Collis P. Huntington
Encyclopedia
Collis Potter Huntington (October 22, 1821 – August 13, 1900) was one of the Big Four of western railroading (along with Leland Stanford
, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker
) who built the Central Pacific Railroad
as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad
. Huntington then helped lead and develop other major interstate lines such as the Southern Pacific Railroad
and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
, which he was recruited to help complete. The C&O, completed in 1873, fulfilled a long-held dream of Virginians of a rail link from the James River
at Richmond
to the Ohio River Valley
. The new railroad facilities adjacent to the river there resulted in expansion of the former small town of Guyandotte, West Virginia
into part of a new city which was named Huntington
in his honor.
Next, turning attention to the eastern end of the line at Richmond, he was responsible for the C&O's Peninsula Extension
in 1881–82 which opened a pathway for West Virginia
bituminous coal
to reach new coal pier
s on the harbor of Hampton Roads
for export shipping. He also is credited with the development of Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, as well as the incorporation of Newport News, Virginia
as a new independent city
. After his death, both his nephew Henry E. Huntington
and his stepson Archer M. Huntington
continued his work at Newport News, and all three are considered founding fathers in the community, with local features named in honor of each.
Much of the railroad and industrial development Collis P. Huntington envisioned and led are still important activities in the early 21st century. The Southern Pacific is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad
, and the C&O became part of CSX Transportation
, each major U.S. railroad systems. West Virginia coal still rides the rails to be loaded aboard collier
s at Hampton Roads, where nearby, Huntington-Ingalls Industries operates the massive shipyard.
, USA on October 22, 1821. His family farmed and he grew up helping. In his early teens, he did farm chores and odd jobs for neighbors, too, saving his earnings. At age 16, he began traveling as a peddler. About this time, he visited rural Newport News Point in Warwick County, Virginia
in his travels as a salesman. It was later to become quite clear that he never forgot the untapped potential of the location he observed where the James River emptied into the large harbor of Hampton Roads. In 1842 he and his brother established a successful business in Oneonta, New York
, selling general merchandise.
When he saw opportunity blooming in America's West, he set out for California
, and established himself as a merchant in Sacramento
at the start of the California Gold Rush
. Huntington succeeded in his California business, too, and it was here that he teamed up with Mark Hopkins selling miners' supplies and other hardware.
and Charles Crocker
, to pursue the idea of creating a rail line that would connect the America's East and West. In 1861, these four businessmen (sometimes referred to as The Big Four) pooled their resources and business acumen, and formed the Central Pacific Railroad
company to create the western link of America's transcontinental railway system. Of the four, he had a reputation for being the most ruthless in pursuing the railroad's business and the ouster of his partner, Stanford.
On May 10, 1869, at Promontory, Utah
, the tracks of the Central Pacific Railroad joined with the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad
, and America had a transcontinental railroad
. The joining was celebrated by the driving of the golden spike
.
The Union Pacific and Central Pacific
railroad companies had received massive loans from the U.S. government to build the transcontinental railroad
—on gentle terms, but Huntington persuaded a friendly member of Congress to introduce a bill excusing the companies from repaying the money, amounting to $130 million (nearly $3 billion in 2007 money). This plot was defeated in part due to the advocacy of Ambrose Bierce
and the newspapers of William Randolph Hearst
.
with the Big Four principals of the Central Pacific Railroad. The railroad's first locomotive, C. P. Huntington
, was named in his honor. With rail lines from New Orleans to the Southwest and into California, Southern Pacific grew to more than 9,000 miles of track. It also controlled 5,000 miles of connecting steamship lines. Using the Southern Pacific Railroad, Huntington endeavored to prevent the port at San Pedro from becoming the main Port of Los Angeles
in the Free Harbor Fight
.
, efforts were renewed to fulfill a long-held desire of Virginians for a canal
or railroad link between Richmond and the Ohio River Valley. With considerable financial assistance from the Virginia Board of Public Works
, the Virginia Central Railroad
and a state-owned link through the Blue Ridge Mountains
had been completed along this route as far as the upper reaches of the Shenandoah Valley
when the War interrupted progress.
Officials of the Virginia Central, led by company president Williams Carter Wickham
, realized that they would have to get capital to rebuild from outside the economically devastated South, and attempted to attract British
interests, without success. Finally, Major Wickham succeeded in getting Collis Huntington interested helping to complete the line.
Beginning in 1871, he oversaw completion of the newly formed Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
(C&O) from Richmond
across Virginia
and West Virginia
to reach the Ohio River
. There, he established the planned city of Huntington, West Virginia
. He became active in developing the emerging southern West Virginia bituminous coal
business for the C&O.
Beginning in 1865, Huntington had been acquiring land in Virginia's eastern Tidewater region
, an area not served by extant railroads. In 1880, he formed the Old Dominion Land Company, and turned these holdings over to it.
Beginning in December 1880, he led the building of the C&O's Peninsula Subdivision which extended from the Church Hill Tunnel
in Richmond east down the Virginia Peninsula
through Williamsburg
to the southeastern end of the Peninsula on the harbor of Hampton Roads
in Warwick County, Virginia
. Through the new railroad and his land company, coal piers were established at Newport News Point.
