History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 60

Author: Sawyer, Eugene T
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1934

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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 estab- lished, 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 Cali- fornia would cause his fame to be handed down to future ages.

The part taken by Leland Stanford in the construc- tion of the Central Pacific Railroad is better known,

however, than any other portion of his varied and ex- ceedingly 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 con- structing 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 voy- age 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 rail- road-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 con- versation with C. P. Huntington, a hardware mer- chant 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 pres- ent. The result of these conferences was a deter- mination 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 sur- vey, 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. Hunting- ton, 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 se- cured; 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 condi- tion 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 tele- graph 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 aid- ing in the construction of said railroad and telegraph line, and to receive the safe and speedy transporta- tion 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 pre- emption or homestead claim may not have been at- tached, at the time the line of said road is definitely fixed." Mineral lands were exempted from the opera- tions of the act. The Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to issue to the company, upon the comple- tion and equipment of forty consecutive miles of the railroad and telegraph, bonds of the United States,

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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 for 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 Califor- nia was authorized to construct a railroad and tele- graph 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 Pa- cific 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 com- pleting 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 pro- visions were materially amended, the time for desig- nating the general route, for filing the map of the same, and of building the part of these roads first re- quired 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 sec- tions, 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 provi- sion for withholding a portion of the bonds author- ized 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 Cen- tral 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 Pa- cific 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 sec- tions of the country. With a courage which never faltered, and an ability that rose equal to the difficul- ties 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 re- markable ability, the peculiar ability of one in a par- ticular sphere of action supplementing the peculiar ability of another in another sphere, and all working

in harmony for the common purpose. From the be- ginning 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 Stan- ford realized a colossal fortune, but with the attain- ment 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 2:0814, and "Palo Alto," whose record was 2:0834, and "Arion" with a two year old record of 2:1034, 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 Flor- ence, 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 else- where in this volume,-united in founding and endow- ing 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 un- rivaled 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 found- ing the university, through every stage of its develop- ment 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 fur- ther widening the university's influence and increas- ing 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

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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 econ- omy in every language of civilization. The bill pro- posed, 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 in- terest 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 tormed 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 occa- sion of his memorial.

It is worthy of interest, in discussing this one pre- eminent representative of the Stanford family in America, to recall another Stanford, a distant rela- tive and also a member of the English circle. John Stanford, a clergyman, came to the United States in 1286. opened an academy in New York City, inter- ested 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. Stan- ford, in particular, did for the Stanford University Library, that this was named in his honor the "Stan- ford 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 De- partment of Charities.

JANE LATHROP STANFORD .- Few American women so deservedly occupy the preeminent position universally accorded Mrs. Jane Lathrop Stanford in the history of the American nation, and few Americans, women or men, bid fair to be found equally prominent to a commanding and revering degree in the halls of fame as the centuries recede and other men and women of note play their parts and come by superior merit to the fore. She was born at Albany, N. Y .. on August 25, 1825, was married to Leland Stanford, and began her social life when he was elected gov- ernor of California in 1861, and after his death she was occupied chiefly in fostering and developing The Leland Stanford, Jr., University, which she had aided her husband to establish in memory of their son, in 1891, a mere boy cut off by untimely death.

In 1901, Mrs. Stanford increased her gifts to the university by transferring to its trustees securities valued at $18,000,000, her residence in San Francisco, held at $400,000, and specified for a museum and art gallery, and some 12,000 acres of land valued at $12,000,000; and she subsequently added other bene- factions, thus making the university the wealthiest university in the world. She also established the Children's Hospital in her native city, the Empire

State capital, at a cost of $100,000, and provided an- other $100,000 for its permanent endowment; and she gave $160,000 to various schools in San Fran- cisco, particularly favoring the establishing and ex- tension of the German kindergarten, then bidding for acknowledgment and support, and now admitted as one of the best things given to the world by the idealists of the Fatherland.

One of the especially interesting incidents in Mrs. Stanford's philanthropic and romantic life is her crea- tion of a special fund for the purchase of books for the university library-almost a prophetic endeavor on her part in the light of the appalling disaster that was soon to affect all the great libraries of the Bay district. In February, 1905, as she was about to sail

