to the Cliapin Home, New York city. At the time of liis 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.

HUNTINGTON, Daniel, painter, was born in New York city, Oct. 14, 1816 ; son of Benjamin and Faith Trumbull (Huntington) Huntington ; grandson of Benjamin (1736-1800) and Anne (Huntington) Huntington and of Gen. Jedidiah (1743-1818) and Ann (Moore) Huntington, and a descendant of Simon and Margaret (Baret) Huntington, the Puritan immigrants who left Norwich, England, for America in 1633, Simon dy- ing at sea and Margaret and her children settling in Massachusetts Bay colony. He was graduated at Hamilton college in 1836, and while an under- graduate he painted his first picture, " Ichabod Crane Flogging a Scholar." He studied art under