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COLLIS P. HUNTINGTON - Railroad Mogul & City Founder- 1821-1900
Collis P. Huntington never lived in West
Virginia, yet his name is emblazoned on the state’s landscape and history. As a
Connecticut youth of 14, he was apprenticed to a neighboring farmer and saved enough to
establish himself first as a peddler and later as the successful owner of a country store.
In 1848, gold was discovered in California and Collis eagerly joined the Gold Rush. But
instead of panning for gold, he made his first small fortune by selling picks, shovels,
and other supplies to the miners. At the age of 39, Huntington joined three other
businessmen in financing railroad construction and eventually became the only man ever
able to ride in his own railroad car on tracks he either owned or controlled, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. Near the C & O tracks in West Virginia, he purchased
a vast track of land and hired an engineer to lay out a new town - Huntington. The Characters
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