William Henry Aspinwall

American merchant and steamship and railroad owner

• Born: December 16, 1807
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: January 18, 1875
• Place of death: New York, New York

Aspinwall established himself as one of New York’s most successful merchants in the 1830’s and 1840’s. His Pacific Mail Steamship Line was launched just before the beginning of California’s gold rush and became immensely profitable, as did the railroad his firm constructed across Panama in the 1850’s.

Sources of wealth: Trade; railroads; shipping

Bequeathal of wealth: Spouse; children

Early Life

William Henry Aspinwall (AS-pihn-wawl) was born into a respected New York merchant family. His father, John, and uncle were importers and wholesalers of dry goods. G. G. & S. Howland, a merchant partnership run by the brothers of Aspinwall’s mother, was one of the city’s most successful businesses. Aspinwall attended Bancel’s Boarding College in New York City and became so adept at French and Spanish that he tutored in these languages after graduation.

First Ventures

In 1832, Aspinwall and his cousin William Howland were brought into G. G. & S. Howland to learn the business, and the firm was renamed Howland & Aspinwall in 1834. Three years later, Aspinwall’s two uncles ceased active management of the firm, and Aspinwall began receiving a one-quarter share of its profits as a partner. Aspinwall was increasingly recognized as the dominant partner, known for his quiet, pious character, careful attention to detail, and conservative business decisions. The firm’s ships carried goods to and from Europe, the West Indies, China, and South America. They secured a monopoly on trade with Venezuela, due to ties with President José Antonio Páez. By the mid-1840’s. Aspinwall also became director or trustee of several banks and insurance companies and served as vice consul for Tuscany.

Mature Wealth

Aspinwall began to take greater risks in the mid-1840’s, when he ordered shipbuilders Smith and Dimon to construct the world’s first clipper ship, following naval architect John Willis Griffiths’s radical new design. Aspinwall had second thoughts in the face of great public skepticism, which delayed construction, making the Rainbow the second clipper ship to be launched. Aspinwall’s next clipper, the Sea Witch, astounded the shipping world by sailing from Canton, China, to New York in only seventy-four days. The speed and profitability of Aspinwall’s vessels led to a flood of orders for the new clipper ships.

In late 1847, Aspinwall made another daring move, establishing the Pacific Mail Steamship Company after purchasing a contract to run a government-subsidized shipping line from Panama to Oregon. At the conclusion of the Mexican War in 1848, there were only about twenty thousand inhabitants scattered along the two thousand miles of the United States’ newly acquired West Coast, and most observers believed the $199,000 annual government subsidy would not cover the costs of running three steamers along routes that had no coal stations or repair yards, inadequate port facilities, and very little freight or passenger potential. The construction of three wooden-hulled, paddle-wheel steamers began at once, and the first, the California, left New York on October 6, 1848. It carried only seven passengers from New York, its captain became ill, and it ran into a string of difficulties on its voyage around South America, but its voyage became the stuff of legend. When the beleaguered ship reached the Pacific coast of Panama, it found a mob of fifteen hundred men clamoring to reach California’s gold fields. Because of the gold rush, Aspinwall’s line expanded rapidly and became immensely profitable.

With even greater foresight, Aspinwall had already sent a surveying team to Panama and quickly negotiated for the rights to build a railroad across the isthmus. Panama’s geography, climate, and disease-carrying mosquitoes made construction difficult, expensive, and slow. In late 1851, the partially built railroad was on the verge of running out of capital, as construction costs far outstripped estimates, and stock in Aspinwall’s Panama Railroad Company fell to pennies per share. At this point, Aspinwall pledged his personal fortune to continue the project, saving the railroad, which was completed in 1855 at a cost of $8 million (about $200 million at 2010 prices) and about six thousand lives.

In 1856, Aspinwall began to withdraw from active management of his businesses and to turn the reins of the merchant house over to his younger brother and son. During the Civil War, Howland & Aspinwall acted as a government purchasing agent in Europe, but Aspinwall surprised Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton by remitting his commissions from these purchases back to the government. Aspinwall also served on a secret mission to England to impede Confederate efforts to buy and outfit ships that would raid Union commerce.

Legacy

In his retirement, Aspinwall became a philanthropist and amassed a sizable art collection, with paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, Diego Velázquez, and others. He was a founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a founding trustee of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Although he was one of the world’s wealthiest men at his death in 1875, with net assets valued around $4 million ($80 million in 2010), time quickly obscured Aspinwall’s fame and contributions. Howland & Aspinwall evolved into an investment, commission, and banking firm before ceasing operations in the mid-1890’s. The Pacific Mail underwent numerous changes of leadership and ownership, while the Panama Railroad eventually became the property of the Panama Canal in the early twentieth century, and the port town of Aspinwall, Panama, was renamed Colón.

Bibliography

Kemble, John H. The Panama Route, 1848-1869. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1943.

Somerville, Duncan S. The Aspinwall Empire. Mystic, Conn.: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1983.