Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Henry Villard was an American journalist and financier who was an early president of the Northern Pacific Railway. Born and raised Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Villard clashed with his more conservative father over politics, and was sent to a semi-military academy in northeastern France. He emigrated to the U.S.A., without his parents' knowledge, as a teenager. He changed his name to avoid being sent back to Europe, and began making his way west, briefly studying law as he developed a career in journalism.