By David Sokol

Boy leaves farm, sees world, makes fortune. Triumphantly returns for plum local job. Renovates family home to reflect new position and ease into retirement. What could very well be the treatment for an episode of Property Brothers: Forever Home is actually a recap of Edward Martin’s Red Hook homecoming, which took place 150 years ago. That’s when steamboat entrepreneur Thomas Cornell chartered the Rhinebeck and Connecticut Railroad Company and tapped Martin as its president. Edward had occasionally come back to Red Hook over his career as a railroad civil engineer. In fact, the 1850 census lists him as an occupant of the house originally built for his grandparents Gottlieb and Ann Catherine. But in order to plan and open the railroad popularly known as the Hucklebush Line, Edward decided to settle in for good. And, in the words of the Daughters of the American Revolution as “a bachelor of considerable wealth, [he] took great pride in keeping the house and grounds in excellent condition.”

The breadth of Edward’s wealth was never a question. Triangulate his 1893 New York Times obituary with court records, and other accounts and you’ll find that, at the time of his death, he was worth more than $88 million in today’s dollars.