It may have taken more than 50 years after Virginia's first railroad operated for the lower Peninsula to get a railroad, but once work started, it progressed quickly. In a manner he had previously deployed, notably with the transcontinental railroad, and the line to the Ohio River, work began at both Newport News and Richmond. The crews at each end worked toward each other. The crews met and completed the line 1.25 miles west of Williamsburg
on October 16, 1881 although temporary tracks had been installed in some areas to speed completion. This was just in the nick of time because Huntington and his associates had promised they would provide rail service to Yorktown
where the United States was celebrating the centennial of the surrender of the British troops under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, an event considered most symbolic of the end of American Revolutionary War
. Only 3 days after the last spike ceremony, on October 19, the first passenger train from Newport News took local residents and national officials to the Cornwallis Surrender Centennial Celebration at Yorktown on temporary tracks which were laid from the main line at the new Lee Hall Depot
to Yorktown.
No sooner had the tracks to the new coal pier at Newport News been completed in late 1881 than the same construction crews were put to work on what would later be called the Peninsula Subdivision's Hampton Branch, which ran easterly about 10 miles into Elizabeth City County
toward Hampton
and Old Point Comfort
, where the U.S. Army base at Fort Monroe
was situated to guard the entrance to the harbor of Hampton Roads from the Chesapeake Bay (and the Atlantic Ocean). The tracks were completed about 9 miles to the town which became Phoebus
in December 1882, named in honor of its leading citizen, Harrison Phoebus
. The new branch line served both the older Hygeia Hotel and the new Hotel Chamberlain, popular destinations for civilians. During the first half of the 20th century, excursion trains were operated to reach nearby Buckroe Beach, where an amusement park
was among the attractions that brought church groups and vacationers.
At the formerly sleepy little farming community of Newport News Point, he set about other developments locally there, notably building the landmark Hotel Warwick and founding the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
, which became the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States.
Huntington is largely credited with vision and the combination of developments which created and built a vibrant and progressive community. The 15 years of rapid growth and development led to the incorporation of Newport News, Virginia
as a new independent city
in 1896, one of only 2 in Virginia to have ever been so formed without developing first as an incorporated town
.
Near the tracks of the C&O's Hampton Branch was a normal school
dedicated primarily in its earliest years to training teachers to provide educational opportunities for the South's African-Americans who were mostly illiterate newly freed former slaves. Most southern blacks had been denied opportunities for education literacy by laws before the Civil War. The school which grew to become modern-day Hampton University
was led by former Union General Samuel Chapman Armstrong
. Perhaps the best known of General Armstrong's students was a youth named Booker T. Washington
, who himself became a renowned educator as the first principal of another school in Alabama which became Tuskegee University
. When Sam Armstrong suffered a debilitating paralysis in 1892 while in New York, he returned to Hampton in a private railroad car
provided by Collis P. Huntington, with whom he had collaborated on black-education projects.
In the lower Peninsula, Collis and other Huntington family members and their Old Dominion Land Company were involved in many aspects of life and business, and schools, museums, libraries and parks are among their many contributions. In Williamsburg, Collis' Old Dominion Land Company owned the historic site of the 18th century capitol buildings, which was turned over to the ladies who were the earliest promoters of what became Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities). This site was later a key piece of the Abby
and John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s massive Restoration of the former colonial capital city which became Colonial Williamsburg
, one of the world's major tourist attractions.
Collis also did not neglect his namesake city at the other end of the C&O. In order to supply freight cars to the C&O, and by extension to the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads as well, Huntington was a major financier behind Ensign Manufacturing Company
, basing the company in Huntington, West Virginia, directly connecting to the C&O; Ensign was incorporated on November 1, 1872.
After Collis' death in 1900, his nephew, Henry E. Huntington
, assumed leadership of many of his industrial endeavors. He and other family members also continued and expanded many of his cultural and philanthropic projects.
, in the Adirondack Mountains
on August 13, 1900. He is interred in a grandiose private mausoleum at the Woodlawn Cemetery
, Bronx, New York
.
. She died in 1883. He remarried on July 12, 1884, Arabella D. Worsham
. He died at his Camp Pine Knot
, in the Adirondacks, August 13, 1900.
The children of William Huntington and Elizabeth Vincent were
Collis Huntington was the adopted father of Clara Elizabeth Prentice, born in Sacramento, in 1860. She was a niece of the first Mrs. C. P. Huntington, and was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Huntington. Clara Elizabeth Prentice-Huntington (1860–1928), as she was called, married Prince Francis Edward von Hatzfeldt of Wittenburg
, Germany
, on October 28, 1889. They made their home in England
.
Collis Huntington was also the adopted father of renowned hispanist Archer M. Huntington
, son of Collis P. Huntington's second wife Arabella Worsham Huntington
, by her first husband. Archer and his wife, sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington
, founded a Spanish museum and rare books library, the Hispanic Society of America, in upper Manhattan, which is still free and open to the public, as well as the Mariners' Museum
in Newport News, one of the largest of its kind in the world, and Brookgreen Gardens
sculpture and botanical gardens near Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.
Collis was also uncle to another California railroad magnate, Henry E. Huntington
, founder of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California
and the main force behind the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles, California
.
