E. H. Harriman | |
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| Born | Edward Henry Harriman February 20, 1848 Hempstead, New York, U.S. |
| Died | September 9, 1909 (aged 61) Orange County, New York, U.S. |
| Resting place | St. John's Church Cemetery, Arden, New York |
| Occupations |
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| Known for | Harriman Alaska expedition |
| Spouse | Mary Williamson Averell (m. 1879) |
| Children | Mary Harriman Rumsey Henry Neilson Harriman Cornelia Harriman Gerry[1] Carol A. Harriman William Averell Harriman Edward Roland Noel Harriman |
| Relatives | Anne Harriman Vanderbilt (cousin) Oliver Harriman Jr. (cousin) J. Borden Harriman (cousin) Herbert M. Harriman (cousin) |
Edward Henry Harriman (February 20, 1848 – September 9, 1909) was an American financier and railroad executive.[2][3][4]
Harriman was born on February 20, 1848, in Hempstead, New York, the son of Orlando Harriman Sr., an Episcopal clergyman, and Cornelia Neilson.[3] He had a brother, Orlando Harriman Jr.[5] His great-grandfather, William Harriman, had emigrated from England in 1795 and became a successful businessman and trader.
As a young boy, Harriman spent a summer working at the Greenwood Iron Furnace in the area owned by the Robert Parker Parrott family that would become Harriman State Park. He quit school at age 14 to take a job as an errand boy on Wall Street in New York City. His uncle Oliver Harriman had earlier established a career there. By age 22, he was a member of the New York Stock Exchange.
Harriman's father-in-law was president of the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad Company, which aroused Harriman's interest in upstate New York transportation. In 1881, at age 33, Harriman acquired the small, broken-down Lake Ontario Southern Railroad. He renamed it the Sodus Bay & Southern, reorganized it, and sold it to the Pennsylvania Railroad at a considerable profit. This was the start of his career as a rebuilder of bankrupt railroads.
Harriman was nearly 50 years old when in 1897 he became a director of the Union Pacific Railroad. By May 1898, he was chairman of the executive committee, and from that time until his death, his word was the law on the Union Pacific system.[citation needed] In 1903, he assumed the office of president of the company. [citation needed] From 1901 to 1909, Harriman was also the president of the Southern Pacific Railroad.[citation needed] The vision of a unified UP/SP railroad was planted with Harriman. (The UP and SP were reunited on September 11, 1996, a month after the Surface Transportation Board approved their merger.)[citation needed]
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At the time of his death Harriman controlled the Union Pacific, the Southern Pacific, the Saint Joseph and Grand Island, the Illinois Central, the Central of Georgia, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and the Wells Fargo Express Company. [citation needed] Estimates of his estate ranged from $150 million to $200 million. That fortune was left entirely to his wife.[citation needed]
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Main article: Harriman Alaska expedition |
In 1899, Harriman sponsored and accompanied a scientific expedition to catalog the flora and fauna of the Alaska coastline. Many prominent scientists and naturalists went on the expedition, aboard the luxuriously refitted 250-foot (76 m) steamer SS George W. Elder.[6][7]
Harriman became interested in ju-jitsu after his two-month visit to Japan in 1905.[8] When he returned to America, he brought with him a troupe of six Japanese ju-jitsu wrestlers, including the prominent judokas Tsunejiro Tomita and Mitsuyo Maeda.[9] Among many performances, the troupe gave an exhibition that drew some 600 spectators in the Columbia University gymnasium on February 7, 1905.[10]
In 1879, Harriman married Mary Williamson Averell, daughter of William J. Averell, a banker in Ogdensburg, New York.[11] Together they had six children:
Harriman died on September 9, 1909, at his home, Arden, at 1:30 p.m. at age 61.[2][3] Naturalist John Muir, who had joined him on the 1899 Alaska expedition, wrote in his eulogy of Harriman, "In almost every way, he was a man to admire."
In 1885, Harriman acquired "Arden", the 7,863-acre (31.82 km2) Parrott family estate in the Ramapo Highlands near Tuxedo, New York, for $52,500. The property had been a source of iron ore for the Parrott Brothers Iron Works. Over the next several years he purchased almost 40 nearby parcels of land, adding 20,000 acres (81 km2), and connected all of them with 40 miles (64 km) of bridle paths. His 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) residence, Arden House, was completed just seven months before he died.
In the early 1900s, his sons W. Averell Harriman and E. Roland Harriman hired landscape architect Arthur P. Kroll to landscape many acres. In 1910, his widow donated 10,000 acres (40 km2) to the state of New York for Harriman State Park. The estate was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
