Santa
Clara County
Biographies
LELAND
STANFORD
Leland
Stanford (deceased) was born in Watervliet Township
near Troy, New York, on March 9, 1824, and died on June 21, 1893, at Palo Alto,
California. He was the son of Josiah an Elizabeth Phillips Stanford.
Mr. Stanford received no college
degrees. He attended public schools until twelve years old, then studied under
a tutor, and later at Clinton Liberal Institute in New York, 1841-1845, and for
a short while at Cazenovia Seminary in New York.
In 1845 he joined the Albany (New
York) firm of Wheaton, Doolittle and Hadley as an apprentice in law, which was
then the usual route to law practice, and was admitted to the New York State
Bar in 1848.
Mr. Stanford began his career in the
law offices of Pierce and Stanford, Port Washington, Wisconsin. He wrote
occasionally for the Milwaukee paper and attempted to start a local paper. In
1852 he started a branch store of Stanford Brothers chain (with N. T. Smith) at
Cold Springs, El Dorado County, California, and in 1852, moved the store to
Michigan Bluff, Placer County, California. In 1855 he took over the Stanford
Brothers store in Sacramento, California.
In 1861 Mr. Stanford became a member
of the Board of Directors of the Incorporation of Central Pacific Railroad
Company of California and served as president and director, handling all
matters involving legislation and relations with legislative bodies, until his
death. In 1869 The Associates, Stanford, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins and
Collis P. Huntington, bought the Southern Pacific Railroad, and in the same
year, the Central Pacific Railroad was completed and joined with the Union
Pacific for the first transcontinental railroad. Mr. Stanford’s business life
then became devoted to strengthening and expanding railroad properties. In 1873
Mr. Stanford and railroad office moved to San Francisco, California. He was director
of Southern Pacific Company, 1885-93, and president, 1885-90; director of
Southern Pacific Company, 1885-93; and president, 1885-90; director of Southern
Pacific Railroad, 1889-90; and was at all times a shareholder in and
contributor to the resources of the construction companies, such as Contract
and Finance Company, which built the Central and Southern Pacific and their
allied properties.
Mr. Stanford was Whig candidate for
county district attorney in Port Washington, Wisconsin, in 1850; elected Justice
of the Peace in Michigan Bluff, California, in 1854; assisted in organization
of the Republican party and was delegate to the State
Republican National Convention but did not attend. From 1862 to 1863 he served
as Governor of California, wherein his main job was to keep California in the
Union. He started the Palo Alto Stock Farm in 1876 and in the study, breeding
and development of horses, he did much to improve the
grade of California horses. From 1885 to 1893 he served as United States
Senator.
As a memorial to his only son,
Leland Stanford, Jr., the Leland Stanford, Jr. University was founded in 1885;
the Stanford University in 1891.
Mr. Stanford married Jane Lathrop on
September 30, 1850, and they had one son, Leland, Jr., who was born May 14, 1868,
and died March 13, 1883.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Eminent Californians 1953”,
by Lee E. Johnson & C. W. Taylor. Pages 483-484, C. W.
Taylor Publ., Palo Alto, California, 1953.
© 2014 Cecelia M. Setty.