Collis P. Huntington

Like his future partner, Mark Hopkins, Huntington moved his mercantile business west to capitalize on the needs of miners hoping to strike it rich in the California Gold Rush. They formed Huntington & Hopkins in 1854, then became founding members with Leland Stanford and Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific Railroad. Huntington worked tirelessly on the east coast to line up financing and lobby Congress to give the CP Railroad whatever it needed to succeed. In 1884, the so-called “Huntington's group” formed the Southern Pacific Railway with Stanford as president (Huntington succeeded him in 1890). Huntington was also active in east-coast transportation enterprises, including the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and a steamship business.