“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” - Benjamin Franklin

A folder entitled, “Financials, Estate of Gladys Huntington,” was recently opened within the collection of papers of Constant and Gladys Huntington, donated to the museum in 2020. The folder is full of correspondence regarding tax bills and other mundane aspects of life, but often these informational documents provide fascinating insight into the personal lives of people no longer with us.

For two and a half years following the suicide of his wife Gladys on May 31, 1959, Constant Huntington corresponded with his legal representation, Dickerman Hollister of the firm Choate, Reynolds, Huntington & Hollister in New York from the Huntington’s residence in London. The purpose of this repetitive correspondence was to settle the Internal Revenue Service tax bills accruing on Constant’s personal income and Gladys’ estate from the previous three years. The continued revenue from Gladys’ book Madame Solario resulted in an increasingly expensive and time-consuming feat for the eighty-four year old widower who had successfully minimized his annual tax bills up until the time of her passing.

Gladys’ book Madame Solario made $3,361.66 in 1957, the year after its initial publication in August of 1956. Adjusted for inflation, that amounts to $32,204.34 - an impressive income for just a year of sales of an anonymously-written novel. While the revenue streamed in, Gladys’ name wasn’t attributed to the authorship of the book until 1986, thirty years after the book’s publication.

Madame Solario, First Edition. 1956.

Seven months prior to Gladys’ death, a sizable amount of money, $53,422.12, was withdrawn when Gladys’ trust at Girard Trust Corn Exchange Bank in Philadelphia was closed. This concerned Constant’s lawyer Mr. Hollister, for fear that taxes plus interest would be accruing on that amount if it had been spent. “This money was paid out in October and November 1958 and it is imperative that we have a fairly detailed accounting of what happened to that money between those dates and Mrs. Huntington’s death. The Girard Trust seems to think it was all given to you. You tell me that that was not so; that some of it was spent, some given to other people and some invested. Please give me the particulars.” Adjusted for inflation, the amount today would be $511,778.21… a sizable amount to be missing.

Constant’s reply to Mr. Hollister’s concern regarding the missing sum was sent on March 14, 1960, in which he details their financial holdings and habits. After explaining that Gladys’ wealth originated from her trust at Girard and the sales / royalties of her book, Constant says that he oversaw her accounts personally. Constant closes his reply by stating that after he has enjoyed such financial comforts because of Gladys’ trust, he “should like to do the same for my grandchildren, and perhaps you can tell me how.” 

Throughout the correspondence between the two men, direct answers are rarely given to Mr. Hollister’s questions asked of transactions, account closings, and previous tax bills. Constant’s advanced age, multinational financial entanglements and declining mental faculties are made evident throughout the correspondence between he and Mr. Dickerman Hollister: the check which Constant forgot to attach to his letter, or the incorrect amount listed once the check was sent. (Instead of $309.09, Constant accidentally sent one for $309.90, which further delayed the settlement of his expanding tax bill.)

Constant’s letter apologizing to Mr. Hollister for his “further manifestation of old age… the worst of it is that this sort of thing happens all the time!” April 26, 1961.

The last correspondence between the two men is dated June 12, 1961 - a year and a half before Constant’s death at his home in London on December 4, 1962, at the age of eighty-six. In his last letter to Constant, Mr. Hollister thanks him for his most recent payment of $121.95 to the IRS, and tells him, “I am glad to note that for 1961 and the future your American tax problems will be taken care of by your English accountants.”

Constant and Gladys’ headstone, St. Michael’s Churchyard, Amberley, Sussex, United Kingdom.

References:

“Gladys Huntington, Madame Solario.” https://persephonebooks.co.uk/products/madame-solario

Constant Huntington papers referenced:

June 11, 1959; December 4, 1959; February 24, 1960; March 14, 1960; April 17, 1961; April 26, 1961; June 12, 1961.

Collis, The Huntington Family Railroad Tycoon

Portrait of Collis Potter Huntington

27” by 35”, on the left wall when going up the main stairs.