He was also related to Clarence Huntington, who was a president of the Virginian Railway
, succeeding Urban H. Broughton
, son-in-law of the VGN's founder, industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers
.
His youngest sister, Ellen Maria, was well known as a poet and writer of religious hymns.
in New York
, to pass into the museum's hands after the death of his stepson, Archer. His last will directed that if his stepson should die childless (which he did), Huntington's Fifth Avenue mansion or the proceeds from the sale of the property would go to Yale University. He also made specific bequests totaling $125,000.00 to Hampton University (then Hampton Institute) and to the Chapin Home for the Aged.
as "Happy Hunty." Huntington was also referenced in Carl Sandburg's poem, Southern Pacific.
Leland Stanford
Amasa Leland Stanford was an American tycoon, industrialist, robber baron, politician and founder of Stanford University.-Early years:...
, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker was an American railroad executive.-Early years:Crocker was born in Troy, New York, to a modest family and moved to an Indiana farm at age 14. He soon became independent, working on several farms, a sawmill, and at an iron forge. In 1845 he founded a small, independent iron...
) who built the Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
. Huntington then helped lead and develop other major interstate lines such as the Southern Pacific Railroad
Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...
, which he was recruited to help complete. The C&O, completed in 1873, fulfilled a long-held dream of Virginians of a rail link from the James River
James River (Virginia)
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...
at Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
to the Ohio River Valley
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
. The new railroad facilities adjacent to the river there resulted in expansion of the former small town of Guyandotte, West Virginia
Guyandotte, West Virginia
Guyandotte is an historic neighborhood of Huntington, West Virginia and was formerly a small town in Virginia located at the confluence of the Guyandotte River and the Ohio River...
into part of a new city which was named Huntington
Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at...
in his honor.
Next, turning attention to the eastern end of the line at Richmond, he was responsible for the C&O's Peninsula Extension
Peninsula Extension
The Peninsula Extension which created the Peninsula Subdivision of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was the new railroad line on the Virginia Peninsula from Richmond to southeastern Warwick County...
in 1881–82 which opened a pathway for West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
bituminous coal
Bituminous coal
Bituminous coal or black coal is a relatively soft coal containing a tarlike substance called bitumen. It is of higher quality than lignite coal but of poorer quality than Anthracite...
to reach new coal pier
Coal pier
A coal pier is a transloading facility designed for the transfer of coal between rail and ship.The typical facility for loading ships consists of a holding area and a system of conveyors for transferring the coal to dockside and loading it into the ship's cargo holds...
s on the harbor of Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
for export shipping. He also is credited with the development of Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, as well as the incorporation of Newport News, Virginia
Newport News, Virginia
Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
as a new independent city
Independent city
An independent city is a city that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity. These type of cities should not be confused with city-states , which are fully sovereign cities that are not part of any other sovereign state.-Historical precursors:In the Holy Roman Empire,...
. After his death, both his nephew Henry E. Huntington
Henry E. Huntington
Henry Edwards Huntington was a railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Born in Oneonta, New York, Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate interests...
and his stepson Archer M. Huntington
Archer M. Huntington
Archer Milton Huntington was the son of Arabella Huntington and the stepson of railroad magnate and industrialist Collis P. Huntington...
continued his work at Newport News, and all three are considered founding fathers in the community, with local features named in honor of each.
Much of the railroad and industrial development Collis P. Huntington envisioned and led are still important activities in the early 21st century. The Southern Pacific is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
, and the C&O became part of CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation
CSX Transportation operates a Class I railroad in the United States known as the CSX Railroad. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles...
, each major U.S. railroad systems. West Virginia coal still rides the rails to be loaded aboard collier
Collier (ship type)
Collier is a historical term used to describe a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially for naval use by coal-fired warships. In the late 18th century a number of wooden-hulled sailing colliers gained fame after being adapted for use in voyages of exploration in the South Pacific, for...
s at Hampton Roads, where nearby, Huntington-Ingalls Industries operates the massive shipyard.
Education and early career
Collis Potter Huntington was born in Harwinton, ConnecticutHarwinton, Connecticut
Harwinton is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 5,283 at the 2000 census. The name of the town is a portmanteau of Hartford and Windsor, which is where its settlers came from.-Geography:...
, USA on October 22, 1821. His family farmed and he grew up helping. In his early teens, he did farm chores and odd jobs for neighbors, too, saving his earnings. At age 16, he began traveling as a peddler. About this time, he visited rural Newport News Point in Warwick County, Virginia
Warwick County, Virginia
Warwick County was a county in Southeast Virginia that was created from Warwick River Shire, one of eight created in the Virginia Colony in 1634. It became the City of Warwick on July 16, 1952...
in his travels as a salesman. It was later to become quite clear that he never forgot the untapped potential of the location he observed where the James River emptied into the large harbor of Hampton Roads. In 1842 he and his brother established a successful business in Oneonta, New York
Oneonta, New York
Oneonta is a city in southern Otsego County, New York, USA. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, had a population of 13,901. Its nickname is "City of the Hills." While the word "oneonta" is of undetermined origin, it is popularly believed to mean "place of open rocks" in the Iroquois language...
, selling general merchandise.
