Leland Stanford: Biography and Much More from Answers.com

Leland Stanford (1824-1893), American railroad builder and politician, was one of the founders of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads and served as California's governor and then U.S. senator.

Leland Stanford, born on March 9, 1824, in Watervliet, N.Y., was one of eight children of a prosperous farmer who also dabbled in various local bridge and road contracts. Leland received a formal education until the age of 12, had 3 years of tutoring at home, and then returned to school. He became an apprentice in an Albany law office and 3 years later gained admission to the bar.

In 1848 Stanford opened a law office at Port Washington, Wis.; meanwhile, his brothers sensed the lure of fortune in California and opened a mercantile business in Sacramento. In 1850 Stanford married Jane Elizabeth Lathrop. Two years later his law office burned down, and he decided to relocate in California. His brothers helped him establish a mining store in Cold Springs, but it did not do well so he opened a business at Michigan Bluff, which was successful. He also engaged in mining on a small scale.

In 1856 Stanford moved to Sacramento, where he started business with a brother and quickly entered politics. He met defeat in a race for Republican state treasurer in 1857, and 2 years later he lost the gubernatorial contest. His golden opportunity came in 1861, when the Civil War split the Democratic party, and he won the governor's office with less than the combined vote of his two Democratic opponents. Though he served only one term, he was able to keep California in the Union. His administration also encouraged the passage of several acts designed to aid the proposed transcontinental railroad, in which he had a large financial interest.

In 1861 Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins organized the Central Pacific Railroad, which built east to join the westward-progressing Union Pacific Railroad. The two joined at Promontory Point, Utah, in May 1869. Stanford became president of the Central Pacific, Huntington handled eastern financial and political arrangements, Crocker supervised construction, and Hopkins looked after company finances. Stanford's excellent reputation in California allowed the Central Pacific access to considerable sums of construction money. Also, as a stockholder in the construction companies, he enjoyed great personal profit.

Stanford remained president of the Central Pacific until his death. In 1870 the Southern Pacific was incorporated to build in southern California and eventually to reach New Orleans, La. Fourteen years later a holding company, the Southern Pacific Company, merged the Southern Pacific Railroad, Central Pacific, and others into one combine. Stanford was president of the combine from 1885 to 1890.

In 1890 Stanford and Huntington split over Stanford's renewed political ambitions. After he left the governor's office in 1863, he had remained active in influencing legislation in California. In 1885 he had declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate and had defeated A. A. Sargent on a strictly party vote. Sargent was a personal friend of Huntington, and in 1890 Huntington managed to have Stanford replaced as Southern Pacific president. Stanford's senatorial career was undistinguished.

Stanford endowed a new institution, the Leland Stanford Junior University, in 1885 in memory of his son, who had died at the age of 15. Stanford died in Palo Alto on June 21, 1893.

Further Reading

No recent work on Stanford has appeared. Two biographies are George T. Clark, Leland Stanford, War Governor of California, Railroad Builder and Founder of Stanford University (1931), and Hubert H. Bancroft, History of the Life of Leland Stanford (1952). Stanford's role in the Central Pacific is examined in Oscar Lewis, The Big Four (1938).

Additional Sources

Lewis, Oscar, The big four: the story of Huntington, Stanford, Hopkins, and Crocker, and of the building of the Central Pacific, New York: Arno Press, 1981, 1938.

Regnery, Dorothy F., The Stanford House in Sacramento: an American treasure, Stanford, Calif. (P.O. Box 2328, Stanford University, Stanford 94305): Stanford Historical Society, 1987.

Amasa Leland Stanford, known as Leland Stanford, along with partners Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, and Collis P. Huntington (the Big Four), founded the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Rail Roads, and laid the tracks that would eventually link a nation. In the course of building the first transcontinental railroad, Stanford dominated California business, politics, and social life for almost fifty years.

Stanford was born on March 9, 1824, in Watervliet, New York. He was one of eight children born to Josiah Stanford and Elizabeth Phillips Stanford. His father was a prominent farmer and a prosperous merchant, who supplied building materials for the town's public works projects. Growing up, Stanford worked on the family farm and helped his father with local road and bridge construction. His boyhood work on the local transportation infrastructure sparked an interest that would fuel his life's work.

