EDWARD

See also:

• HENRY
• HENRY (1129-1195)
• HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G. heim, the Eng. home, and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
• HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
• HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
• HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
• HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
• HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
• HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
• HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
• HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
• HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
• HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
• HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)

HENRY

See also:

• HARRIMAN
• EDWARD HENRY HARRIMAN (1848—1909)

HARRIMAN (1848—1909)  , American financier and railroad magnate, son of the Rev . Orlando Harriman, rector of St George's Episcopal church, Hempstead, L.I., was born at Hempstead on the 25th of February '848 . He became a broker's clerk in New York at an early age, and in 1870 was able to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange on his own account . For a good many years there was nothing sensational in his success, but he built up a considerable business connexion and prospered in his financial operations . Meanwhile he carefully mastered the situation affecting American railways . In this respect he was assisted by his friendship with Mr Stuyvesant Fish, who, on becoming vice-president of the Illinois Central in 1883, brought Harriman upon the directorate, and in 1887, being then president, made Harriman vice-president; twenty years later it was Harriman who dominated the finance of the Illinois Central, and Fish, having become his opponent, was dropped from the board . It was not till '898, however, that his career as a great railway organizer began with his formation, by the aid of the bankers, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., of a syndicate to acquire the Union Pacific line, which was then in the hands of a receiver and was generally regarded as a hopeless failure . It was soon found that a new power had arisen in the railway world . Having brought the Union Pacific out of bankruptcy into prosperity, and made it an efficient instead of a decaying line, he utilized his position to draw other lines within his contrcl, notably the Southern Pacific in 1901 . These extensions of his power were not made without friction, and his abortive contest in 1901 with James J . Hill for the control of the Northern Pacific led to one of the most serious financial crises ever known on Wall Street . But in the result he became the dominant factor in American railway matters .

At his

death, on the 9th of September 1909, his influence was estimated to extend over 6o,000 m. of track, with an annual earning power of $700,000,000 or over . Astute and unscrupulous manipulation of the stock markets, and a capacity for the hardest of bargaining and the most determined warfare against his rivals, had their place in this success, and Harriman's methods excited the bitterest criticism, culminating in a stern denunciation from President Roosevelt himself in 1907 . Nevertheless, besides acquiring colossal wealth for himself, he helped to create for the American public a vastly improved railway service, the benefit of which survived all controversy as to the means by which he triumphed over the obstacles in his way .