When he saw opportunity blooming in America's West, he set out for California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and established himself as a merchant in Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
at the start of the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
. Huntington succeeded in his California business, too, and it was here that he teamed up with Mark Hopkins selling miners' supplies and other hardware.
Building the first U.S. transcontinental railroad
In the late 1850s, he and Hopkins joined forces with two other successful businessmen, Leland StanfordLeland Stanford
Amasa Leland Stanford was an American tycoon, industrialist, robber baron, politician and founder of Stanford University.-Early years:...
and Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker
Charles Crocker was an American railroad executive.-Early years:Crocker was born in Troy, New York, to a modest family and moved to an Indiana farm at age 14. He soon became independent, working on several farms, a sawmill, and at an iron forge. In 1845 he founded a small, independent iron...
, to pursue the idea of creating a rail line that would connect the America's East and West. In 1861, these four businessmen (sometimes referred to as The Big Four) pooled their resources and business acumen, and formed the Central Pacific Railroad
Central Pacific Railroad
The Central Pacific Railroad is the former name of the railroad network built between California and Utah, USA that formed part of the "First Transcontinental Railroad" in North America. It is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad. Many 19th century national proposals to build a transcontinental...
company to create the western link of America's transcontinental railway system. Of the four, he had a reputation for being the most ruthless in pursuing the railroad's business and the ouster of his partner, Stanford.
On May 10, 1869, at Promontory, Utah
Promontory, Utah
Promontory in Box Elder County, Utah, United States, is notable as the location of Promontory Summit where the United States' Transcontinental Railroad was officially completed on May 10, 1869....
, the tracks of the Central Pacific Railroad joined with the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
, and America had a transcontinental railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
. The joining was celebrated by the driving of the golden spike
Golden spike
The "Golden Spike" is the ceremonial final spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the First Transcontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory...
.
The Union Pacific and Central Pacific
Central Pacific
Central Pacific can refer to:* The Central Pacific Railroad, the western part of the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States* The Central Pacific Area, a subdivision of the Pacific Ocean Areas in World War II...
railroad companies had received massive loans from the U.S. government to build the transcontinental railroad
First Transcontinental Railroad
The First Transcontinental Railroad was a railroad line built in the United States of America between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad that connected its statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs, Iowa/Omaha, Nebraska The First...
—on gentle terms, but Huntington persuaded a friendly member of Congress to introduce a bill excusing the companies from repaying the money, amounting to $130 million (nearly $3 billion in 2007 money). This plot was defeated in part due to the advocacy of Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
and the newspapers of William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
.
Southern Pacific Railroad
Beginning in 1865, he was also involved in the establishment of the Southern Pacific RailroadSouthern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....
with the Big Four principals of the Central Pacific Railroad. The railroad's first locomotive, C. P. Huntington
C. P. Huntington
C. P. Huntington is a 4-2-4T steam locomotive currently on static display at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California, USA. It is the first locomotive purchased by the Southern Pacific Railroad, carrying that railroad's number 1. The locomotive is named in honor of Collis P...
, was named in his honor. With rail lines from New Orleans to the Southwest and into California, Southern Pacific grew to more than 9,000 miles of track. It also controlled 5,000 miles of connecting steamship lines. Using the Southern Pacific Railroad, Huntington endeavored to prevent the port at San Pedro from becoming the main Port of Los Angeles
Port of Los Angeles
The Port of Los Angeles, also called Los Angeles Harbor and WORLDPORT L.A, is a port complex that occupies of land and water along of waterfront. The port is located on San Pedro Bay in the San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles, approximately south of downtown...
in the Free Harbor Fight
Free Harbor Fight
Free Harbor Fight refers to the legal battle in the late nineteenth century on the West Coast of the United States, around the case Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce vs. Huntington and the Southern Pacific....
.
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, new cities and a shipyard
Following the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, efforts were renewed to fulfill a long-held desire of Virginians for a canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
or railroad link between Richmond and the Ohio River Valley. With considerable financial assistance from the Virginia Board of Public Works
Virginia Board of Public Works
The Virginia Board of Public Works was a governmental agency which oversaw and helped finance the development of Virginia's internal transportation improvements during the 19th century. In that era, it was customary to invest public funds in private companies, which were the forerunners of the...
, the Virginia Central Railroad
Virginia Central Railroad
Virginia Central Railroad was chartered as the Louisa Railroad in 1836 by the Virginia Board of Public Works and had its name changed to Virginia Central Railroad in 1850. It connected Richmond with the Orange and Alexandria Railroad at Gordonsville in 1854, and had expanded westward past the Blue...
and a state-owned link through the Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...
had been completed along this route as far as the upper reaches of the Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...
when the War interrupted progress.
Officials of the Virginia Central, led by company president Williams Carter Wickham
Williams Carter Wickham
Williams Carter Wickham was a lawyer, judge, politician, and an important Confederate cavalry general who fought in the Virginia campaigns during the American Civil War...
, realized that they would have to get capital to rebuild from outside the economically devastated South, and attempted to attract British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
interests, without success. Finally, Major Wickham succeeded in getting Collis Huntington interested helping to complete the line.
Beginning in 1871, he oversaw completion of the newly formed Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway
The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from several smaller Virginia railroads begun in the 19th century. Led by industrialist Collis P...
