David Halliday Moffat Jr. was born on Monday, July 22, 1839, in Washingtonville, New York. Moffat himself was a warm, larger-than-life character who was never too busy to listen and lend assistance whenever possible; a man like this becomes legendary and begets legends. Moffat’s leadership style was atypical of a company president—past or present. Railroad workers recalled that he would regularly chat with them in the crew compartment of the locomotive, as the train moved from town to town. When Moffat’s investors were riding in his private railroad car, Marcia, Moffat insisted that his workers ate before anyone else. Moffat’s first-class treatment of his mountain men guaranteed they gave him their very best as well. Moffat hired youth with youthful indiscretions. Dan Crane, a former Santa Fe Railway worker, came to Moffat with papers, “Discharged for insubordinating [sic] the road foreman of engines and drinking intoxicating liquors to excess. Services otherwise satisfactory.” Crane was hired and worked as an engineer and fireman on Rollins Pass.