Santa Clara-Sacramento-Placer County CA Archives Biographies.....Stanford, Leland 1824 - 1893
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Author: Eugene T. Sawyer (1922)

  LELAND STANFORD.—Famous among the most inspiring examples of American
citizenship, the busy and fruitful life of Leland Stanford is instructive and
highly suggestive to the youth, not only of our own country, but of the entire
civilized world. A native of the great Empire State, he became, as one of the
founders and developers of the Pacific commonwealth. one of the most remarkable
men America has ever produced; and from the time of his boyhood in the '20s to
his death in the '90s, the story of his ascending career, in which almost
insuperable obstacles were again and again overcome, is of absorbing interest.
He was born at Watervliet, N. Y., eight miles from Albany, on March 9, 1824, and
descended from English stock, reinforced, on his father's side, by the best of
Irish blood. His father, Josiah Stanford, a native of Massachusetts, had been
taken to New York by his parents when he was four years of age; and he grew up
to marry a Miss Phillips, whose parents had removed from Massachusetts to
Vermont, and from Vermont to New York State. Josiah Stanford lived for many
years on a farm known as Elm Grove, on the Albany road leading out to
Schenectady, and he was highly esteemed as an intelligent, industrious and
progressive farmer, who had built a portion of the turnpike between Albany and
Schenectady, constructed roads and bridges in his neighborhood, was an alert,
systematic business man and a decidedly public-spirited citizen, and was an
early and enthusiastic advocate of the construction of the Erie Canal.

  In 1825, the New York Legislature granted a charter for a railroad between
Albany and Schenectady, and when it came to building the road, Josiah Stanford
was chosen as one of the principal contractors. A railroad was an attractive
novelty in those days, and the survey of this road brought it so close to the
home of the Stanfords that Leland passed his holidays in eagerly watching the
work, and even at that early age acquired a knowledge of railroad construction
that proved of service to him in later years. The conversation, too, of the
visitors to Josiah Stanford's home, was elevating, instructive and inspiring.
These visitors were men of affairs engaged in the construction of large works,
and they were alive to the great possibilities through future transportation
routes, and were not a whit daunted by the magnitude of any project. Among the
subjects discussed with vigor by these virile and far-seeing men was the project
of a railroad to Oregon; and "young as he was when the question was first
agitated," says one writer, "Leland Stanford took a lively interest in the
measure. Among its chief advocates at that early day was Mr. Whitney, one of the
engineers in the construction of the Mohawk & Hudson River Railway. On one
occasion, when Whitney passed the night at Elm Grove, Leland being then thirteen
years of age, the conversation ran largely on this overland railway project, and
the effect upon the mind of such a boy may be readily imagined. The remembrance
of that night's discussion between Whitney and his father never left him, but
bore the grandest fruits." This engineer was undoubtedly the celebrated Asa
Whitney, from 1830 to 1839 assistant superintendent, and then superintendent, of
the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, later canal commissioner of New York State, and
finally, as a world-renowned maker of car-wheels, also, like Stanford, a
university benefactor.

  Leland Stanford received the education of the farmer boy; and as a result he
inherited both good physical and mental qualities, and was reared in a home
where there was no idler, where there was little luxury, but no want, where
labor was honored, and each had his task appointed for him to do. He worked on
the farm with his father and his brothers, rising as early as five o'clock of a
winter's morning. He attended the common schools until he was twelve years of
age, and then, for three years, received private instruction at home. After
that, he assisted his father in carrying out a large contract for the delivery
of wood. This was really his first business adventure for he was in a manner a
partner in the enterprise, and received a share of the profits, which he used to
pay his tuition at an academy in Clinton, N. Y.

  Having determined to study law, young Stanford entered the office of Messrs.
Wheaton, Doolittle & Hadley, at Albany, and after three years with the
law-tomes, he was admitted to the Bar of New York State. By this time, he had
been drawn toward the West; and after visiting various places he finally
selected Port Washington, Wis., as best suited to his purpose; and there, in
1848, he established himself in the practice of law. This town was then
considered by many the port of the Lake region having a most promising future,
and Mr. Stanford's success as a lawyer there, with a lucrative practice and an
enviable standing in the community, appeared to emphasize the prospects of
prosperity for everyone. The first year in which he had hung out his shingle, he
earned $1,260, and for that time, such an income was considered good.

