The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-19

birthplace, and it was to Waltham,
be taken under the care of his uncle,
Enoch Train. The exact date of his
birth was March "a, 1929. In N1assa-
chusetts he was given a common school
education and there he worked success
slvely on the farm. as a grocer's clerk
and shipping clerk until he was 20, when
he was taken into a shipping partner
ship. When p he was placed in charge
of a branch establishment of his uncle's
shipping establishment in Liverpool.
He was married in the following year
to Wilhelmina Wilkinson, of Louisville.
Kentucky.
In 1853 the young shipper started out
on his own account and founded the
| firm of Train & Co. at Melbourne, Aus
tralia. He had already been the person
to start the first sailing vessels around
the horn to California in the gold seek
ers' rush. of 1S49. Coming back to Bos-
ton in 1858 Train promoted the Atlantic
& Great Western railroad, 400 miles in
length. and interested himself in the
establishment of street railways in
London, but without success. In the
years following soon afterward he met
| with some result in his promotion of
! street railway traffic in Europe but
that was never a fruitful branch of his
4 enterprising career. From 1854 until
| 1869 he was closely identified with the
establishment of the Union Pacific rail-
road and built Train Villa at Newport
in 1868.
Trains interests were unbounded by
/ geographical or political Limitation. In
| his promotion of the street railway in
England he Travelled widely and lee
/ tured frequently. In 1870 he turned
his attention to the political disturb
ances in France and organized the
! French communal. In 1872 he cam
paigned independently for the presi-
dency of the United States. and in the
same year submitted himself to an ex-
n f,nfO to-
| unpleasant inveS tigation into a scandal
in which he was alleged to have been
| concerned.
And yet in the biographical diction-
| aries where the seeker for information
| turns for facts about him George
Francis Train is setsdown as an author.
And it is probably an author that
his name will be longest remembered.
| In his frequent travels, including three
circumnavigation of the globe, he saw
many things. From his observations
he wrote: IAN American Merchant in
Europe. Asia and Australia" Young
| America Abroad 1857; Young Amer
lea in Wall Street." 1858; Spread
Eagleism.' 1858; Downfall of Eng
land 1862; Irish Independence 1865;
Championship of Women 1867; my
Life i'll Many States and in Foreign
Lands" 1902; young America on
Slavery" 1860: Observations on Street
Railways" George Francis Train, I'm
ionist, on Thomas Colley Grattan, Sc
cessionist,' 1861; Union Speeches De
livered in England During the Ameri-
can War; 1852.
Mr.. Train lectured in Topeka about
20 years ago.
Following is the sketch which appear
ed in Trains autobiography which was
published last year in book form:
Shipping clerk, IS; manager, 10;
partner in Train & Co, 20, with an in
come of $4,000.
Established firm George Francis
Train & Co, Melbourne, Australia
1858; agent White Star line, income
$50, 900. Started forty clippers to Cali
fornia in 1S49. Built railroad connect
ing Erie with Ohio and Mississippi.
: pioneered the first street railway ir
Europe, America, Australia and Eng
land. Built first Pacific railway, 1862
1859 through Credit Mobilier. Owned
5000 lots in Omaha, worth $3,0000 900
Been III fifteen jails without a crime
Mr.. Trains parents, with severa
, brothers and sisters, died at New Or
leans from yellow fever and his child
hood home was on his grandmother
0 farm in Massachusetts, Not long aftei
: entering the Boston shipping housi
J founded by his cousin he went abroad
+ and from that time on he wandered al
e over the globe.
> In 1873 he bgan career as lecture
and agitator, and held public debate
with some of the ablest orators in tn
country A few years ago. he made
vi trip around the world in sixty-six days
/, saying safterward that his psychic fore
s enabled him to overcome all obstacles.
It When Mills hotel No l was opene
5, several years ago, Mr.. Train went ther
n headquarters. One of the features of HI
n eVentful life was his admiration fc
) children, and for years familiar spec
tacle in Madison Square was Citizen