William Henry Osborn was born on December 21, 1820, at Salem, Massachussets, the son of William and Anna Henfield (Bowditch) Osborn. He came of old New England stock. His earliest-known direct ancestor was a sea-captain, whom he resembled in his adventurous nature and independence.
After attending the rural and high school of his community, William Osborn abandoned the routine of formal education at the age of thirteen.
William Osborn entered the East India House of Peele, Hubbell & Company of Boston at the age of thirteen. Within a few years his aptitude for business won him an appointment as their representative in Manila, where he later established himself in his own interest. Returning to the United States after about ten years, William married Virginia Reed Sturges, daughter of Jonathan Sturges, a New York merchant and one of the incorporators of the Illinois Central Railroad. Of this road, still incomplete, Osborn was made president in 1855. The company was then in a critical financial position. The "Schuyler frauds" (overissue of the stock of the New York & New Haven road, under the presidency of Robert Schuyler who was at the same time president of the Illinois Central) had made it virtually impossible to negotiate railroad securities, but Osborn reorganized the Illinois Central and placed it on a firm financial basis. When the panic of 1857 with its disastrous accompaniment swept the country, he again brought order into the chaos of the railroad's affairs by negotiating a personal loan, and reestablished the company's credit by assessments upon stockholders and a new bond issue, thereby giving to the company permanent financial stability.
The use of this road by the government during the Civil War for the transportation of troops and war materials and of grain and supplies, the rapid development of the natural resources of the country, and the consequent settlement of the company's lands so contributed to its material success that soon after 1861 it began to pay dividends to shareholders. Its credit continued to rise, and before severing his connection with the company, Osborn was able to negotiate its bonds at 31/2%, an unprecedented accomplishment.
For about thirty years Osborn controlled the destinies of the Illinois Central, serving for ten years as president (1855 - 65), twenty-two as director (1854 - 76), and six as president of the Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans (1877 - 82). During the last period he exercised his customary energy and ability in working out plans and policies whereby the Illinois Central acquired this line as an extension to New Orleans and became one of the world's most important railroad properties.
His retirement from business in 1882 meant only a transfer of activity; thereafter he devoted himself to philanthropy and the art of living. His private beneficence had a very wide range; while resident in Chicago he and his wife had actively promoted the welfare of the railroad workers by means of an employees' relief association and a library; in New York he was closely identified with the Society for the Relief of the Ruptured and Crippled, the Bellevue Training School for Nurses, and the New York Hospital. He rounded his career and enriched his personal life by a fine discrimination in literature and art, his library and art collection both being considerable. Much of his time toward the close of his life was spent quietly on his estate "Castle Rock, " at Garrison, New York. He died in New York City.
Osborn's prominent traits were sincerity, hatred of affectation in people and of sham in men or in measures, and a pronounced tenacity of conviction.
On December 14, 1853, William Osborn married Virginia Reed Sturges, daughter of Jonathan Sturges, a New York merchant and one of the incorporators of the Illinois Central Railroad.
He was a New York merchant and one of the incorporators of the Illinois Central Railroad.
He is a poet.
He is an artist.