  In 1850, he paid a visit to Albany, and while there married Miss Jane Lathrop,
the daughter of Dyer Lathrop, a merchant of Albany whose family were among the
earliest and most respected settlers in that city. He was born at Bozrah (now
called Bozrahville), Conn., and accompanied his parents on their removal to New
York, when he was about seven years of age. He was noted for his good deeds,
expressive of human kindness, and was privileged to be one of the founders in
Albany of the Orphan Asylum, and was treasurer of that institution and director
at the time of his death. Mr. Stanford returned to Port Washington with his wife
and continued in the practice of his profession at that place until 1852, when a
misfortune happened to him which changed the course of his life, and proved to
be a blessing in disguise. This was the total destruction by fire of his office
with all of its valuable contents, including his law library, and for the moment
seemed irreparable. Tidings of the discovery of gold in California, however,
reached the East about that time and occasioned great excitement, so much so
that five of Josiah Stanford's sons set out for the promised land; and the
destruction of his office at Port Washington determined Leland Stanford's action
in following them. Mr. Stanford closed out his affairs in Wisconsin, and took
his wife to Albany; but she was unable to persuade her father to let her
accompany her husband and share with him the hardships of life in a new
country—as a result of which she remained at her father's home for the next
three years, attending with all the devotion of a loving and sympathetic
daughter to every want of her father through a long illness, until his death in
1855.

  Leland Stanford sailed from New York, made the journey by way of Nicaragua,
spent twelve days in crossing the Isthmus and thirty-eight days on the entire
trip. He arrived at San Francisco on July 12, 1852, and visited his brothers,
who were engaged in the general merchandise business at Sacramento, and soon
afterward entered for himself on a mercantile career at Cold Springs, in
Eldorado County. The following spring, he opened a store at Michigan Bluffs, the
central business point of the Placer County mining district; and this period of
Mr. Stanford's life was passed among the privations, the hardships and the
excitements of a typical pioneer mining camp, the recollection of which never
faded from his memory. Mr. Stanford also engaged in mining operations and
prospered in them in his business to such an extent that in 1855 he purchased
the business of his brothers in Sacramento. The same year he proceeded to the
East and brought Mrs. Stanford to California, and established his home in
Sacramento, in which city his house soon ranked among the leading California
concerns, in the management of which he developed an heretofore untried capacity
for dealing with large affairs. It was also not long before Mr. Stanford's
political life began. The Republican party was organized in California in 1856,
and he, giving the movement his enthusiastic support, became one of its founders
on the Coast, although at first he was not on the popular side. At the next
election, for example, he was the Republican candidate for State Treasurer, and
was defeated, and in 1859, when he was candidate for Governor, he received only
11,000 votes. In 1860, he was delegate at large to the Republican National
Convention, and he was an earnest and influential advocate of the nomination of
Abraham Lincoln, with whom he formed a warm and lasting friendship. As a result,
at the request of President Lincoln, he remained in Washington for several weeks
after the inauguration. He enjoyed the confidence of Lincoln, as a matter of
fact, and the destined martyr consulted him as to the surest methods of
preserving the peace and loyalty of California, and maintaining its adherence to
the Union—then a large question filled with doubt, which caused much anxiety to
the President and his hardworking and alert advisers.

  Leland Stanford was again made the Republican candidate for Governor in 1861,
and after a bold and vigorous canvass he was elected, receiving 56,036 votes
against 32,750 of his opponent, Mr. McConnell, the Administration Democrat, and
30,944 for Mr. Conness, the Douglass Democrat candidate. It was a critical
period in both state and national affairs when Leland Stanford was inaugurated
Governor of California, but he was firm and politic, and prevented the outbreak
of any disturbance. During his term of office, the state militia was organized,
the evils of squatterism abated, a State Normal School was established, and the
indebtedness of the state was reduced one-half. If Leland Stanford had no other
claim to remembrance, his services as War Governor of California would cause his
fame to be handed down to future ages.

  The part taken by Leland Stanford in the construction of the Central Pacific
Railroad is better known, however, than any other portion of his varied and
exceedingly active career. As has been narrated, he had listened as a boy to
conversations between his father and Mr. Whitney as to the possibility of
constructing a railroad to Oregon, and in after years he kept himself well
informed on the subject, collecting and preserving all articles published on
that theme which once came to his attention. During his voyage to California
with Mrs. Stanford, he said to her, when she was ill: "Never mind, a time will
come when I will build a railroad for you to return home on." He did not
originate the idea of a Pacific railroad—he executed the tremendous project. In
1860, he heard of the examination which Theodore D. Judah, an engineer, had made
of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in order to determine a practicable route for a
railroad; and not long afterwards he had a conversation with C. P. Huntington, a
hardware merchant of Sacramento on the subject of a railroad from California to
the East. Another meeting was held, and a third, at which Mark Hopkins was
present. The result of these conferences was a determination to at least look
further into the feasibility of the project. Mr. Judah, energetic and intrepid,
and firm in his belief in the possibility of building such a railroad across the
Sierra Nevada Mountains, was called into consultation; and as a result of the
information furnished by him, and that obtained from others, it was determined
to send out Judah, with the necessary assistants, to make a preliminary survey,
and a fund was raised for that purpose. This was the beginning of the great
corporation; and the men who started this mighty enterprise were all merchants
of Sacramento, except Judah, and they were primarily Leland Stanford, Collis P.
Huntington, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins and James Bailey.

