Asa Whitney was a highly successful dry-goods merchant and transcontinental railroad promoter.
Background
Asa Whitney was born on March 14, 1797 at North Groton, Connecticut, the son of Shubael and Sarah (Mitchell) Whitney, and sixth in descent from John Whitney who came from London, England, and settled at Watertown, Massachussets, in 1635. His father was a fairly successful farmer, whose land was in a particularly stony region. A farmer's life did not attract Asa, however, and sometime before 1817 he went to New York.
Career
As buyer for Frederick Sheldon, a New York dry-goods merchant, he traveled extensively abroad (c. 1825 - 36), chiefly in France, where his resemblance to Napoleon Bonaparte often caused comment. Between 1832 and 1836 he purchased a tract of land on Broadway in New York and several parcels in New Rochelle, where he established his father's family in 1832 and provided his younger brothers and sisters with educational advantages that he had missed. In 1836 he became the head of his own firm. Although he was then financially able to meet his obligations, the depression following the panic of 1837 ruined his business and he was compelled to give up all his land. Discouraged by his losses and by the death of his wife, November 12, 1840, he set out for China, where he remained about fifteen months, acting as an agent for several New York firms and on his own account, with such profitable results that he never again engaged in business. He was able, also, to gather sufficient statistical information to show that an American transcontinental railroad would be of great importance in commerce with China, and to formulate a plan for its construction. Returning to New York in September 1844, he presented his plan to Congress. The route which he favored was from Lake Michigan via the South Pass of the Rockies to the Pacific, since it included so much unoccupied but supposedly fertile land which could be sold by government commissioners to provide funds for the railroad. His failure to make demands leading to his own immediate profit was an attitude too altruistic generally to be understood and was responsible for the idea that he contemplated a vast secret speculation. He realized that the public must be educated to the point of demanding such a railroad from Congress. Beginning with his personal reconnaissance of the first eight hundred miles of his route in the summer of 1845, which he reported in a long letter to the press, he carried on for seven years an amazing newspaper publicity campaign; addressed public meetings in all the larger cities and the legislatures of most of the states; tirelessly pursued members of Congress; and wrote articles for periodicals and several pamphlets, chief of which was A Project for a Railroad to the Pacific (1849). Opposition to his plan on various grounds convinced him that no further headway could be made with Congress, and in 1851 he accepted an invitation to present his plan in England as a possibility for Canada. Although he was favorably received, the English were not yet ready to undertake the railroad. Whitney then dropped the matter, married Catherine (Moore) Campbell, daughter of Maurice Moore of Wilmington, N. C. , on October 6, 1852, and retired to an estate in Washington known as "Locust Hill. " He died of typhoid fever, shortly after one transcontinental railroad had been completed and three others begun.
Achievements
Personality
One who knew him during his later life described him as "a polished gentleman of the old school, " whose home contained "many rare and beautiful things he had brought from all over the world and things presented to him by distinguished people"; who "every morning at a stated hour" had a "saddle horse brought to the door and he took his morning ride over his estate".
Connections
There he married Herminie Antoinette Pillet, who died in New York, April 1, 1833. On November 3, 1835, he married Sarah Jay Munro, daughter of Peter Jay Munro and grandniece of John Jay.