George Francis Train
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| George Francis Train | |
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| Born | March 24, 1829 Boston, Massachusetts |
| Died | January 5, 1904 |
George Francis Train (March 24, 1829 – January 5, 1904) was a businessman, author, and an eccentric figure in the American history.
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[edit] Biography
Born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1829. At the age of four Train was orphaned in New Orleans after a yellow fever plague killed his family. He was raised by his strict Methodist grandparents in Boston who hoped he would become a minister.
Throughout his life Train was engaged in the mercantile business in Boston and in Australia, then went to England in 1860 and undertook to form street/railway companies in Birkenhead and London where his plans were obstructed by legal opposition.
Referring to himself as "Citizen Train", he became a shipping magnate, a prolific writer, a minor presidential candidate, and a confidant of French and Australian revolutionaries. He was offered the presidency of a proposed Australian republic, but declined.
Train was likely the inspiration for Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, although he managed to accomplish the feat in 67 days. A plaque in Tacoma, Washington commemorates the start and finish point. (Note: The Tacoma trip was Train's third around the world and took place in 1880. It was not the trip that inspired Verne, which took place in 1870.) He was accompanied on the trip by his long-suffering cousin and private secretary, George Pickering Bemis.
Train also found the time to run for the office of President of the United States of America as an independent.
While in Europe after his 1870 trip, Train met with the Grand Duke Constantine. During that period he also persuaded the Queen of Spain to back the construction of a railway in the backwoods of Pennsylvania. This was the beginning of the Atlantic and Great Western railroad. He also promoted and built the first tramways in Britain in the face of strong opposition.
On his return to the U.S., Train's popularity and reputation soared. He began promoting the great Union Pacific Railway, despite the advice of short-sighted industrialists, such as Vanderbilt, who told him it would never work. Train made a fortune from real estate when the great railway running from coast to coast opened up huge swathes of western America, including a great deal of land in Omaha.
Train was a staunch supporter of the temperance movement, and was jailed on obscenity charges while defending Victoria Woodhull. He was the primary financier of the newspaper The Revolution, which was dedicated to women's rights, and published by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
As he aged Train became more eccentric. He stood for the position of Dictator of the United States, charged admission fees to his campaign rallies and drew record crowds. He became a vegetarian and adopted various fads in succession. Instead of shaking hands with other people, he shook hands with himself, the manner of greeting he had seen in China. He spent his final days on park benches in New York City's Central Park, handing out dimes and refusing to speak to anyone but children and animals. [1]
[edit] Works by Train
- An American Merchant in Europe, Asia, and Australia (1851)
- Young America Abroad (1857)
- Irish Independency (1865)
- Championship of Women (1868)
- My Life in Many States and in Foreign Lands (1902)
[edit] References
- ^ This article was adapted from Foster, A. (2002) Around the World with Citizen Train Merlin Publishing.
- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
