Corbin, D. C. (Daniel Chase), 1832-1918

Daniel Chase Corbin, railroad builder and industrialist, was born in New Hampshire in 1832. He spent his childhood on a farm in New Hampshire but went West in 1852. He began in the freighting business. In 1862, after marrying his first wife, Louisa M. Jackson, he moved to Denver and then later moved to Montana. He was engaged in banking and mining. In the 1870s, he worked with his brother in the railway business in New York, and then returned to Montana in 1882, where he engaged in mining. With the Coeur d'Alene mining strike in 1886, he built his first railroad, connecting the mines with the Northern Pacific. He ran the line East from Spokane, making Spokane the railway hub that it became. He sold his railroad to the Northern Pacific in 1888, and then developed railroads in Canada. He built a series of lines connecting British Columbia mines with the railways that passed through Spokane. He married his housekeeper, Anna Louise Larson in 1907, and died in Spokane in 1918.

From the description of Paper read before the Inland historical Society, 1906. (Spokane Public Library). WorldCat record id: 743357711

Daniel Chase Corbin was born in Newport, NH to a well-known old colonial family of great influence and means. Working as a surveyor in Iowa and Nebraska, he eventually found his way to Helena, MT. He was part of a development group that erected the first concentrating plant for the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mine in the Coeur d’Alenes in 1886. From that time, he occupied himself with investments in the development of railroads, steamship lines, and other transportation systems in the Inland Empire and British Columbia. His other business interests included the sugar beet industry, coal mining, and banking.

From the guide to the Daniel Chase Corbin Notebook, 1905, (Eastern Washington State Historical Society/Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture Joel E. Ferris Research Library and Archives)