Stanford's early education included attendance at the local public school and some home schooling. At eighteen, he enrolled at the Clinton Liberal Institute, in Clinton, New York. He completed his education at New York's Cazenovia Seminary. At twenty-one, he began clerking with the law firm of Wheaton, Doolittle, and Hadley, in Albany, New York. Three years later, in 1845, Stanford was admitted to the bar.

Like many young men of his era, Stanford saw tremendous opportunity for those who moved west. In 1848 he settled in Port Washington, Wisconsin, to establish a law practice. While Stanford was establishing his professional career in Wisconsin, several of his brothers headed to California, eager to apply their skills as merchants in its mining camps and growing towns.

In the spring of 1852, Stanford sent his wife, Jane Elizabeth Lathrop Stanford, to stay with her family in Albany, and he followed his brothers to the Pacific Coast. By all accounts, Stanford arrived in California with little or no money. His brothers provided him with a stock of miners' supplies and set him up as a merchant in a mining town. His business there was very successful. Popular with the miners and trained in the law, Stanford was often called upon to mediate claim disputes and other problems.

Convinced that his future was in California, Stanford persuaded his wife to join him there. In 1856 they established a home in Sacramento. Stanford continued to be involved with his brothers and their business interests, but he devoted most of his time—unsuccessfully—to politics.

He ran as a Republican candidate for state treasurer in 1857 and for governor in 1859. He was defeated in both races, but the campaigns made him a well-known political figure throughout the state. Finally, in 1861, when the outbreak of the Civil War split the state Democratic party, Stanford was successful in a bid for the governor's seat.

As the state's first Republican governor, he faced two immediate challenges: the possibility that California would split from the Union, and a serious flooding of the Sacramento River (which was so extensive that Stanford had to crawl out the window of his home and row himself to his inauguration). Stanford held California safely in the Union, and he coped with the damage caused by the flood. After providing for flood victims, and promoting minor administrative and legislative reforms, Stanford spent much of his time as governor pursuing his interest in railroads as a growing industry.

Just before the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act, authorizing the construction of a transcontinental railroad from Omaha to Sacramento. Despite the coming war, investors and entrepreneurs across the United States looked for ways to participate in, and profit from, the new venture.

Prior to his election as governor, Stanford and three other Sacramento merchants— Crocker, Hopkins, and Huntington—had financed railroad feasibility surveys and had organized the Central Pacific Rail Road Company on June 28, 1861. Stanford was named president.

During his two-year term as governor, Stanford committed a substantial amount of public money to the construction of the Central Pacific Rail Road. Any apprehensions Stanford may have had about mingling his official actions with his private interests were overshadowed by his conviction that a rail connection with the East would benefit all citizens of California.

When his term as governor expired, Stanford left government to construct his railroad. On January 8, 1863, workers from the Central Pacific Rail Road Company began laying track at Front and K Streets in Sacramento—one year before the Union Pacific started work in the East. Six years later, on May 10, 1869, Stanford drove a gold spike in the final section of track at Promontory Point, Utah. The Central Pacific Rail Road united the West with the rest of the country, and secured Stanford's place in railroad history.

After completion of the East-West link, Stanford continued to work with his partners. The four devoted their time to strengthening and expanding their railroad properties. In 1884, they organized the Southern Pacific Company as a holding company. In 1885, the Southern Pacific Company leased the Southern Pacific Rail Road, the Central Pacific Rail Road, and other system properties, and became the dominant unit of the organization. Stanford served as president and director of the Central Pacific Rail Road Company from its inception until his death in 1893. He was director of the Southern Pacific Company from 1885 to 1893, and president from 1885 to 1890. He was director of the Southern Pacific Rail Road from 1889 to 1890.

Though no public accounting has ever been made of the profits Stanford and his partners drew from the construction of the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Rail Roads, it is known that the enterprise made them all enormously wealthy. Stanford lived in grand style in Sacramento, and later in San Francisco. He also owned Palo Alto, a ranch in Tehama County, where he cultivated vineyards and bred racing stock. Stanford's horse-training methods were widely adopted, and his interest in how horses moved at high speeds prompted him to sponsor early experiments in motion picture photography.

