Henry H. Houston

Henry H. Houston (October 3, 1820 – June 21, 1895) was a leading Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist. He worked in iron and transportation industries and invested in oil and precious metal concerns. He sat on boards of a number of railroad organizations and he was trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and Washington and Lee University. He developed Wissahickon Heights, an exclusive community in western Chestnut Hill. Early life Henry Howard Houston was born on the Houston farm near Wrightsville, Pennsylvania on October 3, 1820, the son of Susan (Strickler) and Samuel Nelson Houston. He had an older brother and three younger sisters. During his childhood, he also grew up in Columbia, Pennsylvania. He was of Scottish-Irish heritage, his ancestors immigrated to Colonial America in the early 18th century. Career When Houston was 14, he became a clerk at John S. Futhey's merchantile house in Wrightsville, which supplied construction materials for a tow bridge, Susquehanna River dam, Tide-Water Canal, and Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad. He worked at the job for five years. Houston began his adult career working in the iron furnace industry in Clarion County and Venango Counties. In 1847, he worked for D. Leech and Company, a canal and railroad transportation firm. Col. William C. Patterson, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, hired Houston to establish and operate the company's freight business from 1851, and he became the General Freight Manager in 1852. He resigned in 1867 due to poor health and worked as promoter and manager of the Union and Erie Lines. Houston was in charge of the Philadelphia, Germantown and Chestnut Hill Railroad (now SEPTA's Regional Rail Chestnut Hill West Line) which was built in the 1880s to link downtown Philadelphia with the wealthy and growing suburbs to the northwest.