(C&O) from Richmond
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
across Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
and West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
to reach the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
. There, he established the planned city of Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at...
. He became active in developing the emerging southern West Virginia bituminous coal
Bituminous coal
Bituminous coal or black coal is a relatively soft coal containing a tarlike substance called bitumen. It is of higher quality than lignite coal but of poorer quality than Anthracite...
business for the C&O.
Beginning in 1865, Huntington had been acquiring land in Virginia's eastern Tidewater region
Tidewater region of Virginia
The Tidewater region of Virginia is the eastern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia formally known as Hampton Roads. The term tidewater may be correctly applied to all portions of any area, including Virginia, where the water level is affected by the tides...
, an area not served by extant railroads. In 1880, he formed the Old Dominion Land Company, and turned these holdings over to it.
Beginning in December 1880, he led the building of the C&O's Peninsula Subdivision which extended from the Church Hill Tunnel
Church Hill Tunnel
Church Hill Tunnel is an old Chesapeake and Ohio Railway tunnel extending for approximately 4,000 feet under the Church Hill section of Richmond, Virginia. Built in the early 1870s, in 1925, the tunnel collapsed on a work train killing four and trapping a steam locomotive and some flat cars...
in Richmond east down the Virginia Peninsula
Virginia Peninsula
The Virginia Peninsula is a peninsula in southeast Virginia, USA, bounded by the York River, James River, Hampton Roads and Chesapeake Bay.Hampton Roads is the common name for the metropolitan area that surrounds the body of water of the same name...
through Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
to the southeastern end of the Peninsula on the harbor of Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
in Warwick County, Virginia
Warwick County, Virginia
Warwick County was a county in Southeast Virginia that was created from Warwick River Shire, one of eight created in the Virginia Colony in 1634. It became the City of Warwick on July 16, 1952...
. Through the new railroad and his land company, coal piers were established at Newport News Point.
It may have taken more than 50 years after Virginia's first railroad operated for the lower Peninsula to get a railroad, but once work started, it progressed quickly. In a manner he had previously deployed, notably with the transcontinental railroad, and the line to the Ohio River, work began at both Newport News and Richmond. The crews at each end worked toward each other. The crews met and completed the line 1.25 miles west of Williamsburg
Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
on October 16, 1881 although temporary tracks had been installed in some areas to speed completion. This was just in the nick of time because Huntington and his associates had promised they would provide rail service to Yorktown
Yorktown, Virginia
Yorktown is a census-designated place in York County, Virginia, United States. The population was 220 in the 2000 census. It is the county seat of York County, one of the eight original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1634....
where the United States was celebrating the centennial of the surrender of the British troops under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, an event considered most symbolic of the end of American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. Only 3 days after the last spike ceremony, on October 19, the first passenger train from Newport News took local residents and national officials to the Cornwallis Surrender Centennial Celebration at Yorktown on temporary tracks which were laid from the main line at the new Lee Hall Depot
Lee Hall, Virginia
Lee Hall is a former unincorporated town long located in the former Warwick County. Since 1958, Lee Hall has been a suburban community in the extreme western portion of the independent city of Newport News in the Commonwealth of Virginia....
to Yorktown.
No sooner had the tracks to the new coal pier at Newport News been completed in late 1881 than the same construction crews were put to work on what would later be called the Peninsula Subdivision's Hampton Branch, which ran easterly about 10 miles into Elizabeth City County
Elizabeth City County, Virginia
Elizabeth City County was a county in southeastern Virginia from 1634 to 1952. Originally created in 1634 as Elizabeth River Shire, it was one of eight shires created in the Virginia Colony by order of the King of England. In 1636, it was subdivided, and the portion north of the harbor of Hampton...
toward Hampton
Hampton, Virginia
Hampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
and Old Point Comfort
Old Point Comfort
Old Point Comfort is a point of land located in the independent city of Hampton. It lies at the extreme tip of the Virginia Peninsula at the mouth of Hampton Roads in the United States....
, where the U.S. Army base at Fort Monroe
Fort Monroe
Fort Monroe was a military installation in Hampton, Virginia—at Old Point Comfort, the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula...
was situated to guard the entrance to the harbor of Hampton Roads from the Chesapeake Bay (and the Atlantic Ocean). The tracks were completed about 9 miles to the town which became Phoebus
Phoebus, Virginia
Phoebus was an incorporated town located in Elizabeth City County on the Virginia Peninsula in eastern Virginia. Upon incorporation in 1900, it was named in honor of local businessman Harrison Phoebus , who is credited with convincing the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway to extend its tracks to the...
in December 1882, named in honor of its leading citizen, Harrison Phoebus
Harrison Phoebus
Harrison Phoebus was an American 19th century entrepreneur and hotelier who became the leading citizen and namesake of the town of Phoebus in Elizabeth City County, near Fort Monroe, which is now part of the independent city of Hampton, Virginia....
. The new branch line served both the older Hygeia Hotel and the new Hotel Chamberlain, popular destinations for civilians. During the first half of the 20th century, excursion trains were operated to reach nearby Buckroe Beach, where an amusement park
Amusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
was among the attractions that brought church groups and vacationers.
