The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-11-13
Railroad Man and Financier
Succumbs to ApOplexy.
CHANGED HIS NAME
NORTHERN PACIFIC PRESIDENT
HAD A ROMANTIC CAREER.

New York, Nov 12--Henry Willard,
the financier. died early this morning
at his summer home, Thornwood park,
near Dobbs' Ferry. The cause of death
was apoplexy. from which he had been
a sufferer for several weeks. a week
ago he contracted a severe sold which
FASTENED the end. Mr.. Willard had been
unconscious nearly all the time since
last Tuesday. When death came there
were gathered around the bed Mr. VII
lard's wife, who was a daughter of
William L. Garrison; his sons, Oswald
G., Harold G., with his wife; Mrs. Will
liam L. Garrison, of Boston, his sister
in-law, and Mr.. Wizards only daugh-
ter, Mrs James w. Bell of Dresden,
Germany. In addition to the family
Mr.. Willard leaves a sister, Mrs Emma
Won Xylander, wife of General Robert
Won Xylander of the Bavarian army.
Mr.. Willard had resided in DObbs' Fer
~ during the summer months for the
past eighteen years.
The interment viii be Wednesday in
the family plot in Sleepy Hollow ceme-
terry, where repOSe the remains of his
youngest son, Hilgard, who died when
3 years old, and who drove the golden
spike completing the Northern Pacific
railroad, of which his father was presi-
dent.
Changes His Name.
Henry Willard was born Heinrich
Hilgard, in SpeyeT, Rheinish Bavaria,
on April IL. 1885. His great uncle Theo-
dOre Gather of Julius Hilgard, who be-
came superintendent of the United
States coast survey, led a migration
of the family connection to Belleville,
Ills, in 1885 His father Gustav, was in
the judicial service of the BaVarian
government and ended judge of the
superior court at Munich.
Young Hilgard was educated at
schools in Zweibrucken, PhaIsibOurg
and Speyer, but in October, 1858, broke
off his university studies and set out
for the United States, intending to join
the colony of his relatives at Belleville.
His fathers opposition to this step,
made him borrow the surname of
French schOOlmate at PhalSfbOurg, and
he became Henry Willard.
Arriving at BelleViIle, he became
newspaper reporter and continued in
the profession until 1868. During these
years he served as a legislative CORES
pendent in Indiana and Illinois; a pO-
litical reporter, reporting the Lincoln
Douglas debates, the Chicago cOnVen-
ton which nominated Lincoln, the Lin
coin campaign and later as a war cor
respondent and European correspond
ent. The papers he served in this pc
the New York Herald, the Chicago TTi-
bune, and the New York Tribune, and
part of the time he was a t the head Of
news bureaus at Washington. Early in
1881, Mr. Willard acquired the New
York Evening Post and the Nation.
In January, 1866 in Boston he mar
Tied Fannie, the only daughter of Will
liam Lloyd Garrison. In 1858 he was
chosen secretary OF the newly founded
American Social Science association
having its headquarters in that city.
and did not finally relinQUish the post
until 1871.
Begins Railroad Career.
It was in the latter year that, while
on visit to Europe, Mr.. Willard be-
gan his railroad career. He formed a,
connection with Frankfort and Berlin
bankers. and in 1873 returned to the
United States, buying for the German
bOndhOlders the property of the Oregon
& California Railroad company and the
Oregon Steamship company, being
made president in 1873. He acted as
one of the receivers Of the Kansas Pa
cific Railroad company and later
bought up the bonds Of the road. He
became interested in the Oregon Steam
Navigation company and the Oregon
! Railway & Navigation company, of
which he became president, and then
formed the Oregon & TranscOntinental
/ with which he merged the two other
/ companies to a sO-calIed blind pool
with the Northern Pacific, being cho-
sen president of the latter company.
A few years later the companies in
which he was interested became 50 in
VOlved that there was a collapse in
which Mr.. Willard suffered heavily. Re
turning TO Germany he formed new
financial relations which enabled him to
repair his fortune and. coming back
to this country, he started once more
as a capitalist. In 1880 he purchased
: from Thomas A. Edison his electrical
manufacturing interests and with the
Edison Lamp company of Newark n.
J., and the Edison works at Science
tady, n. Y, as a basis, organized the
( Edison General Electric company of
( which he became president serving in
that capacity for about two years. In
! October. 1889, he became chairman of
/ the Northern Pacific board of directors
! but the panic of 1898 again occasioned
I the loss of most of his fortune and led
/ TO his withdrawal from railroad man.
agement.