Background
Huntington was born in Oneonta, New York, in 1850. He was the son of Solon and Harriet (Saunders) Huntington, and a nephew of Collis Potter Huntington.
(Excerpt from Catalogue of Rare Americana From the Library...)
Excerpt from Catalogue of Rare Americana From the Library of Mr. Henry E. Huntington of New York Notice should also be drawn to the Jesuit Relation, 1634 7 3 - thirty-four reports of the activities of the Jesuits in the St. Lawrence Valley and the Great Lakes, containing a great deal of valuable information concerning the founding and early history of Canada and observations about Indian lan guages, customs and superstitions. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Financier founder railroad executive
Huntington was born in Oneonta, New York, in 1850. He was the son of Solon and Harriet (Saunders) Huntington, and a nephew of Collis Potter Huntington.
He was educated in the public and private schools of Oneonta.
He started in life with small resources. At an early age he became a clerk in a hardware store in his native town and at twenty went to New York City with a large hardware firm where he remained until 1871. In that year he took charge of a sawmill which Collis P. Huntington was running at St. Albans, W. Va. , to supply timber for his railway construction. Later becoming the owner of the mill, Henry continued this business experience for five years, after which he returned to Oneonta, N. Y.
In 1881, again at the request of his uncle, he became superintendent of construction on a portion of the lines which eventually became the Chesapeake, Ohio & South-western Railroad. In 1884 he was appointed superintendent of construction of the Kentucky Central Railroad, in 1886 became receiver for it, and from 1887 to 1890 was its vice-president and general manager. During this period and for the next two years he was director and official in various roads in which Collis P. Huntington was interested. He was then called to San Francisco to join his uncle's greatest system, the Southern Pacific Railway. From 1892 to 1900 he held the important positions of assistant to the president, second vice-president, and first vice-president in this transcontinental enterprise. While in San Francisco he became interested in the street railways of the city, his large holdings and progressive policy bringing about a great expansion of the system. Disposing of this in 1898, he began to invest capital in Los Angeles, where he bought and consolidated city transportation lines until he became sole owner of one of the largest urban systems in the country.
In 1900 Collis P. Huntington died, leaving to Henry a large portion of his immense fortune. He thus became the logical head of the Southern Pacific Railway, but shortly after his uncle's death he sold advantageously the control of the road to E. H. Harriman and devoted his attention to other forms of transportation, particularly inter-urban traffic. By purchase of existing lines and by new construction he covered Southern California with a network of electric roads and elaborated plans for a still more complete system to extend from Santa Barbara to San Diego and from the ocean back to the mountains. At this point he sold these lines to the Southern Pacific Railway in 1910 and applied his energies to other interests. He became a dominant figure in the development of electric power.
His foresight in the purchase of real estate made him for years the greatest single landowner in Southern California, his holdings running into tens of thousands of acres of city and country property which grew in value with the development of the country. To his vision and activity was due in great measure the phenomenal growth of that portion of the state. Parks, beaches, boulevards, hotels, and land companies testify to the wide extent of his ownership. After moving to Los Angeles he built up a fine private estate in San Marino, adjacent to the city of Pasadena, where a stately mansion was surrounded by many acres of park and gardens, planted with rare trees and shrubbery, as well as botanical specimens from distant subtropical climates. Here also he built the library and art gallery to which he devoted his chief attention during the later years of his life.
The library represented the accumulations of some twenty-four years, but the most important collections were made after 1910. The first significant step was the purchase of the library of E. D. Church in 1911, followed in 1912 by the Beverly Chew collection and selections from the Robert Hoe library; part of the Duke of Devonshire library in 1914; the Halsey collection of English, American, and French literature in 1915; the best part of the Pembroke library in 1916; and the Bridgewater in 1917. Other important acquisitions include the Loudoun Papers and the library of Judge Russell Benedict; the Lincoln collection of Ward Hill Lamon; the Grenville Kane collection of Washington letters; purchases from the Britwell library; not to mention individual rarities added from time to time. Huntington's preferences were for books and manuscripts relating to England and America, but the library is not exclusively confined to those fields. At his death it contained some of the rarest incunabula, was one of the best libraries in America for materials on English literature, and for original sources in the history of America was one of the great collections of the world. In art there was also a preference for English painters, the gallery containing some of the best works of Reynolds, Gainsborough, and others of the eighteenth century. Huntington's immense wealth and the exigencies of life in the early twentieth century made such an assemblage possible.
At first the books and art treasures were housed in his residence in New York City, but as this space was rapidly outgrown they were removed to San Marino and placed in the palatial building in the grounds of his estate, where he employed experts to continue their care and classification. By deeds of gift made in 1919, 1920, 1921, and 1922, these collections together with the surrounding estate of more than two hundred acres were placed in the hands of five trustees with the duty of maintaining them for the use of the public after his death. When this occurred in 1927 the library and works of art were valued at $30, 000, 000, and an endowment of $8, 000, 000 was provided for their operation.
When asked for the reasons for his phenomenal success he would reply that there was no rule except to be well prepared and "on the job all the time. " His collections of art expressed his refined taste as well as his desire to possess great rarities in painting. Able to purchase almost anything in the way of rare books and manuscripts, he consistently confined his attention to a few fields with extraordinary results.
His other public benefactions included a bequest of $2, 000, 000 to found in Los Angeles the Collis P. Huntington and Howard Huntington Memorial Hospital in memory of his uncle and son; $10, 000 each to Occidental College and to the University of Southern California, in California, and to the College of William and Mary in Virginia; and smaller gifts to various churches and institutions. He died in Philadelphia.
(Excerpt from Catalogue of Rare Americana From the Library...)
In appearance Huntington was tall, erect, having in his later years the aspect of a retired army officer. Naturally modest and reserved, his methods of business were quiet but effective. Approachable and friendly, he was at the same time an excellent judge of men, quick and decisive in action, with highly developed talent for organization.
Huntington was married on November 17, 1873, to Mary Alice Prentice, the sister of Collis P. Huntington's adopted daughter, from whom he was divorced in 1906. On July 16, 1913, he was married to Arabella Duval Huntington, nee Yarrington, widow of his uncle, who possessed great wealth in her own right. She took special interest in the development of the botanical garden and in the collection of antique art and furniture.
