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Biographical Notes
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Collis P. Huntington
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Huntington was not the only merchant to lose everything. The stores of Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker also suffered complete devastation while the stone building housing Leland Stanford's business withstood the devastation. Huntington and the others borrowed money and rebuilt. By the middle of December Collis and Elizabeth were able to move what goods they had salvaged from the fire into their new building at 54 K Street. Latter that month the Sacramento River flooded the city and further damaged business. Huntington's Eastern creditors became concerned and demanded payments that he could not honor. In March 1853 Huntington went to New York where he met with his major creditors. On May 1 he entered into a new two year partnership with Florian Massoul and restructured his debt.
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Relations with his new partner were not good and on the conclusion of the term of the partnership Huntington did not renew it. On May 1, 1855 Huntington turned to his next door neighbor, Mark Hopkins, and formed a new partnership. While the new partners remodeled their stores, Elizabeth returned home to Connecticut to visit her family. She returned in November with her brother William Stoddard and his wife. As 1855 drew to a close the Huntingtons and Hopkins grew more and more interested in politics. On March 8,1856, the Republican Party in California was established in the second floor apartment above 54 K Street. Local opposition to the "Black Republicans" turned violent. Simultaneously in San Francisco there was a new wave of vigilantism. Sacramento organized a committee to form a similar group and Huntington was selected to be the corresponding secretary.
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Huntington and his fellow Republicans supported John Charles Fremont in his bid to be President in the election of 1855. Among other causes, their campaign included support for a transcontinental railroad. Fremont was not elected president, but public interest in railroads in general and a transcontinental railroad in particular was strong in California. The very first railroad on the Pacific Coast was completed in February 1856 between Sacramento and Negro Bar (which later became the town of Folsom). During 1857 the Democratic Party in California was split badly between supporters of David Broderick and William Gwinn. The Republicans were urged to throw their support to Broderick but they declined, insisting instead on maintaining their independence.
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In November 1860 Huntington, Stanford, Crocker, and Hopkins met with Theodore Judah and agreed to help finance the Central Pacific Railroad. It was a turning point in Huntington's life. Increasingly from that point on he was to focus all of his activities on the creation of a railroad empire. The elections of 1860 saw the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, elected president and in 1862 the Pacific Railroad Act which provided for federal assistance to the Central Pacific Railroad was passed by Congress and signed into law by Lincoln. By 1863 Judah had been bought out and Huntington and his associates had complete control of the Central Pacific. Stanford, Huntington, Crocker and Hopkins became known as California's Big Four and went on to become some of the wealthiest men in the country.
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Huntington quickly became the principal figure in the company dealing with Congress and with the financial world. Over the years he successfully lobbied Congress and raised millions of dollars in complicated financial arrangements that not only permitted the completion of the Central Pacific Railroad but also added the Southern Pacific Railroad, Steamship lines, and a vast array of other associated businesses to the Big Four's holdings. The success of their business activities generated envy and the ruthlessness of their business practices generated extremely strong opposition. In Later years Huntington engaged in a variety of business activities that did not include his Central Pacific Railroad partners. Mark Hopkins died on March 29, 1879, but Stanford and Crocker remained partners in the Southern Pacific which had become the holding company for the partners railraod interests. By the middle of the 1880s the Southern Pacific Railroad controlled a system that extended from Portland, Oregon to New Orleans and from San Francisco to Ogden, Utah. At the same time Huntington was president of another system (that did not include his California partners) in the east centered on his massive shipyards at Newport News, Virginia.
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Elizabeth Huntington died of cancer on October 5, 1883. Collis remarried on July 12, 1884. His new wife, Arabella, enjoyed a flamboyant life style and Huntington built a palatial home in New York City for her to entertain prominent society figures. The new lavish lifestyle of the Huntingtons attracted unfavorable publicity - something that Huntington had studiously avoided all of his life till then. In 1885 Huntington and Stanford had a severe falling out over the selection of California's Senator. Huntington wanted Aaron A. Sergeant selected by the Republican controlled legislature in California. Stanford allegedly agreed to support Sergeant but in the end was himself selected to be California's Senator. Huntington was furious and made a number of harsh public statements that effectively severed their personal relationship for ever.
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Huntington died on August 13, 1900 at his vacation retreat beside Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. He was seventy-nine years old.
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Note: Collis P. Huntington was one of the most powerful railroad moguls the world has ever known. His extensive activities are inextricably tied not only to the development of California but to the growth of the entire country. Fortunately there are a number of excellent books written on the subject. One that is recommended by the Huntington family is The Great Persuader by David Lavender.
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