Today, the Palo Alto ranch is the site of Stanford University, a memorial to Stanford's only child. Leland Stanford, Jr., died in 1884, at the age of fifteen, while touring in Italy. He had been his father's pride and joy. Stanford had placed him on an elaborate silver tray and presented him to guests at a party shortly after his birth in 1869. The tray can still be seen at the Leland Stanford House, in Sacramento.

Devastated by the death of his son and looking for a new challenge, Stanford allowed himself to be drafted by the Republican party as a candidate for the U.S. Senate. He was elected in 1885. It is generally conceded that Stanford was not suited to life as a senator. He was often absent and showed little enthusiasm for the work. His election also caused friction with his long-time business partners, who had supported another candidate. In spite of his poor performance—and poor health—he was reelected in 1891, and served until his death two years later.

The five-foot eleven-inch, 268-pound railroad giant succumbed to heart problems at his Palo Alto ranch on June 21, 1893. Upon his death, the bulk of his estate passed to his wife, who used it to support the university founded by Stanford and named for their son. Stanford is interred with his son and his wife in the family mausoleum on the Stanford University campus.

Amasa Leland Stanford
8th Governor of California
In office 1861 – 1863
Lieutenant(s)	John F. Chellis
Preceded by	John G. Downey
Succeeded by	Frederick Low
US Senator from California
In office 1885 – 1893
Preceded by	James T. Farley
Succeeded by	George C. Perkins
Born	March 9 1824 Watervliet, New York
Died	June 21 1893 (aged 69) Palo Alto, California
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Jane Elizabeth Lathrop
Profession	Entrepreneur, politician

Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824 – June 21, 1893) was an American tycoon, politician and founder of Stanford University.

He was born in Watervliet, New York, one of eight children of Josiah and Elizabeth Phillips Stanford. Stanford's ancestors settled in the Mohawk Valley of New York around 1720. He attended Clifton Liberal Institute, in Clifton, New York, and studied law at Cazenovia Seminary in Cazenovia, New York and later in Albany. He was admitted to the bar in 1848, and then moved to Port Washington, Wisconsin, where he began law practice with Wesley Pierce. He married Jane Elizabeth Lathrop in Albany on September 30, 1850, the same year he was nominated by the Whig Party as Washington County, Wisconsin, District Attorney.

In 1852, having lost his law library and other property by fire, he moved to California during the California Gold Rush and began mining for gold at Michigan Bluff in Placer County, California. He subsequently went into business with his three brothers, who had preceded him to the Pacific coast. During this time he worked with his brothers as keeper of a general store for miners, served as a Justice of the Peace and helped organize the Sacramento Library Association, which later became the Sacramento Public Library. In 1856 he moved to San Francisco and engaged in mercantile pursuits on a large scale.

In 1856, he met with other Whig politicians in Sacramento to organize the California Republican Party at its first state convention on April 30. He was chosen as a delegate to the Republican Party convention which selected US presidential electors in both 1856 and 1860. In the the interim, he became the majority stockholder in Amador Quartz Mine. Stanford was defeated in his 1857 bid for California State Treasurer, and his 1859 bid for the office of Governor of California. He presided over the 1860 Republican National Convention in Sacramento. As one of "The Big Four" railroad magnates, he cofounded and was made president of the Central Pacific Railroad company in 1861, when he was again nominated to run for Governor of California^[1] The railroad's first locomotive was named Gov. Stanford in his honor.

As president of the Central Pacific, he directed its construction over the mountains, building 530 miles in 293 days. As head of the railroad company which built the first transcontinental railway line over the Sierra Nevada, Stanford hammered in the famous golden spike in Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869. In 1870, the Central Pacific Railroad acquired the Southern Pacific Railroad, forming one of the most powerful railroad monopolies in history.

Muybridge's "The Horse in Motion"

In 1871, Stanford begin experimenting with winemaking, leading to his establishment of his 'Vina' winery.

In 1872 Stanford commissioned Eadweard Muybridge to use newly invented photographic technology to establish whether a galloping horse ever has all four feet off the ground simultaneously, which they do. This project, which illustrated motion through a series of still images viewed together, was a forerunner of motion picture technology.

Stanford moved to San Francisco in 1874, where he assumed presidency of the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company.

