Huntington, Collis P.

Huntington, Collis P. (1821–1900), railroad entrepreneur.Born in Connecticut, Collis P. Huntington, after an early business career in New York City, moved to Sacramento, California, during the 1849 Gold Rush and started a merchandise business with Mark Hopkins. In 1861 he joined with Hopkins, Leland Stanford, and Charles Crocker (the “Big Four” as they became known) to create the Central Pacific Railroad. Using Chinese labor and relying on government loans and subsidies, the Central Pacific built nearly seven hundred miles of the transcontinental railroad that in 1869 linked with the Union Pacific at Promontory Point, Utah. Huntington and his partners reaped huge profits from the venture.

In 1865, Huntington and his partners started the Southern Pacific Railroad. To maintain the railroad's dominance over competitors in California and the Southwest, and to avoid government regulation, Huntington lobbied in Washington, dominated the California legislature, and showered bribes on corrupt politicians. His candid private letters, some of which became public in 1883, revealed his cynical calculations about who could be bought to achieve his purposes. During the 1870s and 1880s, the period of his greatest economic and political power, Huntington was controversial and hated, personifying as he did the acquisitive business practices of the Gilded Age. His excesses helped spark a movement within the California Democratic party in the 1880s and 1890s to curb the power of the Southern Pacific. The estate of his nephew and business partner Henry E. Huntington in San Marino, California, became the site of the Huntington Library and Art Gallery, a major cultural center near Pasadena.
See also Asian Americans; Gold Rushes; Railroads.

Bibliography

David Lavender , The Great Persuader, 1970.
R. Hal Williams , The Democratic Party in California Politics, 1880–1896, 1973.

Lewis L. Gould