(born , Feb. 25, 1848, Hempstead, N.Y., U.S.—died Sept. 9, 1909, near Turner, N.Y.) U.S. financier and railroad magnate. After working as an office boy and then a stockbroker on Wall Street, he began his career in railroad management as an executive with the Illinois Central. In 1898 he organized a syndicate to acquire the bankrupt Union Pacific Railroad Co., which he soon brought into prosperity. Using unpopular business methods, he acquired several other lines, notably the Southern Pacific.
His abortive 1901 contest with James J. Hill for control of the Northern Pacific led to one of Wall Street's most serious financial crises. The railway trust Harriman formed with J.P. Morgan was dissolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1904. His son W. Averell Harriman joined the company in 1915 (chairman 1932–46) and was active in politics; he was elected governor of New York (1954–58) and served the U.S. government as a representative and diplomat in Europe, the Far East, and the Soviet Union.
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