  The physical difficulties were considered by many engineers to be
insurmountable; others thought that if the road could be built at all, the cost
would be so great that the necessary funds could never be secured; and,
therefore, great as were the physical difficulties, the financial obstacles were
none the less appalling. Incorporated in 1861, under the general laws of the
State of California as the Central Pacific Railroad Company, the project was
still in a condition giving little hope of success until the passage by Congress
of an act of July 1, 1862, entitled "An act to aid in the construction of a
railroad and telegraph line from the Missouri River to the Pacific-Ocean, and to
secure to the Government the use of the same for postal, military and other
purposes." This act incorporated the Union Pacific Railroad Company and granted
to it "for the purpose of aiding in the construction of said railroad and
telegraph line, and to receive the safe and speedy transportation of mails,
troops, munitions of war, and public stores thereon, "every alternate section of
public land, designated by odd numbers, to the amount of five alternate sections
per mile on each side of said road" not sold, reserved or otherwise disposed of
by the United States Government, and to which a preemption or homestead claim
may not have been attached, at the time the line of said road is definitely
fixed." Mineral lands were exempted from the operations of the act. The
Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to issue to the company, upon the
completion and equipment of forty consecutive miles of the railroad and
telegraph, bonds of the United States, payable thirty years after date, and
bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum, to the amount of $16,000
per mile, and at $32,000 and $48,000 per mile fof certain sections through the
mountains. The bonds were to constitute a first mortgage upon the property of
the company.

  The Central Pacific Railroad Company of California was authorized to construct
a railroad and telegraph line from the Pacific Coast, at or near San Francisco
or the navigable waters of the Sacramento River, to the Eastern boundary of
California upon the same terms and conditions in all respects as the Union
Pacific Railroad Company. The Central Pacific Railroad Company was required to
complete fifty miles of its road within two years after filing assent to the
provisions of the act, and fifty miles annually thereafter, and was authorized,
after completing its road across California, to continue the construction of a
railroad and telegraph line through the territories of the United States to the
Missouri River, or until it met and connected with the Union Pacific Railroad.
By act of July 2, 1864, these provisions were materially amended, the time for
designating the general route, for filing the map of the same, and of building
the part of these roads first required to be constructed was extended one year;
the Central Pacific was required to complete annually twenty-five instead of
fifty miles, and the whole line up to the state line within four years. The land
granted was increased from five to ten alternate sections, within the limits of
twenty instead of ten miles on each side. It was provided that only one-half of
the compensation for services rendered the government should be required to be
applied to the payment of the bonds issued by the government in aid of the
construction of the road. When a section of twenty, instead of forty miles was
completed, bonds might be issued to the company. The provision for withholding a
portion of the bonds authorized by the act of July 1, 1862, until the completion
of the whole road, was repealed. Special provision was made for the issue of
bonds in advance of the completion of the sections in the regions of the
mountains—naturally the most diffcult and the most costly part of the long line.
But the most important provision of the act was the one authorizing the company,
on the completion of each section of the road, to issue its own first-mortgage
bonds, to an amount not exceeding the bonds of the United States and making the
bonds of the United States subordinate to the bonds of the company.

