Thomas Durant, owner of the Union Pacific was one of the few, if not the only major railroad builder to have gone to medical school. He graduated from Albany Medical College in 1840, but he never set up a practice. Instead, he went into business with an uncle who was an exporter of flour and grain. He was put in charge of the firm's New York office and soon earned a reputation as a somewhat reckless but rather successful stock speculator. Nevertheless, he was generally called Dr. Durant. In 1851 financial opportunities in the west attracted his attention and he became a partner in contracting the building of the Michigan Southern Railroad, Rock Island Railroad and the Mississippi Railroad. All this experience finally led up to his ownership and building of the Union Pacific Railroad.