At the formerly sleepy little farming community of Newport News Point, he set about other developments locally there, notably building the landmark Hotel Warwick and founding the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
Northrop Grumman Newport News
Newport News Shipbuilding , originally Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company , was the largest privately-owned shipyard in the United States prior to being purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2001...
, which became the largest privately owned shipyard in the United States.
Huntington is largely credited with vision and the combination of developments which created and built a vibrant and progressive community. The 15 years of rapid growth and development led to the incorporation of Newport News, Virginia
Newport News, Virginia
Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
as a new independent city
Independent city
An independent city is a city that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity. These type of cities should not be confused with city-states , which are fully sovereign cities that are not part of any other sovereign state.-Historical precursors:In the Holy Roman Empire,...
in 1896, one of only 2 in Virginia to have ever been so formed without developing first as an incorporated town
Incorporated town
-Canada:Incorporated towns are a form of local government in Canada, which is a responsibility of provincial rather than federal government.-United States:...
.
Near the tracks of the C&O's Hampton Branch was a normal school
Normal school
A normal school is a school created to train high school graduates to be teachers. Its purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, hence its name...
dedicated primarily in its earliest years to training teachers to provide educational opportunities for the South's African-Americans who were mostly illiterate newly freed former slaves. Most southern blacks had been denied opportunities for education literacy by laws before the Civil War. The school which grew to become modern-day Hampton University
Hampton University
Hampton University is a historically black university located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It was founded by black and white leaders of the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen.-History:...
was led by former Union General Samuel Chapman Armstrong
Samuel C. Armstrong
Samuel Chapman Armstrong was an American educator and a commissioned officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War...
. Perhaps the best known of General Armstrong's students was a youth named Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
, who himself became a renowned educator as the first principal of another school in Alabama which became Tuskegee University
Tuskegee University
Tuskegee University is a private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund...
. When Sam Armstrong suffered a debilitating paralysis in 1892 while in New York, he returned to Hampton in a private railroad car
Private railroad car
A private railroad car, private railway coach, private car or private varnish is a railroad passenger car which was either originally built or later converted for service as a business car for private individuals. A private car could be added to the make-up of a train or pulled by a private...
provided by Collis P. Huntington, with whom he had collaborated on black-education projects.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, , was a prominent socialite and philanthropist and the second-generation matriarch of the renowned Rockefeller family...
and John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s massive Restoration of the former colonial capital city which became Colonial Williamsburg
Colonial Williamsburg
Colonial Williamsburg is the private foundation representing the historic district of the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, USA. The district includes buildings dating from 1699 to 1780 which made colonial Virginia's capital. The capital straddled the boundary of the original shires of Virginia —...
, one of the world's major tourist attractions.
Collis also did not neglect his namesake city at the other end of the C&O. In order to supply freight cars to the C&O, and by extension to the Southern Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads as well, Huntington was a major financier behind Ensign Manufacturing Company
Ensign Manufacturing Company
Ensign Manufacturing Company, founded as Ensign Car Works in 1872, was a railroad car manufacturing company based in Huntington, West Virginia. In the 1880s and 1890s Ensign's production of wood freight cars made the company of the three largest sawmill operators in Cabell County...
, basing the company in Huntington, West Virginia, directly connecting to the C&O; Ensign was incorporated on November 1, 1872.
After Collis' death in 1900, his nephew, Henry E. Huntington
Henry E. Huntington
Henry Edwards Huntington was a railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Born in Oneonta, New York, Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate interests...
, assumed leadership of many of his industrial endeavors. He and other family members also continued and expanded many of his cultural and philanthropic projects.
Death
He died at his camp, Pine KnotCamp Pine Knot
Camp Pine Knot, also known as Huntington Memorial Camp, on Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, was built by William West Durant. Begun in 1877, it was the first of the "Adirondack Great Camps" and epitomizes the "Great Camp" architectural style...
, in the Adirondack Mountains
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
on August 13, 1900. He is interred in a grandiose private mausoleum at the Woodlawn Cemetery
Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx
Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and is a designated National Historic Landmark.A rural cemetery located in the Bronx, it opened in 1863, in what was then southern Westchester County, in an area that was annexed to New York City in 1874.The cemetery covers more...
, Bronx, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Family relationships
Collis Huntington was the son of William and Elizabeth (Vincent) Huntington; born October 22, 1821, in Harwinton, Connecticut; he married, first, on September 16, 1844, Elizabeth T. Stoddard, of Cornwall, ConnecticutCornwall, Connecticut
Cornwall is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,434 at the 2000 census.In 1939 poet Mark Van Doren wrote "The Hills of Little Cornwall", a short poem in which the beauties of the countryside were portrayed as seductive:The town was also home to the Foreign...
. She died in 1883. He remarried on July 12, 1884, Arabella D. Worsham
Arabella Huntington
Arabella Yarrington "Belle" Huntington was the second wife of American railway tycoon and industrialist Collis P. Huntington, and then the second wife of Henry E. Huntington...
. He died at his Camp Pine Knot
Camp Pine Knot
Camp Pine Knot, also known as Huntington Memorial Camp, on Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, was built by William West Durant. Begun in 1877, it was the first of the "Adirondack Great Camps" and epitomizes the "Great Camp" architectural style...
