George Francis Train was an American success story. He made a fortune in shipping in the days of the clipper ships, but when steam came along, true to his surname, he shifted to railroads. He was a major supporter of the Union Pacific and helped secure new methods of building and financing new lines. The Union Pacific route made Omaha a major city, and Train made even more money through real estate investments there.
He also traveled the world extensively, first on business, then to prove a point. Train was obsessed with moving faster and moving globally. He put globetrotting to the test when he rounded the world in 80 days — he claimed, with some reason, to have inspired Jules Verne’s subsequent bestseller, Around the World in 80 Days. When the brave and intrepid female reporter Nellie Bly circumnavigated the world in just 72 days, arriving back in New York in January 1890, Train’s competitive spirit was fired. He was determined to beat Nellie Bly’s record.
Nellie Bly, who circled the globe in 72 days. (Wikipedia)
In addition to his travels, Train wrote endless tracts, poems and epigrams about how to improve the world and to advance his eclectic agenda. He was a one-man social-media storm, an eccentric influencer. His issues included women’s suffrage and Irish independence (he was for them), and his personal belief that his genius connected him with the universe. “I am possessed of great psychic force,” claimed The Psycho.
Above all, he was motivated by boom-town energies. He had visited Tacoma and was in the thrall of its prospects as the major trade city on the Pacific coast, especially since its designation as the western terminus of the transcontinental railroad. The editor of The Tacoma Daily Ledger, R.F. Radebaugh, was a fan, and he ran Train’s musings and rants in his paper. Train approached him with an idea that seemed ripe for the booming Tacoma, which Train dubbed “the City of Destiny.”
Train promised to outdo Bly by rounding the world in 60 days and having his reports of the trip published in “40,000 newspapers” for an audience of “100 million” people, he said. This trip would showcase Tacoma’s position as the emerging U.S. city in the Pacific trade. Train said he was ready to leave immediately if Tacoma welcomed him with funds and a forum.
Train pledged his stunt would be a dagger in the heart of competing cities. He wrote: “Seattle! Seattle! Death Rattle! Death Rattle! Now is Tacoma’s Time! Wire me at once!” Ever the salesman, he closed with a veiled threat: “If no! shall go via Canadian Pacific and give them the thunder!” The electric Train styled himself as the bringer of destiny. Grandiosity was part of the Train brand.
Tacoma’s Court House Hill in the 1890s. (Library of Congress)
The answer from Tacoma was an immediate “yes.” The Ledger sent Train $1,500 and the city embraced him like a conquering hero, though he hadn’t left the dock. Processions, speeches, bunting — his pre-departure lecture raised more than $4,000 for the trip, with box seats selling for up to $500. The boom-town boomers were booming!
The Ledger sent a reporter with him, and shortly Train steamed westward. The Psycho and his companion quickly girdled the earth by ship and rail. Press reports tracked their progress, and Tacoma got publicity. Train made the round trip in 67 days, beating Nellie Bly’s record. But Train was enraged when he arrived in Portland, Oregon, and no special train had been arranged to sweep him into the homestretch. He threw an epic tantrum, apparently claiming he might switch his local allegiance to Astoria! He berated his Tacoma supporters, though his temper cooled when he was greeted by a happy Tacoma throng on his return to the city. Still, he felt cheated of his 60-day goal.
His world-girdling success was not fully appreciated. Some people said the trip was more about feeding Train’s ego than extolling Tacoma virtues. Papers from rival cities sniped; The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a column of Train criticism under the headline “Demented Traveler.” The Portland Telegram said, “A question agitating the people of Tacoma at present, is as to whether or not George Francis Train is crazy. The fact that he is attempting to boom ‘The City of Destiny’ shows him to be of about as unsound mind as those who secured him to do their booming.”
To add insult, Tacoma’s own Daily News ran an assessment from New York that Tacoma’s virtues needed no Train boosting: “The trip was scarcely necessary” for calling attention to the city, it said. “Reports … as to the resources, growth, prosperity, wealth and prospects … are of wonderful and entrancing character … [Tacoma’s] future seems assured.”
George Francis Train. (Wikipedia)
Train hung around the Tacoma area for a while, but soon left. He did another around-the-world trip for another Puget Sound city that wanted to bask in The Psycho’s glory, but few people remember his embrace of Bellingham to launch one last globetrotting stunt. Train has fallen into obscurity. More than a century later, Tacoma is still the City of Destiny, but Seattle hasn’t death-rattled yet.