  The work of construction was begun upon the Central Pacific Railroad on
January 8, 1863, when Leland Stanford, as president of the company, turned the
first shovelful of earth, and in May, 1869, the Central Pacific and the Union
Pacific Railroad companies were united at Promontory Point, where Leland
Stanford drove the last spike in the line of railroad connecting by rail the
Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, and binding indissolubly together the Eastern
and Western sections of the country. With a courage which never faltered, and an
ability that rose equal to the difficulties as they presented themselves, this
quartet of wonderful men,—Stanford, Huntington, Crocker, Hopkins,—persevered
until they attained success. It was a gigantic enterprise managed by men of
remarkable ability, the peculiar ability of one in a particular sphere of action
supplementing the peculiar ability of another in another sphere, and all working
in harmony for the common purpose. From the beginning to the end, however, the
master-mind and the master-will were those of Leland Stanford. Upon the doubtful
chances of success, these men ventured the moderate fortunes they possessed.
Leland Stanford realized a colossal fortune, but with the attainment of great
wealth, his labors in no wise ceased. He continued to be the president of the
company until 1885, and during that time the management of this great
corporation and the connecting lines which it acquired kept him constantly
employed. In addition to the work of the railroad, Mr. Stanford also had the
care and direction of his extensive landed estates. His home was on the Palo
Alto estate of 7,200 acres, and he also owned the Gridley farm of 20,000 acres,
and the great Vina ranch of 55,000 acres. These places he improved to such an
extent that they became among the most valuable and productive tracts in all the
world. Mr. Stanford thus came to be very much interested in the development of
trotting horses, and owned the famous "Electioneer," sire of many of the fastest
horses in America, including "Sunol," whose record was 2:08 1/4, and "Palo
Alto," whose record was 2:08 3/4, and "Arion" with a two year old record of 2:10
3/4, which record he held for seventeen years, sold for $125,000.

  The great sorrow of Mr. Stanford's life came in 1884, when his only child,
Leland Stanford, Jr., died. He was a lad of many attractive qualities and of
great promise, and the idol of both his father and his mother, but while
traveling through Europe with his parents, he was attacked with a virulent
fever, and despite the best of medical aid, he died in Florence, Italy, on March
13, 1884, in the fifteenth year of his age. He passed away in the flower of his
youth, but his memory is perpetuated forever in the noble institution of
learning which bears his name. The Leland Stanford Junior University is situated
upon the Palo Alto estate, in Santa Clara County, distant about thirty miles
from San Francisco. On November 11, 1885, Leland Stanford and his devoted wife,
Jane Lathrop Stanford,—spoken of in detail elsewhere in this volume,—united in
founding and endowing a university for both sexes to be called the Leland
Stanford Junior University, and to be located at Palo Alto. The estates granted
for this purpose included the Palo Alto farm, the Gridley farm and the Vina
farm, aggregating 83,000 acres of land, and the total endowment of the new
university in land and money was estimated to be $20,000,000. The university has
for many years been in successful operation, and is surely destined to become
more and more, one of the foremost seats of learning in the world, being
unrivaled in munificence of endowment. Its doors were opened in October, 1891,
to over 500 students, and for the current year there are five times that number,
despite the exactions of high standards, in attendance. From the inception of
the idea of founding the university, through every stage of its development and
through every period of its operation, Mrs. Stanford was the earnest,
enthusiastic, never-failing, helpful friend, and to her was committed the task,
in part left uncompleted by her husband, of still further widening the
university's influence and increasing its usefulness.

  In 1885, Mr. Stanford was elected a member of the United States Senate, and
took his seat on the 4th of March; and he was reelected for the term ending
March 3, 1897. His name will forever be associated with the Land-Loan bill,
which he originated and presented to the Senate; and his addresses on this
measure have been quoted in works on political economy in every language of
civilization. The bill proposed, in brief, that money should be issued upon land
to half the amount of its value, and for such loans the government was to
receive an annual interest of two per cent. Mr. Stanford frequently-stated that
if the measure were adopted it would, in time, raise revenue enough to pay the
entire expenses of the government, and would thus take the tariff question
entirely out of politics. The high estimates formed of the value of Mr.
Stanford's services as a Senator are set forth in the appreciative addresses of
his associates in Congress, delivered upon the occasion of his memorial.

  It is worthy of interest, in discussing this one preeminent representative of
the Stanford family in America, to recall another Stanford, a distant relative
and also a member of the English circle. John Stanford, a clergyman, came to the
United States in 1786, opened an academy in New York City, interested himself
especially in charitable institutions, and originated the New York House of
Refuge, the first juvenile reformatory in America which separated children from
hardened criminals in the penitentiary. He was also one of the chief promoters
of the New York Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. The first library of Bellevue
Hospital was suggested by him; and it is interesting, in the light of what Mrs.
Stanford, in particular, did for the Stanford University Library, that this was
named in his honor the "Stanford Library Association of Bellevue Hospital." By
request of the Common Council in New York in 1825 his portrait was painted by
Samuel F. B. Morse, of telegraph fame, and now hangs in the New York Department
of Charities.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
EUGENE T. SAWYER

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 
1922


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