, in the Adirondacks, August 13, 1900.
The children of William Huntington and Elizabeth Vincent were
- Mary Huntington, born 17 February 1810; married 2 June 1840, Daniel Sammis of Warsaw, New YorkWarsaw, New YorkWarsaw, New York is the name of two locations in Wyoming County, New York:*Warsaw , New York*Warsaw , New York...
. - Solon Huntington, born 13 January 1812.
- Rhoda Huntington, born 13 October 1814; married 10 May 1834, Riley Dunbar of Wolcottville.
- Phebe/Phoebe Huntington, born 17 September 1817; married 4 October 1840, Henry Pardee of Oneonta, New YorkOneonta, New YorkOneonta is a city in southern Otsego County, New York, USA. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, had a population of 13,901. Its nickname is "City of the Hills." While the word "oneonta" is of undetermined origin, it is popularly believed to mean "place of open rocks" in the Iroquois language...
. - Elizabeth Huntington, born 19 December 1819; married 5 April 1842, Hiram Yaker of Kortright, New YorkKortright, New YorkKortright is a town in Delaware County, New York, United States. The population was 1,633 at the 2000 census.The Town of Kortright is in the northern part of the county.-Geography:...
. - Collis Potter Huntington, born October 22, 1821.
- Joseph Huntington, born 23 March 1823; d. 23 February 1849; never married
- Susan L. Huntington, born August 1826; married 16 November 1849, William Porter, M.D., of New Haven, ConnecticutNew Haven, ConnecticutNew Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
- Ellen Maria Huntington, born 12 August 1835; married Isaac E. Gates of Orange, New JerseyOrange, New JerseyThe City of Orange is a city and township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 30,134...
Collis Huntington was the adopted father of Clara Elizabeth Prentice, born in Sacramento, in 1860. She was a niece of the first Mrs. C. P. Huntington, and was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Huntington. Clara Elizabeth Prentice-Huntington (1860–1928), as she was called, married Prince Francis Edward von Hatzfeldt of Wittenburg
Wittenburg
Wittenburg is a town in the district Ludwigslust-Parchim in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Population 5570, area 46.25 km². Wittenburg should not be confused with the much bigger Wittenberg....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, on October 28, 1889. They made their home in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
Collis Huntington was also the adopted father of renowned hispanist Archer M. Huntington
Archer M. Huntington
Archer Milton Huntington was the son of Arabella Huntington and the stepson of railroad magnate and industrialist Collis P. Huntington...
, son of Collis P. Huntington's second wife Arabella Worsham Huntington
Arabella Huntington
Arabella Yarrington "Belle" Huntington was the second wife of American railway tycoon and industrialist Collis P. Huntington, and then the second wife of Henry E. Huntington...
, by her first husband. Archer and his wife, sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington
Anna Hyatt Huntington
Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington was an American sculptor.-Life and career:Huntington was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father, Alpheus Hyatt, was a professor of paleontology and zoology at Harvard University and MIT, and served as a contributing factor to her early interest in animals and...
, founded a Spanish museum and rare books library, the Hispanic Society of America, in upper Manhattan, which is still free and open to the public, as well as the Mariners' Museum
Mariners' Museum
The Mariners' Museum is located in Newport News, Virginia. It is one of the largest maritime museums in the world as well as being the largest in North America.- History :The museum was founded in 1932 by Archer Milton Huntington, son of Collis P...
in Newport News, one of the largest of its kind in the world, and Brookgreen Gardens
Brookgreen Gardens
Brookgreen Gardens is a sculpture garden and wildlife preserve, located just south of Murrells Inlet, in South Carolina. The property includes several themed gardens with American figurative sculptures placed in them, the Lowcountry Zoo, and trails through several ecosystems in nature reserves on...
sculpture and botanical gardens near Murrells Inlet, South Carolina.
Collis was also uncle to another California railroad magnate, Henry E. Huntington
Henry E. Huntington
Henry Edwards Huntington was a railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Born in Oneonta, New York, Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate interests...
, founder of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California
San Marino, California
San Marino is a small, affluent city in Los Angeles County, California. Incorporated in 1913, the City founders designed the community to be uniquely residential, with expansive properties surrounded by beautiful gardens, wide streets, and well maintained parkways...
and the main force behind the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
He was also related to Clarence Huntington, who was a president of the Virginian Railway
Virginian Railway
The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads....
, succeeding Urban H. Broughton
Urban H. Broughton
Urban Hanlon Broughton was an English civil engineer, railroad and mining executive, and Conservative Party Member of Parliament. In 1929, he was in line for elevation to the peerage, but he died in January before the process was finalized...
, son-in-law of the VGN's founder, industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers
Henry H. Rogers
Henry Huttleston Rogers was a United States capitalist, businessman, industrialist, financier, and philanthropist. He made his fortune in the oil refinery business, becoming a leader at Standard Oil....
.
His youngest sister, Ellen Maria, was well known as a poet and writer of religious hymns.
