San Francisco County
Biographies
ALBERT GALLATIN
ALBERT GALLATIN, president of the
Huntington - Hopkins Company, as the head of this great concern, stands in the
very first rank in commercial circles on the Pacific Coast, and as his present
standing in the business world has been won by his own abilities and efforts, a
brief outline sketch of his career forms a fitting supplement to the history of
the company.
He
is a native of New York, born
December 10, 1835, his Parents being Daniel J. and Jane (Gray) Gallatin. The
father when a boy, was apprenticed to a trade at Stockholm,
Sweden, but as his
employer was cruel to him, he took advantage of an opportunity to escape by
shipping aboard a vessel. This led him into a seafaring life, which he followed
for twenty-five years. During this time he lost trace of his family, and was
never able to place himself in communication with them, but it is supposed that
they removed to America, and that from this source sprang the other branch of the Gallatin
family in this country. Daniel J. Gallatin died when his son, our subject, was
but eight years of age, so that the latter has not so through a knowledge of
his ancestry as would have probably been the case other wise.
Albert
Gallatin, with whose name this sketch commences, was reared on a farm in New
York State, and
received the ordinary educational advantages afforded by the district schools
of the neighborhood. He had a desire, however, for a more thorough education,
and when he was fifteen years of age he besought his brothers to assist him in
making his way through collage. Finding himself thrown on his own resources in
this case, he started out to make his own way in the world. He labored two
summers at farm work, he went to Baltimore,
and attended commercial collage. He diligently applied himself to the work and
study incident to the course there, and acquired knowledge and information
which has been of inestimable value to him throughout his later career. The
advantages to be obtained there were all the more greedily partaken of because
he had himself earned the money which gained him admission to the college.
After Graduation, he attempted to secure a school to teach, but being
unsuccessful, he returned to his home in New York
State.
Not
being willing to resume farm work again as a regular vocation, however he
decided to go West, and try his mettle in that land of boundless possibilities.
With $ 9 in his pocket, he undertook the westward trip. Arriving in Toledo,
he was undecided whither to go from that point. He had then but $5.75, and went
to the ticket office of the Michigan Southern railroad to inquire how far $5
would take him, his idea being that when he reached his destination he would
have 75 cents to keep him over night, and in case he failed to get immediate
employment in some mercantile establishment, he intended to go to work on a
farm for the purpose of replenishing his funds and going further West. Going to
Hudson, Michigan,
he secured a position in a hardware store at a salary of $100 per year and
board in the family of the proprietor. He remained there four or five years and
during that time had advanced from the position of office boy to that of a
bookkeeper, and his salary had been raised to $500 per year, a high rate
compensation for that day. His employer, who was much pleased with his services
earnestly desired that he should remain, but he felt
that the small size of the town precluded the opportunity of much further
advancement, and with this idea in view he went to Chicago.
This proved to be an unwise step at that time for the reason that the financial
depression of that time was then at its worst, and he could not obtain a
situation.
Going
to St. Louis, he met with no better
success there, and found that mercantile houses were closing their doors day by
day. He deposited his surplus money, a little over $300, in the bank of James
H. Lucas & Co., but when he concluded to leave the city he learned that the
bank had suspended. This unexpected crisis made it absolutely necessary that he
should find something to do. Crossing the street to where he say an old
Gentleman sitting on a dry goods box in front of a large wholesale
establishment, he asked him what the chances were to obtain employment. The
gentleman replied that the closing of so many houses had thrown out a large
number of employes, and that they should be given
employment in preference to a stranger, concluding by advising Mr.Gallatin to leave the city. This the
later expressed a perfect willingness to do, but had to confess his inability
to do so on account of the failure of Lucas & Co., having taken away his
funds. Inquiring the amount lost, the gentleman in formed him that there was a
law protecting small depositors, and gave him a card bearing an attorneys name
, telling him first to go and demand his money, and incase of refusal to say
that he would put the claim in that attorneys hands for collection. He made the
demand, received an offer of the amount in Illinois
currency, which was at ten per cent .discount, but he refused
, and was then paid in full.
