The Biographical Dictionary of America/Aspinwall, William H.

ASPINWALL, William H., merchant, was born in New York city, Dec. 16, 1807. He served his mercantile apprenticeship with his uncles, G. G. & S. Howland, and in 1837 became a member of the newly organized house of Howland & Aspinwall, doing a large trade in the Mediterranean and Pacific. He retired from active participation in the firm's affairs in 1850, and instituted a steamship line between the Isthmus of Panama and California, and subsequently obtained from New Granada a concession for a railroad across the Isthmus, which was opened on February 17, 1855. The eastern terminus of the railroad was for a time called Aspinwall. Mr. Aspinwall resigned the presidency of the Pacific mail steamship company in 1858, and travelled in Europe, where he collected a rare gallery of paintings, which collection was sold after his death, many of the subjects selling at phenomenal prices. He died Jan. 18, 1875.