Collis Potter Huntington

Collis Potter Huntington was an American industrialist and railway magnate. He was one of the Big Four of western railroading who invested in Theodore Judah's idea to build the Central Pacific Railroad as part of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. Huntington helped lead and develop other major interstate lines, such as the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O), which he was recruited to help complete. The C&O, completed in 1873, fulfilled a long-held dream of Virginians of a rail link from the James River at Richmond to the Ohio River Valley. The new railroad facilities adjacent to the river there resulted in expansion of the former small town of Guyandotte, West Virginia into part of a new city which was named Huntington in his honor.

22 October 1821

Born on the same birth day (22 October): Alejandro Kuropatwa • Allan Hendrickse • Amanda Coetzer • Brian Boitano • Carmen Ejogo • David Savard • Edith Kawelohea McKinzie • Ernst Öpik • George Cohen • Helmut Lotti • Héctor Carrasco • Jeff McInnis • K. Indrapala

Born in the same month (October 1821): Alexander Gardner (photographer) • Alexander P. Stewart • Antonio Ciseri • George Williams (philanthropist) • Richard H. Anderson (general) • Rudolf Virchow • Sims Reeves