Erastus Corning: Merchant and Financier, 1794-1872

by IreneD.Neu (Contributor)

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $49.65

  Founder and first president of the New York Central Railroad, Erastus Corning rose from humble origins-he begin his working life at the age of thirteen as a clerk in a Troy, New York, hardware store-to become one of the wealthiest men of his time. In this skillfully written biography, Irene D. Neu traces Corning's the arc of his life and career as a merchant, manufacturer, railroad promoter, land speculator, financier, and politician-telling, at the same time, the story of American business in the mid-nineteenth century. Neu relates the significant events in Corning's life and addresses in considerable detail his many-faceted enterprises, including the circumstances of his loss of the New York Central to Cornelius Vanderbilt.