After
going to thank the old gentleman for his kindly advice, he went down to the
levee intending to leave by steamer, but undecided as to where to go. Boarding
a New Orleans Steamer, he made inquiries in regard to the cost of a ticket to
the Crescent City,
and then went aboard an Ohio river
steamer, seeking similar information in regard to other points. On the latter
vessel he made the acquaintance of a young man who had been attending school at
St. Louis and who resided in the vicinity of Lexington,
Kentucky. He suggested that all the young
men who had been thrown out of employment on account of the financial
depression would eventually seek the main lines of travel between Boston and
New Orleans, and that if Mr. Gallatin would go to Lexington he would have
better chances of success. Although his old situation at Hudson, Michigan, was
open to him, he had to much pride to return there after having left to better
his fortunes, and so took the young man`s advice and
accompanied him to Lexington, where he obtained employment in a clothing and
furnishing goods house. His employers at Hudson,
learning his whereabouts, wrote and asked him to come back and help him wind up
his business, as he had concluded to retire from active life. He accepted the
offer, and returning to Hudson was
engaged in the work he had undertaken about a year. Then, becoming dissatisfied
and wishing to come to California,
he gave up the situation.
Going
to New York, he purchased a ticket for San
Francisco, but soon after met an uncle of his old Hudson
employer, who tried to persuade him from going. He said he could get him a
situation in a New York wholesale house, adding that the
California ticket could be sold.
He listened to the proposition with some favor, but as no satisfactory
situation could be obtained he held to his previously formed determination and
sailed from New York on the steamer North Star, and
crossing the Isthmus resumed the voyage by steamer, arriving in San
Francisco in May, 1860.
He
met two young men who had come from the mines, where they had met with
sufficient success to induce them to return. They persuaded him to go with
them, the understanding being that they should work claims in common. They took
a steamer up the Sacramento river
to Red Bluff, and proceeded thence by stage to Shasta. From
there they followed the trail across Scott mountain to Salmon
river, where they mined for a year, the result being a total loss
of money and time invested. This experience caused Mr. Gallatin to abandon
mining. Going to Red Bluff he met a man who had been a fellow- passenger on the
steamer to California, and this
gentleman tried to get him a situation in a mercantile house. The attempt was a
failure, and our subject went to Sacramento,
where after two weeks spent in a steady canvass of the business houses, he
succeeded in getting a place as general utility man in the hardware house of
Huntington & Hopkins, at 54 K street.
After three years there he went to Nevada, and engaged
in retail trade at Dayton, where he
remained two years, and was quite successful. Finding, however, that there was
not the opportunity to rise in the mercantile business there that a large city
would afford, and knowing that the firm of Huntington & Hopkins was engaged
in the building of the Pacific railroad, and consequently could not give to
their hardware business the attention it demanded, he wrote to Mr. Hopkins,
asking him if he could engage him in a capacity that would make it advantageous
for him to return to the firm. He received a reply from Mr. Hopkins, saying
that he would be very glad to have him come, and selling out his property in Dayton,
he returned to his old position. That was in 1867. January 1, 1868, with others
he was taken into the firm, the style of which was changed to Huntington,
Hopkins & Co. Business was conducted under this name for a period of twenty
years, when the firm was incorporated under the laws of California as the
Huntington-Hopkins Company, and Mr. Gallatin was elected president, which
relation he now bears to the corporation. In the mean time they bought, in
1872, the business of the Russell & Erwin Manufacturing Company, in San
Francisco, and opened their establishment here,
supplying very largely the materials used in the construction of the railroad
to the metropolis.
While
in Sacramento, Mr. Gallatin,
representing the interest of Mark Hopkins, was a director the Capital Savings
Bank, and a director and vice-president of the California State Bank. He
resigned his position in these institutions on removing to San
Francisco, in 1886. He was one of the incorporators of
the Capital Gas Company, which was afterwards consolidated with rival concern.
In
1882 he purchased a tract of 20,000 acres of land in Tehama county,
and later added to it until he had 50,000 acres, but has since sold out 20,000
acres of it, and is offering the remainder for sale. It is located in the west
side of the county, near Governor Stanford’s great vineyard.
Mr.
Gallatin, while a life long Republican has not only never sought office, but
has absolutely refused to accept any political position whatsoever.
He
is a man of signal business ability, but his success has been do in no small
degree to the two qualities, of foresight in taking advantage of opportunity,
and application to business at hand. Few men could withstand the constant high
pressure which the successful conducting of the affairs of such a corporation
as the Huntington-Hopkins Company involves, but Mr. Gallatin is not a seeker
after sinecures, preferring to be in the thickest of the fray of business.
Altogether,
he may be justly referred to as a fitting type of the best commercial element,
not only of the Pacific Coast,
but indeed, of the United States.
Transcribed by Kim Buck.
Source: "The Bay of San
Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages
501-503, Lewis Publishing
Co, 1892.
© 2006 Kim Buck.
California
Biography Project
San
Francisco County
California
Statewide
Golden
Nugget Library