George Francis Train (1829–1904) was an enterprising and highly eccentric American businessman, promoter, and traveler. Train built a successful early career in shipping and transit, organizing a clipper ship line to San Francisco and helping to establish the Union Pacific Railroad and the Credit Mobilier in 1864. During the American Civil War, he expanded his ventures internationally, establishing horse tramway companies in England.
Train is perhaps best remembered for his globetrotting exploits and his connection to popular literature. In 1870, he embarked on the first of three highly publicized trips around the world. Train firmly believed that the published reports of this initial journey, which appeared in a French periodical, served as the direct inspiration for Jules Verne's classic adventure novel Around the World in Eighty Days, with the protagonist Phileas Fogg modeled after him.
Beyond his business and travel achievements, Train was a colorful and controversial figure in public life. In 1872, he ran for President of the United States as an independent candidate. That same year, his staunch defense of suffragist Victoria Woodhull led to his imprisonment on obscenity charges. As he aged, Train's behavior grew increasingly eccentric, cementing his legacy as one of the nineteenth century's most peculiar public figures.
