Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Henry Meiggs, was a promoter/entrepreneur and railroad builder. He was born in Catskill, New York. He came to New York City in 1835 and began a lumber business, but was ruined by the Panic of 1837. He restarted his business, this time in Brooklyn, but again met with failure. Finding success in sending lumber to the Pacific Coast, he finally relocated to San Francisco after the discovery of gold by taking a cargo of lumber there in the Albany, a cargo which he sold for twenty times its cost.