Edward Knight Collins
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
shipping magnate.
Biography
He was born on August 5, 1802 in Truro, MassachusettsTruro, Massachusetts
Truro is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, comprising two villages: Truro and North Truro. Located two hours outside Boston, it is a summer vacation community just south of the northern tip of Cape Cod, in an area known as the "Outer Cape"...
to Israel Gross Collins (1776–1831) and Mary Ann Knight (c.1780-c.1802). His mother was a neice of Sir Edward Knight and she died shortly afterEdward was born. He was then raised by his aunts. His father moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. At age thirteen in 1815, Collins left Truro for New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
to attend school. He then went to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
as an apprentice clerk in the counting house
Counting house
A counting house, or compting house, literally is the building, room, office or suite in which a business firm carries on operations, particularly accounting. By a synecdoche, it has come to mean the accounting operations of a firm, however housed...
of McCrea and Slidell. Within a few years, Edward moved to Delaplaine and Company.
In 1821 he joined his father's company and in January of 1824 he became a partner in I. G. Collins & Son. In 1827 they started the first regularly scheduled packet service between New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Veracruz, Mexico
Veracruz, Veracruz
Veracruz, officially known as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipality on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located in the central part of the state. It is located along Federal Highway 140 from the state capital Xalapa, and is the state's most...
. In 1826, Collins married Mary Ann Woodruff, the daughter of Thomas T. Woodruff. They had a son, Edward K. Collins II, as well as a daughter and at least one other child.
After his father's death in 1831 he became involved with the cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
trade between New Orleans and New York. He bought his first shipping line in 1831. In 1836, he launched the Dramatic Line. He received a government subsidy in 1847 and formed the United States' Mail Steamship Company to compete with the Cunard Line
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
for transatlantic shipping. The subsidy was canceled in 1856 after two of the five ships sank.
In 1854 the SS Arctic
SS Arctic
The SS Arctic was a 3,000-ton Paddle steamer in the Collins Line steamships. A sister-ship to the SS Pacific that went into service in 1852, the ship was at the time the largest and most splendid of the line and was in operation in the Liverpool packet...
sank while carrying his wife and two of his children.
The other ship, the vanished and may have been found in 1991 off the coast of Wales. His assets were sold to satisfy creditors in 1858.
He moved to his summer home, "Collinwood" in Wellsville, Ohio
Wellsville, Ohio
Wellsville is a village in Columbiana County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 4,133 at the 2000 census.-History:...
where he performed coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
and oil drilling. He remarried, to Sarah Browne, and by 1862 ha had moved back to New York City, where he died on January 22, 1878. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx
Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx
Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and is a designated National Historic Landmark.A rural cemetery located in the Bronx, it opened in 1863, in what was then southern Westchester County, in an area that was annexed to New York City in 1874.The cemetery covers more...
.