Photograph of Collis P. Huntington

The painter of the portrait, currently unknown, most likely used the photograph as a direct reference. It is possible that Collis’ sister, Ellen, had provided the painter the photograph while she was in Paris.

Detail / Closeup of Portrait

When walking up the central stairwary of the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, it’s impossible to miss the prodigious oil portrait on the left wall. With a width of twenty-seven inches and a height of thirty-five inches, the painting depicts a man with white hair, beard, and mustache. His light features are a stark contrast against the dark black suit jacket and hat which blend into the dark background. At a glance, there is no doubt that the painting is of someone significant.   

The man in the painting is Collis Potter Huntington, also known as one of the Railroad Tycoons. Collis is the second cousin once-removed of Dan Huntington. Both are direct relatives of Samuel Huntington, a signer of the Declaration of Independence as governor of Connecticut and the previous President of the Continental Congress. According to the museum’s inventory card, the painting was commissioned by Collis’ sister, Ellen Huntington Gates (a hymnist and poet), while she was in Paris. It is unclear who the artist was, however, there is a photograph in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution that was most likely used by the artist to copy and create the painting.

Collis was an entrepreneur that was partially responsible for the success of the Central Pacific Railroad. Huntington worked alongside his fellow magnates Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins Jr., and Charles Crocker. Together, they were popularly known as the “Big Four” or “The Associates”. The four collectively invested in Theodore Judah’s engineering design, the Central Pacific Railroad (1861), which then became the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act, allowing for the Central Pacific to move east from California. The tracks were created at a very rapid rate and at a very low pay wage towards the thousands of Chinese laborers in order to rival the Union Pacific Railroad’s thousands of Irish laborers. (Learn more about the Chinese and Irish laborers’ history here: http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/railroads.html )

View fullsize

( Click to view full screen) Map of the central portion of the United States showing the lines of the proposed Pacific railroads, via the Library of Congress.

The railroad, initially, started from both sides of the country. The Union Pacific Railroad started in Omaha, Nebraska in 1865 and headed westward. The Central Pacific Railroad began laying down track in Sacramento, California in 1863 heading east. Their trek was incredibly foreboding because they had to go through the Sierra Nevada mountains, which included using a great number of explosives. The Union Pacific was mostly composed of Irish laborers and Civil War veterans, and they were often battling Native American tribes throughout the Rocky Mountains. Both tracks met in Promontory, Utah in May of 1869 and added up to be nearly 1,800 miles long. From there, the railroad had expanded, and the Southern Pacific Company acted as a holding company, before merging with the Central Pacific in 1959.

In addition to the railroad business, Collis helped to develop the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, as well as forming Newport News into an independent city. The famed Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California was created in his honor by his nephew, Henry E. Huntington. His step-son, Archer M. Huntington, created the Hispanic Society of America in Manhattan, New York.

If you are interested in reading more about this story, as there is so much more to tell, please check out the sources below.

SOURCES:

- The Huntington Family in America: Third Supplement to the Genealogical Memoir of 1915. Huntington Family Association, 1971.

- “Collection Inventory.” Collis Potter Huntington Papers, Syracuse University Libraries Special Collections Research Center, library.syr.edu/digital/guides/h/huntington_cp.htm.

- Union Pacific Railroad at Council Bluffs, Iowa, dated March 7, 1864 (38th Congress, 1st Session SENATE Ex. Doc. No. 27).

- Howard, Robert The Great Iron Trail. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1962. pg. 222

- “Immigration, Railroads, and the West.” Open Collections Program: Contagion, The Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philadelphia, 1793, ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/railroads.html.

- “Map of the Central Portion of the United States Showing the Lines of the Proposed Pacific Railroads.” Apple Computers: This Month in Business History (Business Reference Services, Library of Congress), Victor, www.loc.gov/resource/g3701p.rr000150/?r=0.131,0.002,0.643,0.309,0.