Stanford served as president of Southern Pacific Railroad from 1885 to 1890,^[2][3] while continuing to serve as the head of the Central Pacific Railroad until his death in 1893. As a railroad developer, Stanford encouraged Chinese immigration to find workers for the railroad construction. However, when jobs were scarce, Stanford made them scapegoats. Stanford encouraged the California legislature to pass taxes and unfair regulations which specifically targeted Chinese.

Stanford, a leading member of the Republican Party, was politically active. He was the eighth Governor of California, serving from December, 1861 to December, 1863. During his gubernatorial tenure, he cut the state's debt in half, and advocated for the conservation of forests. He also oversaw the establishment of the California's first state normal school in San José, later to become San José State University. Following Stanford's governorship, the term of office changed from two years to four years, in line with legislation passed during his time in office. He later served slightly more than one term in the United States Senate, from 1885 until his death in 1893 at age 69. He served for four years as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds.

He also owned two wineries, the Leland Stanford Winery, founded in 1869, and run by brother Josiah, and the 55,000 acres (220 km²) Great Vina farm in Tehama County, containing what was then the largest vineyard in the world at 13,400 acres (54 km²), the Gridley tract of 22,000 acres (90 km²) in Butte County and the Palo Alto Stock Farm, which was the home of his famous thoroughbred racers, Electioneer, Anon, Sunol, Palo Alto and Advertiser. The Palo Alto breeding farm gave Stanford University its nickname of The Farm. The Stanfords also owned a stately mansion in Sacramento, California (this was the birthplace of their only son, and now a house museum used for California state social occasions), as well as a home in San Francisco's Nob Hill district. Their Sacramento home is now the Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park.

The Memorial Church at Stanford

With wife Jane, Stanford founded Leland Stanford Junior University as a memorial for their only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., who died as a teenager of typhoid in Florence, Italy while on a trip to Europe. Approximately US$20 million (US$400 million in 2005 dollars) initially went into the university, which held its opening exercises October 1, 1891. The wealth of the Stanford family during the late nineteenth century is estimated at approximately US$50 million ($US1 billion in 2005 dollars).

Leland Stanford died at home in Palo Alto, California on June 20, 1893, and is buried in the Stanford family mausoleum on the Stanford campus. The Memorial Church at Stanford University is also dedicated to his memory.

References

1. ^ Bain, David Howard (1999). Empire Express; Building the First Transcontinental Railroad. Viking, p. 99. ISBN 0-670-80889-X. 
2. ^ Yenne, Bill. The History of the Southern Pacific. Bison Books Corp.. ISBN 0-517-46084-X. 
3. ^ Union Pacific Railroad. Historical Equipment Still in Use: The Stanford. Retrieved on 2006-05-30.

• Ambrose, Stephen E (2000). Nothing Like It In The World; The men who built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0684846098. 
• Altenberg, Lee, "Beyond Capitalism: Leland Stanford's Forgotten Vision", Sandstone and Tile, Vol. 14 (1): 8-20 (1990), Stanford Historical Society, Stanford, California.
• Tutorow, Norman, "Leland Stanford: Many of Many Careers", Pacific Coast Publishers, Menlo Park CA, 1971.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

• Governor Leland Stanford biography at the California State Library
• Leland Stanford at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Penny Postcards: Leland Stanford's store: Michigan Bluff, California
• Stanford's racist speech: "Leland Stanford promised in his inaugural address to protect the state from "the dregs of Asia" -PBS.org

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. This article incorporates text from the public domain Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography.

Political offices
Preceded by James T. Farley	United States Senator (Class 3) from California 1885–1893 Served alongside: John F. Miller, George Hearst, Abram P. Williams, George Hearst, Charles N. Felton, Stephen M. White	Succeeded by George C. Perkins
Business positions
Preceded by Timothy Guy Phelps	Presidents of the Southern Pacific Railroad 1868–1890	Succeeded by Collis P. Huntington
Preceded by None	Executive Committee Chairmen Southern Pacific Railroad 1890–1893	Succeeded by Robert S. Lovett

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Central Pacific Railroad · The Big Four
Charles Crocker · Mark Hopkins · Collis P. Huntington · Leland Stanford

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