Collis Potter Huntington
( 1921 -- 1900

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Collis Potter Huntington (1821-1900) lived in Huntington, but without him the
city would't exist. Born in Connecticut, he left school at age 14 and became a Yankee peddler.
When gold was discovered in California in 1848, Huntington went west and became a rich man
 by selling supplies to the miners. He and his partners built the Central Pacific,  the western
 half of the long dreamed of trancontinental railroad. It was successfully  linked with  the
 rival Union Pacific by the driving of a golden spike at Promontory, Utah, on May 10,
1869.  The same year, Huntington purchased the Chesapeake & Ohio railway
and set about extending its tracks across southern West Virginia  to the
Ohio River. There, in 1871, on the site of a large  cornfield
overlooking the river, he established the city
that bears his name.

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