HARRIMAN, Edward Henry, financier and railroad director: b. Hempstead, L. I., 25 Feb. 1848; d. 9 Sept. 1909. He was the son of the Rev. Orlando Harriman, rector of Saint George's Episcopal Church, Hempstead, and was educated at Trinity School, New York City. He commenced commercial life at the age of 14 as a broker's clerk in New York, and at 22 became a member of the New York Stock Exchange. He founded the banking and brokerage firm of Harriman and Company in 1872 and prospered in speculation. Associated with Mr. Stuyvesant Fish he became inter ested in American railways and in 1883 be gan a succession of operations connected with the Illinois Central Railroad, the Union Paci fic, the Central and Southern Pacific railways and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Com pany which gave him control of the traffic from Chicago to the Pacific Coast He re ceived a severe check from James J. Hill in 1901 when he sought to gain control of the Northern Pacific, and also from Thomas F.
Ryan when he attempted to dominate the Equitable Life Assurance Society, of which he was a trustee; part of its funds had been used in the fight with James J. Hill and one of the most serious financial crises in the history of Wall Street ensued.
An investigation of the Harriman lines in 1906 by the Interstate Commerce Commission, however, revealed Harriman as the ruler of the American railroad world; this was accen tuated in 1907 when he forced his former as sociate, Stuyvesant Fish, out of the presiden tial chair of the Illinois Central. Keen and unscrupulous, his methods all bent on success were savagely criticized, but resulted in bet ter public railway service. A comparatively sudden failure in health led to his death. To his wife he bequeathed the whole of his enor mous fortune valued at from $200,000,000 to $600,000,000.