Henry Meiggs
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Henry Meiggs (July 7, 1811 – September 30, 1877), was a promotor/entrepreneur and railroad builder born in Boston, Massachusetts


Business career


Lumber

Meiggs came to New York City in 1835 and began a lumber business that was ruined by the Panic of 1837. He restarted his business in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, but again met with failure. Finding success in sending lumber to the Pacific Coast, he relocated to San Francisco during the peak of the
California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...
on the cargo ship, ''Albany,'' laden with lumber, which he sold there for 20 times its cost. He established his first sawmill in
Mendocino County, California Mendocino County (; ''Mendocino'', Spanish language, Spanish for "of Antonio de Mendoza, Mendoza) is a County (United States), county located on the North Coast (California), North Coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United Sta ...
, which became the
Mendocino Lumber Company Mendocino Lumber Company operated a sawmill on Big River near the town of Mendocino, California. The sawmill began operation in 1853 as the Redwood Lumber Manufacturing Company, and changed ownership several times before cutting its final logs in ...
.


Real estate

When Meiggs arrived in San Francisco in 1849, he, like many others, got into real estate speculation. In Meiggs' case, he promoted the possibility of piers along the north shore area, on the grounds that it was closer to the
Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by t ...
than the usual harbor, located just south of Broadway Street on the shore of what is today downtown San Francisco. Today, the site of Meiggs' Wharf, in its day a marvel extending two thousand feet into the Bay, is occupied by part of Fisherman's Wharf,
Pier 39 Pier 39 is a shopping center and popular tourist attraction built on a pier in San Francisco, California. At Pier 39, there are shops, restaurants, a video arcade, street performances, the Aquarium of the Bay, virtual 3D rides, and views of Cali ...
, and Pier 45. To that end, he built warehouses, streets and piers in the area, and constructed sawmills and
schooners A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
. Meiggs became extended financially in trying to do this. In order to make ends meet, he illicitly obtained a book full of warrants on the Street Fund (which had little money in it), which the city's controller and mayor had fallen into the habit of signing by the book in advance. Meiggs forged the remaining information and raised money.


Railroads

Before his fraud was discovered, Meiggs left San Francisco on October 6, 1854, in the
brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...
''American,'' heading for South America. According to him, he landed with only $8,000 (his fraud raised, by some accounts, half a million), lost it immediately, and had to pawn his watch. Meiggs became a successful railroad builder, building the second railroad in
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, between
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
and
Valparaíso Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...
. After building himself a mansion in Chile with his immense fortunes, he moved his career on to Peru in the mid-1860s. He built a railroad from Lima – the capital city – to the
Altiplano The Altiplano (Spanish for "high plain"), Collao (Quechua and Aymara: Qullaw, meaning "place of the Qulla") or Andean Plateau, in west-central South America, is the most extensive high plateau on Earth outside Tibet. The plateau is located at the ...
, which has an altitude of 14,000 feet. He built many railroads in
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...
, and died in 1877 in
Lima, Peru Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of t ...
while constructing a railroad in
Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
which was completed by his nephew,
Minor C. Keith Minor Cooper Keith (19 January 1848 – 14 June 1929) was an American businessman whose railroad, commercial agriculture, and cargo liner enterprises had a major impact on the national economies of the Central American countries, as well as on th ...
. He is said to have been the virtual
dictator A dictator is a political leader who possesses absolute power. A dictatorship is a state ruled by one dictator or by a small clique. The word originated as the title of a Roman dictator elected by the Roman Senate to rule the republic in tim ...
of Peru by that time, known as "Don Enrique,” with interests ranging from silver mines to cleaning up the city of Lima by building a seven-mile-long park. In 1876–1877, he financed French adventurer
Théodore Ber Théodore Ber (7 March 1820 – 21 November 1900), was a French archaeologist and anthropologist who spent most of his adult life in Peru. Although an amateur, his work was appreciated by some scholars and officially recognized by the French gove ...
for an archaeological expedition to
Tiwanaku Tiwanaku ( es, Tiahuanaco or ) is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in western Bolivia near Lake Titicaca, about 70 kilometers from La Paz, and it is one of the largest sites in South America. Surface remains currently cover around 4 square kilo ...
, Bolivia, against the promise that Ber would donate the artifacts he found, on behalf of Meiggs, to Washington's
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
and the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
in New York. While his Peruvian contracts were wildly profitable, by 1876, his financial situation had begun to disintegrate. He found it more difficult to obtain credit. His 1877 death only worsened the economic chaos in Peru. He was buried at
Cementerio Presbítero Matías Maestro The Cementerio Presbítero Matías Maestro is a cemetery in Lima, the capital city of Peru. It is also a museum, though attempts to make it a museum exclusively have failed. The architectural styles of the mausoleums found within are broad rangi ...
in downtown Lima.


Legacy

Meiggs is said to have paid back every cent he obtained by the warrant fraud, and his other debts, amounting to as much as a million dollars, refusing only to pay back speculators who obtained the warrants at deep discounts. In preparation for his never-to-occur return to San Francisco, he got the State Legislature to pass a bill making it illegal to try him for offenses occurring before 1855. The bill was
veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...
ed by the governor. As a result of Meiggs' adventures and escapades in Latin America, he left the economies of many countries in desperate conditions. Meiggs allowed for the economic systems of Chile and Peru to be ruled by exports to European nations, which weakened their abilities to develop their domestic trade systems. However, his endeavors to make money for himself proved futile, for the majority of his money was sent out of the country. In 1977, one hundred years after Meiggs' death, Judge Harry W. Low of the California Superior Court, in San Francisco, granted a motion to quash the indictment against Meiggs stemming from the fraud, on the grounds that Meiggs had rehabilitated himself, and had gone to a Higher Court. This marked the conclusion of a lengthy campaign by Meiggs' supporters to clear him. An EC2 type Liberty Ship would also carry his name. The USS ''Henry Meiggs'', hull 2788 was launched on April 17, 1944. She was scrapped in 1971. Meiggs is credited with founding the town of Meiggsville, later renamed Mendocino.


Bibliography

* Elisabeth P Myers, ''South America's Yankee Genius, Henry Meiggs''. New York, Messner, 1969. * Watt Stewart, ''Henry Meiggs, Yankee Pizarro'', Durham, N.C., Duke University Press, 1946.


Television

* 2013 ''
Monumental Mysteries ''Mysteries at the Monument'' (formerly ''Monumental Mysteries'') is an American reality television series currently airing on the Travel Channel and is hosted by Don Wildman. The show uncovers stories of history and unsolved mysteries behind Ame ...
'', a Travel Channel program, featured a segment on Meiggs centering on the financing of the construction of Fisherman's Wharf. He was portrayed by American actor Paul Meltzer.


Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meiggs, Henry 1811 births 1877 deaths American fraudsters People from San Francisco People of the California Gold Rush American expatriates in Peru People from Mendocino, California American expatriates in Chile