University of Wyoming
Thomas C. Durant was a prominent figure in the history of the Transcontinental Railroad. In 1851, he forged a partnership with Henry Farnam to build the Michigan Southern Railroad and, later, both the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad and the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad. During the planning period for the Transcontinental Railroad, Durant claimed to have convinced President Lincoln of the idea to begin the railroad in Omaha, Nebraska. By 1863, the partners had secured a little over two million in capital, and General John A. Dix was elected President of Union Pacific with Durant serving as Vice President. This position made him general manager of the project as well. Following a tumultuous period surrounding Durant’s leadership of the project wherein his firing was hotly debated and once attempted, Durant and President Leland Stanford of Central Pacific met in Promontory Point, Utah to drive the last spike in May 1869. Durant was soon dropped from his leadership role thereafter. He spent the rest of his life developing the timber and iron resources in and transportation around the Adirondacks.
Collection contains letters and copies of correspondence, 5 mid-nineteenth century textbooks, a leather file, clippings and railroad tickets, 2 bank deposit books, a name stamp, an Indenture record, receipts and statements, an excursion ticket, dissolution papers, photostatic pictures and photographs, a mortgage, a Union Pacific Railroad pass, a crayon portrait of Durant and a sketch, and a book on the Durant family genealogy.
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Item Description, Box Number, Folder Number, Collection Name, Collection Number, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.
This material was received from Mrs. Bromley Seeley and Alexander G. Rose between October 1958 and September 1969.
There are no known other archival collections created by Thomas C. Durant at the date of processing.
The American Heritage Center is in the process of converting its older container lists to a more accessible format. This link is to an older version of a container list for 3 boxes.