George Francis Train

George Francis Train
Born(1829-03-24)March 24, 1829
Boston
DiedJanuary 18, 1904(1904-01-18) (aged 74)
New York City
NationalityAmerican
OccupationBusinessman
Known forAround-the-world traveling; political activism
RelativesAdeline Train Whitney (cousin)

George Francis Train (March 24, 1829 – January 18, 1904)[1][2] was an American businessman who organized the clipper ship line that sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco; he also organized the Union Pacific Railroad and the Credit Mobilier in the United States in 1864 to construct the eastern portion of the Transcontinental Railroad, and a horse tramway company in England while there during the American Civil War.

In 1870 Train made the first of three widely publicized trips around the globe. He believed that a report of his first journey in a French periodical inspired Jules Verne's novel Around the World in Eighty Days; protagonist Phileas Fogg may have been modeled on him.[3][4]

In 1872, he ran for president of the United States as an independent candidate.[5] That year, he was jailed on obscenity charges while defending suffragist Victoria Woodhull against charges regarding an article her newspaper had published on an alleged adulterous affair. Despite business successes in early life, he was known as an increasingly eccentric figure in American and Australian history.

  1. ^ "Heart Disease Kills George Francis Train". San Francisco Call. January 19, 1904. Page 14, column 4. Retrieved December 21, 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference adb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Foster, Alan (2002). Around the World with Citizen Train – The Sensational Adventures of the Real Phileas Fogg. Merlin Publishing. pp. 14–16. ISBN 1-903582-11-3.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Echo was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Train, George Francis (1872). The People's Candidate For President, 1872, George Francis Train.