Charity
He acquired a substantial collection of art, and was generally recognized as one of the country's foremost art collectors. He left most of his collection, valued at some $3 million, to the Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, to pass into the museum's hands after the death of his stepson, Archer. His last will directed that if his stepson should die childless (which he did), Huntington's Fifth Avenue mansion or the proceeds from the sale of the property would go to Yale University. He also made specific bequests totaling $125,000.00 to Hampton University (then Hampton Institute) and to the Chapin Home for the Aged.
Places named for Collis P. Huntington
- Collis P. Huntington Building – Hampton UniversityHampton UniversityHampton University is a historically black university located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It was founded by black and white leaders of the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen.-History:...
Museum, Hampton, VirginiaHampton, VirginiaHampton is an independent city that is not part of any county in Southeast Virginia. Its population is 137,436. As one of the seven major cities that compose the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, it is on the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula. Located on the Hampton Roads Beltway, it hosts...
. - Huntington, West VirginiaHuntington, West VirginiaHuntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at...
. - Collis P. Huntington High SchoolCollis P. Huntington High SchoolCollis P. Huntington High School, commonly referred to as just Huntington High School was a black high school located in the East End section of Newport News, Virginia, USA during the era of racial segregation...
, Newport News, VirginiaNewport News, VirginiaNewport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
. - Huntington ParkHuntington Park (Newport News, Virginia)Huntington Park is a park located in Newport News, Virginia, USA. It offers a beach, two fishing piers, gardens, tennis, and museums. It is run by the Newport News Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.- Location :...
, and Huntington Avenue, Newport News, Virginia. - Huntington, TexasHuntington, TexasHuntington is a city in Angelina County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,068 at the 2000 census. The site is named for Collis Potter Huntington, the chairman of the board of the Southern Pacific Railroad when the town was formed and one of The Big Four...
in Angelina County, TexasAngelina County, TexasAngelina County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Angelina County was formed in 1846 from Nacogdoches County. As of 2000, the population was 80,130. Its county seat is Lufkin. Angelina is named for a Hainai Native American woman who assisted early Spanish missionaries and was named... - Huntington Hall – U.S. Navy enlisted housing and USO 3100 Huntington Avenue, Newport News, Virginia
- The Huntington HotelHuntington Hotel (San Francisco)The Huntington Hotel is one of the landmark luxury hotels at the top of the Nob Hill district of San Francisco, California. It is located at 1075 California Street, cross street is Taylor Street. The hotel is a twelve-story, Georgian-style brick building that features 135 guest rooms and suites.-...
– San Francisco, California - Huntington Free Library and Reading RoomHuntington Free Library and Reading RoomThe Huntington Free Library is a privately-endowed library in the Bronx borough of New York City which is open to the public. It has a non-circulating book collection....
– Bronx, NY - Collis P. Huntington State ParkCollis P. Huntington State ParkCollis P. Huntington State Park is a state park in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Characterized by its life-like sculptures of bears and wolves that welcome visitors, Huntington is a setting featuring open fields and dense woodlands. The park was donated to the citizens of Connecticut by the...
, ReddingRedding, ConnecticutMark Twain, a resident of the town in his old age, contributed the first books for a public library which was eventually named after him.-Government:...
and Bethel, ConnecticutBethel, ConnecticutBethel is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, about sixty miles from New York City. Its population was 18,584 at the 2010 census. The town center is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place... - Collis Place in Bronx County, New York, which is located several blocks from Huntington's riverside mansion.
- Tugboat Huntington – retired 1994, now a floating exhibit and classroom at the Palm Beach Maritime Museum, Palm Beach, FloridaPalm Beach, FloridaThe Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
- Collis Avenue, a residential street that starts at Huntington Drive in the El Sereno district of the City of Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and ends in the City of South Pasadena, CaliforniaSouth Pasadena, CaliforniaSouth Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 25,619, up from 24,292 at the 2000 census. It is located in in the West San Gabriel Valley... - Collis P. Huntington Academic Building; Tuskegee UniversityTuskegee UniversityTuskegee University is a private, historically black university located in Tuskegee, Alabama, United States. It is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund...
, AL (Destroyed in a fire) - Huntington Dorm; Tuskegee University, AL
- Camp HuntingtonCamp Pine KnotCamp Pine Knot, also known as Huntington Memorial Camp, on Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, was built by William West Durant. Begun in 1877, it was the first of the "Adirondack Great Camps" and epitomizes the "Great Camp" architectural style...
on Raquette LakeRaquette LakeRaquette Lake is the source of the Raquette River in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, USA. It is near the community of Raquette Lake, New York. The lake has 99 miles of shoreline with pines and mountains bordering the lake. It is located in the towns of Long Lake and Arietta,...
, NY which is now owned by the State University of New York at CortlandState University of New York at CortlandThe State University of New York College at Cortland, also officially called SUNY Cortland or informally known as Cortland State, is a coeducational university located in Cortland, New York... - C.P Huntington Primary School in Sacramento, CaliforniaSacramento, CaliforniaSacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
Collis Huntington in popular culture
For reasons that are unclear, he was referred to in Black Beetles in Amber by Ambrose BierceAmbrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
as "Happy Hunty." Huntington was also referenced in Carl Sandburg's poem, Southern Pacific.
External links
- Huntington Hall, Newport News
- Huntington Hotel, San Francisco
- Ellen M.H. Gates, Who's Who Poet