Encyclopedia of the Great Plains (2024)

DURANT, THOMAS (1820-1885)

Thomas Clark Durant was born in Lee, Massachusetts,on February 6, 1820. He graduatedfrom Albany Medical College in 1840 andmarried Heloise Hannah Timbrel in 1847.They had two children. Durant briefly servedas a professor of medicine at Albany MedicalCollege but subsequently channeled his energyinto business. A railroad promoter andcontractor, Thomas Durant's importance tothe Great Plains lies in his controlling of routechoice and construction as vice president ofthe Union Pacific Railroad.

To encourage what Robert W. Fogel hascalled a "premature enterprise," in 1862, 1864,and 1866 Congress provided incentives and setstandards for a transcontinental railroad. TheUnion Pacific was organized to gain the promisedloans and land. Besides his vice presidencyin the Union Pacific, Durant had majorfinancial interests in the companies he used tograde and lay the track, companies that werepaid in money and Union Pacific stock.

With ongoing control of the company assured,the contractors, through Durant, chosea line that maximized construction profitswith little concern for potential traffic or lateroperating costs and profits. In the race withthe Central Pacific for subsidized mileage, theUnion Pacific did not go through the existingPlains settlement at Denver. The expected expensesand slow progress of a line pushedthrough the rugged mountains to the westwere too great. On the Plains Durant's chosenroute followed the Platte River to LodgepoleCreek and the relatively easy Gangplank overthe Laramie Range. As Congress intended, therailroad strengthened Council Bluffs andOmaha, but it was Durant's direction thatfounded new towns westward to Cheyenneand beyond.

Following charges of defrauding the UnionPacific Durant was dropped from the company'sdirectorate in May 1869. In 1870 he soldalmost all of his Union Pacific stock. Much ofhis fortune was lost in the panic of 1873. Withhis health deteriorating, Durant retired to theAdirondacks. He died at North Creek, NewYork, on October 15, 1885.

Alan H. GreyProvo, Utah

Dodge, Grenville M. How We Built the Union Pacific Railway.Washington dc: Government Printing Office, 1910.

Hirshon, Stanley P. Grenville M. Dodge: Soldier, Politician,Railroad Pioneer. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,1967.