Before setting out to relate in detail the narrative of the amassing of the great individual fortunes from rail roads, it is advisable to present a preliminary survey of the concatenating circumstances leading up to the time when these vast fortunes were rolled together. Without this explanation, this work would be deficient in clarity, and would leave unelucidated many important points, the absence of which might puzzle or vex the reader. Although industrial establishments, as exemplified by mills, factories and shops, much preceded the construe tion of railroads, yet the next great group of fortunes to develop after, and along with, those from land were the fortunes plucked from the control and manipulation of railroad systems.