Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 24, 2008

Colonel Cyrus Kurtz Holliday (April 3, 1826 – March 29, 1900) was one of the founders of Topeka, Kansas. He was also the first president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, as well as one of the railroad's directors for nearly 40 years. He was born to David and Mary (Kennedy) Holliday, in Kidderminster, Pennsylvania (near Carlisle) and received a public school education, graduating from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he studied law, in 1852. While he was still in Meadville, he was asked to prepare legal documentation for a new railroad that would connect to the city. Holliday saw the potential of the line and instead of asking for a standard fee to create the documents, he asked for and was granted a partnership in the new railroad. When this railroad was purchased by the larger system, Holliday earned $20,000 from the sale. In 1854 he moved to Kansas, leaving his wife behind in Pennsylvania to follow later. He first settled in Lawrence in October 1854, and helped to find a location for the new townsite of Topeka by December 1854. Once Topeka was founded, it needed transportation to connect it to the rest of the country. Holliday's legal skills were called on again to create the paperwork for a new railroad. In 1859 he wrote the charter for the Atchison and Topeka Railroad Company, which would connect the two cities by rail following the route of the Santa Fe Trail. Holliday was named a director and president of the new railroad on September 17, 1860, which was renamed in 1863 to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. During his tenure as president, Holliday secured land grants from the federal government that would soon be used by the railroad to populate the western portion of Kansas in order to build a customer base for the railroad. He stepped down from the presidency at the end of 1863, but remained on the board of directors until July 27, 1865. He rejoined the board on September 24, 1868, this time serving until his death on March 29, 1900.