Sacramento
County
Biographies
CHARLES
F. CROCKER
The Native Sons of California have selected
(sic) themselves to be worthy representatives of the honored pioneers.
Association and surroundings often make the character of men. Charles F.
Crocker is the son of the late Charles Crocker, who was associated with Messrs.
Stanford, Hopkins, and Huntington in building the first transcontinental
railroad. It is to his energy, tact and executive ability as chief of
construction that great obstacles were overcome and the first railroad built
across the Sierra Nevada Mountains under great disadvantage and in a very short
time. Col. Crocker was born in Sacramento in 1854, and his surroundings and
education have fitted him to carry out and consummate the great enterprises
planned by his illustrious father. His paternal ancestry was from good old New
England stock and his mother, who has become distinguished for her many and
generous benefactions, had the highest tribute paid to her as a wife by her
husband in his lifetime. It was done at a great reception in the “Crocker
Mansion” a few years since. During the evening amid dazzling splendor,
sparkling gems and congratulatory speeches, Charles Crocker said: “I have lived
in a cabin with my wife, and any success I have had in life I owe to this
little woman.” Col. Crocker attended College Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn,
New York, and, to gain a thorough practical knowledge of the railroad business,
took service in the General Freight Office and other departments until he was
called to the executive office of the Central Pacific, where he assumed the
management of the O. & O. S. S. Co’s (sic) affairs. He was one of the
delegates to Chicago that nominated President Harrison in 1888, and has been
Vice-President of the Southern Pacific Railroad since 1879. He has shown great
executive ability as one of the railroad managers of the Golden State and as a
representative of the Native Sons of California it was very appropriate to
select him as trustee of the Leland Stanford, Junior, University.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Illustrated Fraternal Directory Including
Educational Institutions on the Pacific Coast”, Page 80, Publ. Bancroft
Co., San Francisco. Cal. 1889.
© 2012 Cecelia
M. Setty.