HARRIMAN, EDWARD HENRY Ameri can financier and railroad magnate, son of the Rev. Orlando Harriman, rector of St. George's Episcopal church, Hempstead (L.I. ), was born at Hempstead, on Feb. 25, 1848. He became a broker's clerk in New York at an early age, and in 1870 was able to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange on his own ac count. He carefully mastered the situation affecting American railways. In this respect he was assisted by his friendship with Stuyvesant Fish, who, on becoming vice-president of the Illinois Central in 1883, brought Harriman upon the directorate, and in 1887, being then president, made Harriman vice-president; 20 years later it was Harriman who dominated the finance of the Illinois Central, and Fish, having become his opponent, was dropped from the board.
It was not till 1898, however, that his career as a great railway organizer began with his formation, by the aid of the bankers, Kuhn, Loeb & Co., of a syndicate to acquire the Union Pacific line, which was then in the hands of a receiver and was generally regarded as a hopeless failure.
Having brought the Union Pacific out of bankruptcy into pros perity, he utilized his position to draw other lines within his con trol, notably the Southern Pacific in 1901. His abortive contest in I 90I with James J. Hill for the control of the Northern Pa cific led to one of the most serious financial crises ever known on Wall Street. At his death, on Sept. 9, 2909, his influence was estimated to extend over 6o,000m. of track. Harriman's methods excited the bitterest criticism, culminating in a stern denuncia tion from President Roosevelt himself in 1907.