THE COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON PAPERS 1856 - 1901 Pro Uesf
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THE COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON PAPERS 1856 - 1901 Pro uesf Start here. This volume is a finding aid to a ProQuest Research Collection in Microform. To learn more visit: www.proquest.com or call (800) 521-0600 About ProQuest: ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company has forged a 70-year reputation as a gateway to the world's knowledge- from dissertations to governmental and cultural archives to news, in all its forms. Its role is essential to libraries and other organizations whose missions depend on the delivery of complete, trustworthy information. 789 E. Eisenhower Parkw~y • P.O Box 1346 • Ann Arbor, M148106-1346 • USA • Tel: 734.461.4700 • Toll-free 800-521-0600 • www.proquest.com THE COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON PAPERS 1856 - 1901 A Guide To The Microfilm Edition UMI Ann Arbor, Michigan Copyright 1979 Microfilming Corporation of America Reprinted 1995 All rights reserved International Standard Book Number: 0-8357-2389-5 UMI A Bell & Howell Company 300 N. Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 Telephone: (313) 761-4700 800-521-0600 TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE v NOTE TO THE RESEARCHER . vii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH . 1 DESCRIPTION OF THE A~~NGEMENT OF THE COLLECTION . 3 DECADE SUMMARIES FOR SERIES I . 9 COMPLETE REEL LIST 17 NOTE ON THE USE OF THE INDEX 39 INDEX OF IMPORTANT CORRESPONDENCE . 41 iii PREFACE UMI wishes to thank the staff of the George Arents Research Library, Syracuse University, for its interest and kind assistance in making this microfilm edition of the Collis P. Huntington Papers available to scholars. v NOTE TO THE RESEARCHER UMI does not own the copyright for the manuscript or printed items included in this microfilm edition. It is the responsibility of an author to secure permission for publication from the holder of such rights for material in this microfilm edition. It must be stressed to the researcher that this microfilm edition of the Collis P. Huntington Papers includes only those correspondence files and business and personal records retained by Huntington and his staff in their New York City office. As such, these papers were never a part of the Southern Pacific Archives maintained in Sacramento, California. At his death, Huntington's New York City office files were kept in storage, until Anna Hyatt Huntington (Mrs. Archer Milton Huntington) gave them to Syracuse University Library. vii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Collis P. Huntington was born on October 22, 1821, in Harwinton, Connecticut, the sixth of nine children of Elizabeth and William Huntington. After a brief and perfunctory education, he was apprenticed at age fourteen to a neighboring farmer and the following year to a local grocer. Between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one, he was an itinerant note collector in thft South. In 1842, Huntington purchased a partnership in his brother's hardware store in Oneonta, New York. It was here that he married Elizabeth Stoddard in 1844. In 1849, he went to California by way of Panama with a group of Oneontans. He entered the hardware business in Sacramento, and by 1855 was joined by Mark Hopkins in the hardware firm of Huntington & Hopkins, one of the largest of its kind on the West Coast. This partnership lasted until 1867. With Mark Hopkins, Charles Crocker, a dealer in dry goods, and Leland Stanford, a grocer, Huntingtonwas oneof the founders of California's Republican Party. He worked for the admission of California as a free state in 1850, and later supported Abraham Lincoln for president. A Railroad Tycoon Huntington's railroad career began in 1861 when he, Mark Hopkins, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and others formed the Central Pacific Railroad Company. In 1862 the company received a loan from the Federal government to build the western end of the first transcontinental railroad. A further incentive was provided in 1864 when Congress promised to give the company 12,800 acres of adjoining Federal lands for each mile of track laid; the Central Pacific received some 9,497,600 acres. Finally in May, 1869, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific connected in Utah and the first trans continental railroad was completed. In December, 1862, Huntington moved to New York City to serve as financier, purchasing agent, legal adviser, and Washington lobbyist for the Central Pacific. As soon as the transcontinental line was completed, Huntington began to purchase twenty-three separate railroad companies in California. Although he thought of selling his Central Pacific stock in 1871, he was already far too involved in building and acquiring transportation systems to quit the field. The financial panic of 1873 put him under great financial strain, but neither he nor the Central Pacific defaulted on their loans. In the late 1870's Huntington was instrumental in financing and building the Southern Pacific system. Completed in 1883, the Southern Pacific ran from California to New Orleans. Eventually the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific systems were consolidated into one transcontinental railroad company with 9,000 miles of tracks and 16,000 miles of water transportation systems. 