Later, that orphan is seduced by George Selby and her plan to set up the Knobs University in Tennessee fails due to the corruption of Senator Dilworthy.  
In this novel, the aid of the engineer Jeff Thompson allows one character to form the Columbus River Navigation Company, while another stakes his fortune on a coal mine in Ilium.  The central family saves an orphan from the wreckage of the steamboat Amaranth on their way to Hawkeye.  Later, that orphan is seduced by George Selby and her plan to set up the Knobs University in Tennessee fails due to the corruption of Senator Dilworthy.  FTP, name this novel featuring the Hawkins family and Colonel Beriah Sellers, a work set during the titular era of American history and written by Charles Warner and Mark Twain.
In this novel, the aid of the engineer Jeff Thompson allows one character to form the Columbus River Navigation Company, while another stakes his fortune on a coal mine in Ilium.  
The Gilded Age