Henry Villard (American National Biography)

[Heinrich Hilgard's] father wanted him to become a lawyer, but Villard was an indifferent student. When his father threatened to enlist him in the military, Villard immigrated to the United States in August 1853. He changed his name to Villard, after a schoolmate he admired, to make it difficult for his family to trace him and engaged in a number of jobs during his first years in the United States. Villard eventually found work as a journalist for German-language papers and later for English-language papers, covering the Abraham Lincoln-Stephen A. Douglas debates and numerous Civil War battles. In 1866 he married Helen Frances "Fanny" Garrison (Fanny Garrison Villard), daughter of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. They had four children. The marriage was fortuitous for Villard because it opened avenues to some of the wealthiest and most influential people in the United States, which proved to be invaluable later in his career.