Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-09-03
Henri YHLHr1.


Mr.. Willard was born in Speyer, Ger
many, in 1885, the son of Bavarian
Judge, who. in his latter years sat upon
the supreme bench of that kingdom. He
received university education, and at the
age of eighteen came TO America to make
a career for himself, living TOR a short
time with relatives in Belleville, Ill. He
studied law, but soon turned to the more
congenial profession of journalism. At
first he wrote for German American papers
bat he found that they offered only linn
tied field, and he then set himself to work
30 master the English language. This
task, always difficult for foreigners, he
achieved so we'll that in 1858 he obtained
an engagement to report the Lincoln
Douglas political campaign for leading
eastern paper. His occupation was now
fixed in the line of his tastes, and for
nearly score Of years ne was an indus
trious and successful journalist. In 1863
he went to Colorado to write about the
new gold discoveries for the Cincinnati
Commercial In 1880 he did political cor
respondence for the New York Herald and
after the close of the campaign spent the
winter in Springfield as a correspondent
in confidential relations with Mr.. Lincoln.
During the rebellion he saw hard and haz-
ardous service in the field with both the
eastern and western armies as a repre-
sentative, at different times, of the New
York Tribune, New York Herald, Chicago
Tribune, Cincinnati Gazette, and other
papers, winning a reputation as one of
the most enterprIsing and reliable of the
war correspondents After the close of
the war he did newspaper work in this
country and in Europe. For two years,
from 1868 to 1870 he was secretary of the
American Social Science association.
While IN Germany in 1874 events oc-
Cured which brought him in connection
with railway affairs. The German bond
holders OF certain American railroad com
panies, which had defaulted on their inter
ests after the panic of 1878, sent him to
the United States as their representative
to report on the condition of the Kansas
Pacific and OREGON & California railroads.
He returned to Europe, was again sent to
America, and became president q the Or
egon & California railroad and the Oregon
Steamship company in 1875, and from 1876
to 1878 was receiver of the Kansas Pacific.
In 1879 Mr. Willard organized the Ore
gon Railway & Navigation company,
which obtained control of the steamship
and steamboat lines of Oregon and Wash
ington territory, and at once began the
construction of a system of railroads to
occupy the valley of the Columbia river
and the new wheat and pasture country
east of the Cascade mountains. The en-
terprise was eminently successful, and Mr..
Willard conceived the mastery plan of
joining the transportation lines thus estab-
lished to the transoontinental trunk road
of the Northern Pacific, under common
management, and making them its west
ern extensions and feeders. To carry out
this plan, he formed, in 1881, what was
known in Wall street as the "blind pool"
About ten millions of money were placed
in his hands by leading bankers and
other capitalists without his giving
them definite information as to the use he
meant to make OF it. He gave them, at
the time, only his personal receipt, without
security. With this money, and with his
own means, he quietly bought a controlling
interest in North Pacific stock. In the
fall of 1881 he was chosen president of the
company. He had previously organized
the Oregon & Transcontinental company,
to build branches for the North Pacific,
and to hold majority of the stock of
both that company and the Oregon Rail-
way & Navigation company. Mr.. Willard
has theoretically pushed forward to COM
pletion his entire system of roads, and will
have the satisfaction of driving the last
spike of the North Pacific on the western
slope of the Rocky mountains a week
from to day.
In person, Mr.. Willard is tall and robust,
with broad shoulders, high expansive
forehead, blue eyes and brown hair. His
manner is frank and cordial. He lives on
Madison avenue, New York, and has
country House at Dobbs Ferry, on the
Hudson. His wife is the daughter OF the
late William Lloyd Garrison, the devoted
champion of the anti-slavery movement
in the days before the war. His operations
in Wall street, while often bold and on
large scale, are usually confined to pro-
tecting the stocks and advancing the
interests of the companies over which he
Presides.
The VfilGrd Control.
IL