George Francis Train

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George Francis Train

Born March 24, 1829(1829-03-24)
Boston, Massachusetts
Died January 5, 1904 (aged 74)

George Francis Train (March 24, 1829 – January 5, 1904) was a businessman, author, and an eccentric figure in American history.

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[edit] Biography

Train was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1829. At the age of four he 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 horse tramway companies in Birkenhead and London where he soon met opposition. Although his trams were popular with passengers, his designs had rails that stood proud of the road surface and obstructed other traffic. In 1861 Train was arrested and tried for "breaking and injuring" a London street.[1]

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 may have inspired Verne, which took place in 1870.) He was accompanied on the trip and many others by a long-suffering cousin and private secretary named George Pickering Bemis, who later became mayor of Omaha, Nebraska.

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 new tramways in Britain after some opposition, which was eventually overcome by offering to run the rails level with the street.[2]

On his return to the U.S., Train's popularity and reputation soared. He began promoting the great Union Pacific Railroad, despite the advice of short-sighted industrialists, such as Vanderbilt, who told him it would never work. Forming a finance company called Credit Foncier of America, Train made a fortune from real estate when the great railway running from coast to coast opened up huge swathes of western America, including large amounts of land in Omaha, Council Bluffs, Iowa and Columbus, Nebraska. He was responsible for building the Cozzens Hotel and founding Train Town in pioneer Omaha.

Along with Credit Foncier, Train's most infamous creation was Credit Mobilier, which he started specifically to fund the development of the Union Pacific Railroad as the First Transcontinental Railroad. That venture was torn asunder by scandals that rocked the nation.[3]

Train ran for President of the United States of America as an independent candidate in 1872. He 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 Madison Square Park, handing out dimes and refusing to speak to anyone but children and animals.[4]

He died in New York and was buried at a small private ceremony at Green-Wood Cemetery. On his death The Thirteen Club, of which he was a member, passed a resolution that he was one of the few sane men in "a mad, mad world."[5]

[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

  1. ^ Police News, The Times, 27 Mar 1861
  2. ^ Street Tramways, The Times, 26 May 1869
  3. ^ McCague, J. (1964) Moguls and Iron Men: The Story of the First Transcontinental Railroad. Harper and Row. p 135.
  4. ^ Foster, A. (2002) Around the World with Citizen Train. Merlin Publishing.
  5. ^ 'Citizen' Train buried, New York Times, January 22, 1904

[edit] External links

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