Henry E. Huntington

Henry Edwards Huntington (February 27, 1850 – May 23, 1927) was an American railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate interests. In addition to being a businessman and art collector, Huntington was a major booster for Los Angeles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many places in California are named after him. History in Southern California Born in 1850 in Oneonta, New York, to Solon Huntington (1812–1890) and his wife, Henry Saunders (1821–1906) grew up hearing about his uncle Collis P. Huntington. His uncle became one of The Big Four, instrumental in creating the Central Pacific Railroad (later part of the Southern Pacific), one of the two railroads that built the transcontinental railway in 1869. Henry Huntington later worked with his uncle, holding several executive positions under him with the Southern Pacific. After Collis Huntington's death in 1900, Henry Huntington assumed the senior Huntington's leadership role with Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Virginia. He later married his uncle's widow Arabella Huntington. In 1906, Huntington divorced his first wife Mary Alice Prentice Huntington (1852–1916). They had four children together: Howard Edward (1876–1922), Clara Leonora (1878–1965), Elizabeth Vincent (1880–1965), and Marian Prentice (1883–1973). His wife Mary died in 1916. She was the birth sister of Clara Elizabeth Prentice-Huntington, whom his Uncle Collis and his first wife Elizabeth had adopted.