1 Huntington succeeded Leland Stanford as president of the Southern Pacific Company in 1890. In 1892, Henry E. Huntington, Collis' nephew, became vice-president of the company and increasingly carried on his uncle's business enterprises. During the building of the Southern Pacific, Huntington also served as president and director of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Company. When this company was sold at a foreclosure sale in 1878, Huntington purchased the road and continued to manage it until 1888 when he sold his shares and the company was reorganized. The eastern terminus of the Chesapeake & Ohio was Newport News, Virginia, where Huntington later established the Chesapeake Dry Dock & Construction Company. The western terminus of the road was Hunt ington, West Virginia. Both of these cities, built under the supervision of Huntington, were built on property owned by land companies controlled by Huntington. A Baron of Finance and Political Lobbying Huntington's financial interests in railroads, steamship companies, land companies, as well as many manufacturing and construction companies, made him an extremely powerful financial figure. His influence on Congress was con siderable. As such, during his thirty-nine years as a railroad financier and builder, Huntington faced opposition from both Congress and the press. In 1887, for instance, the Interstate Commerce Commission outlawed rebates, while the United States Pacific Railway Commission was investigating to determine whether Leland Stanford and Huntington had used bribery with Congressmen to obtain favorable railroad legislation. These charges were never proved. Huntington was such an adroit lobbyist that he could obtain preferential legislation at the same time as he was being investigated by Congress. Philanthropic Activities Philanthropy is an aspect of Huntington's life which is little known. He established the Huntington Industrial Works at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, of which he was a trustee. He financially aided Booker T. Washing ton's Tuskegee Institute. Huntington was an avid book collector and connoisseur of fine art. His art collection was given to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His fortune went into the founding of such institutions as the Henry E. Hunt ington Library, the Hispanic Society of America, and the Mariners' Museum. Family History In September, 1844, Huntington married Elizabeth Stoddard. Having no children of their own, they adopted Mrs. Huntington's niece, Clara Prentice, later the Princess Clara von Hatzveldt. Elibabeth Huntington died in 1883 and in 1884 Huntington married Mrs. Arabella Duval Yarrington Worsham and adopted her son, Archer Milton. Collis P. Huntington died suddenly on August 13, 1900, at the age of seventy-nine. Arabella Huntington later married her late husband's nephew, Henry E. Huntington, and died in New York on September 16, 1924. 2 DESCRIPTION OF THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE COLLECTION The Collis P. Huntington Papers have been arranged into four series: Series I Incoming Correspondence, 1856-1904 Reels 1 - 54 Series II Letterpress Copy Books, 1868-1901 Reels 1 - 35 Series III Legal and Financial Records, 1797-1901 Reels 1 - 23 Series IV Personal Papers, 1862-1901 Reels l - 3 Each of these series will be described in detail as follows: By far the most important and most voluminous parts of this collection consists of Huntington's business and personal correspondence: Series I and II--some 129,000 pages of incoming correspondence, 1856-1904, and some 112,000 pages of letterpress copy books (259 volumes) of outgoing correspondence, 1868-1901. The correspondents are primarily railroad financiers, officials and administrators, congressmen, lobbyists, industrialists, bankers, lawyers and engineers. The highlight of the correspondence comprises the letters of Huntington and those of his five main associates, David D. Colton, Charles Crocker, Edwin B. Crocker, Mark Hopkins, and Leland Stanford. The correspondence of these six men opens in 1868 and continues to the years of their deaths. Their letters deal with both business and personal matters including construction, maintenance and operation of their railroads, and their problems in public relations and legislative restrictions. Important correspondents include the following: Anderson, James Central Pacific Railroad Co. Anthony, Susan B. Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad Co. Armstrong, Samuel Chapman Colton, David D. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Conkling, Roscoe Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Co. Conness, John Axtel, Samuel B. Crocker, Charles Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. Crocker, Charles Frederick Barney & Smith Manufacturing Co. Crocker, Edwin B. Bierstadt, Albert Dillon, Sidney Blaine, James G. Echols, John Bloss, John B. Elizabethtown, Lexington & Big Sandy Boyd, John Railroad California Pacific Railroad Emmons, D. W. Carnegie, Andrew Field, Cyrus W. Central Land Company of West Virginia Fisk & Hatch 3 Gates, Isaac E. Old Dominion Steamship Co. Gorham, George c. Pacific Improvement Co. Grant, Ulysses S. Pacific Mail Steamship Co. Gray, George E. Pennsylvania Railroad Co.