Frederick Billings

the long version

The nineteenth century was the golden age of enterprise in the United States. A small group of rich and powerful men changed the way we do business, and forever altered the American landscape by criss-crossing the country with railway lines. Although less well known than the great "robber barons", Frederick Billings was one of the extraordinary men of his era, combining a shrewd business sense with a love of nature. Born in Vermont in 1823, Billings was one of the early "forty-niners," making his fortune during the gold rush, becoming the first person to practice law in California, and the state's first Attorney General. He was also a leading conservationist- he helped establish Yosemite National Park, and initiated the reforestation of Vermont. As a wealthy railroad entrepreneur, he invested in the first northern transcontinental line, the Northern Pacific, of which he was later president. In this definitive biography of Frederick Billings, Robin Winks provides the first full-length study of this nineteenth-century giant. -- from Book Jacket.