Henry Villard (1835-1900)
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City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research Lehman College 2003 Henry Villard (1835-1900) Janet Butler Munch CUNY Lehman College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/le_pubs/312 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] VILLARD, HENRY (10 April 1835-12 November1900), journalist, railroad promoter, and publisher. Born Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard in Speyer, Bavaria, and educated at the universities of Munich and Wurzburg, Villard immigrated to the United States in 1853. Serving as secretary of the American Social Science Association from 1868 to 1871 gave him the chance to study banking. After investing in the Oregon & California Railroad, he negotiated with other local railroad and steamship companies, formed a transportation monopoly, and then actively encouraged settlement of the Northwest. The approaching Northern Pacific, chartered to build a transcontinental railroad, threatened Villard's interests when it refused to use his railroad lines. Villard outmaneuvered his competition by raising millions in a blind trust to buy controlling interest in the Northern Pacific. He completed the transcontinental railroad in 1883. Ten years later, he abandoned his railroad investments and returned east, where he purchased the New York Evening Post and founded the newspaper's supplement Nation. Villard died in Dobbs Ferry, New York. Further Reading: Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave and John Cullen, Villard: The Life and Times of an American Titan, 2001; Henry Villard, Memoirs of Henry Villard: Journalist and Financier, 1835-1900, 1904; Dietrich G. Buss, Henry Villard: A Study of Transatlantic Investments and Interests, 1870-1895, 1978. Janet Butler Munch Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2003 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. .