Thomas C. Durant (1820-1885) was perhaps the most colorful and least liked of all the men involved in building the transcontinental railroad. Durant had been educated in medicine (and was often called the Doctor or "Doc"), but he made his fortune as a prodigious schemer. His first big score had been smuggling contraband cotton from the Confederacy during the Civil War, but when he became involved in railroad building, Durant hatched a scam of unprecedented proportions.