Asa Whitney

Asa Whitney (1797-1874) was a highly successful dry-goods merchant and transcontinental railroad promoter.

He was one of the first backers of an American transcontinental railway. A trip to China in 1842-44 impressed upon Whitney the need for a transcontinental railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

When Whitney returned to the United States in 1844, he realized the benefits from such an undertaking, and spent a great deal of money trying to get the Congress to take up the project. In 1849, he published A Project for a Railroad to the Pacific. For years he continued to write revised memorials and take expeditions through what was then known as Indian Territory to support his cause.

Later Whitney's dream was realized through the efforts of Theodore Judah. In the end, Whitney lived to see his dream realized in 1869 with the opening of the Union Pacific.

Asa Whitney was born on March 14, 1797. His parents were Sarah Mitchell and Shubael Whitney, and he was born in North Groton, Connecticut. He is distantly related to Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin. They are fifth cousins. For five generations, the Whitney family had been farmers. However, from a young age, Asa Whitney showed no interest in agriculture and wanted to be a merchant.

He went to New York in his late teens to chase his dream of being a merchant. He began as a clerk, working for a huge importer of French goods. He was promoted, and, by 1832, he was a successful dry-goods merchant.

While he was abroad in France in 1832, he got married to a French girl named Herminie Antoinette Pillet. However, after just a mere year after they met, she died on March 31, 1833. She was buried in New Rochelle, very close to where Asa had planned to start a family with her. He mourned for a short time, and even kept a lock of her hair after she had died. However, he did not mourn for long. He married again to Sarah Jay Munro. She died on November 12, 1840. This may have been a miscarriage or an unsuccessful childbirth. She was buried next to Asa’s first wife.

After his wife died, his property in New York faced foreclosure and was put up for auction. Whitney was only given $10,000 for his property. He sold the rest of his land and drew his interests toward China. On June 18, 1842, he set sail to China on his ship, the Oscar. The Oscar was loaded down with a lot of goods which resulted in the ship moving very slowly. The voyage to China usually took around 100 days, and newer ships could make the trip in as short as 79 days. However, Whitney’s trip took 153 days, a record slowness for the year. Whitney became very angry during this trip and he was apt to having rages and temper tantrums. He arrived in China during the Opium Wars, which was a dispute between the British and the Chinese. After the dispute died down, many other nations began to trade with China, and Whitney became one of a few Americans who helped with the exportation of teas, spices, and other goods. His profits began piling up. By the time he left China, he had enough money to retire. His time in China lasted a year and four months, and he headed back home on April 2, 1844. His trip back was also very long and tedious.

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