for the Hawaiian Islands in the hope of restoring her health, she delivered to the board of trustees a letter of instruction with respect to the disposition of her jewels, which in 1899 had been transferred to the trustees to insure the completion of the Memorial Church. She said: "I was subsequently enabled to erect the Memorial Church without the necessity of resorting to the sale of these jewels. In view of the facts and of my interest in the future development of the university library, I now request the trustees to establish and maintain a library fund, and upon the sale of said jewels, after my departure from this life, I desire that the proceeds therefrom be paid into said fund and be preserved intact and be invested in bonds or real estate as a part of the capital of the endowment, and that the income therefrom be used exclusively for the purchase of books and other pub- lications. 1 desire the fund to be known and desig- nated as the Jewel Fund." In 1908, in accordance with these instructions from Mrs. Stanford, the board of trustees established the "Jewel Fund," call- ing it into activity through the following resolution. "Now, therefore, in order to carry out said plan of Mrs. Stanford and to establish and maintain an ade- quate library fund and to perform the promise made by this board to her, it is-Resolved, that a fund of $500,000, to be known and designated as the Jewel l.und is hereby created and established, which fund shall be preserved intact, and shall be separately in- vested and kept invested in bonds or real estate by the board of trustees, and the increase of said fund shall be used exclusively in the purchase of books and other publications for the library of the Leland Stanford Junior University, under the supervision and direction of the library committee of this board of trustees." The immediate result of this action was to make available for the purchase of books about $20,000 each year. In 1910, also, the board of trus- tees accepted the design of Edwin Howland Blash- field, the artist and author whose work at the Colum- bian Exposition, in the Congressional Library at Washington, in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the private residence of C. P. Huntington, New York City, has given him lasting fame, for a book-plate to be placed in all books purchased on account of the Jewel Fund. From this journey to Honolulu Mrs. Stanford did not return alive, for she breathed her last in the Hawaiian Islands on February 28, 1905.

for My Brown

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GEORGE MILLER BROWN .- Interesting, in- structive and inspiring is the story of the part played by the many sons and daughters of historic old England who, in settling as pioneers in California and the neighboring sister states, have contributed mightily, through hard work, venture and sacrifice, to the upbuilding of great commonwealths. Promi- nent among such worthy pioneers of the "right little, tight little island" who have helped to lay broad and deep the foundations of romantic California, and in doing so best developed the resources of the Golden State, is George Miller Brown, a native of Gloucestershire, England, long prominent as one of the most successful growers of Bartlett pears in the Santa Clara Valley, and very influential-fortunately always in the direction of ennobling Christian en- deavor and moral uplift-as a far-seeing capitalist.

Mr. Brown was born at Stow-on-the-Wold, in Southwest England, on August 16, 1843, fortunate in his honorable parentage, but unhappily the fam- ily was so soon broken up that at a very early age he was compelled to push out into the world and struggle for himself. He went to school only until his eighth year, but being naturally apt, got more out of his books and teachers than many a child of less necessity. At nine years of age he drove a four- ox team hitched to a plow, being given that re- sponsible job because he could "fill the bill" bettet than any grown-up workman on the place. Seeing the promise in the lad, his employer remarked, "George, you will beat your master yet," and this prophecy was, in time, literally fulfilled. He con- tinned to work at farm labor on a large English estate, and when he was only fifteen he was made foreman and given charge of the cultivation of 300 acres, with a dairy and sheep, cattle and horses.

In 1861 Mr. Brown left England for the United States, and landed in New York, then seething with its first year's participation in the Civil War; and probably on account of the disturbed conditions there, he went on to Hamilton, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Ontario. He accompanied his brother, James M. Brown, a tailor, who previously had made a trip to the United States, had gone as far as California, and had seen the stirring life of the gold diggings in 1850. George Brown entered the employ of a Hamilton doctor, and he continued with him until he came out to California.

The steerage ticket to San Francisco at that time cost $100, which represented all the money Mr. Brown had been able to save; but a friend who was anxious that he go with him, and who had a small capital of $2,000, advanced him enough cash to en- able him to reach the Promised Land. When he reached California, however, he had only twenty dollars left, so he went to work at once on a farm in Alameda County and stayed there a year. He rcpaid the thirty dollars advanced to him by his friend-repaying in shining gold-all within sixty days after his arrival in the Bay City in April, 1862. When he had been in California two and a half years, Mr. Brown followed his brother to Van- conver Island, where he preempted some land near Nanaimo, taking up 100 acres, and having brought with him, by boat, a yoke of oxen and four cows, he set to work to do the best he could with the undeveloped tract.

At the end of two years, however, Mr. Brown was not suited with his location, and so he turned his claim, stock and all other possessions over to his brother and came back to California. He had a capital of $600 when he arrived at Nanaimo, and when he arrived in Alameda in 1866 his last two-bits were gone. He found his place open on Judge Hast- ings' farm and for ten months continued in his em- ploy; and then he worked for Franklin Pancos, the pioneer strawberry grower, with whom he came to Santa Clara County and formed a partnership. They rented thirty-six acres in the Jefferson district, in Santa Clara County, in 1868, and put the entire tract in strawberries; later he formed a partnership with another young man who had set out ten acres to strawberries on a part of Mr. Brown's present land. About 1871 he bought out his partner, and then he continued to raise strawberries on rented land. He had twenty-two acres in berries and in the height of the season it took ninety-eight men to pick them before they spoiled, and when all his expenses had been paid, he had just ten dollars left. It took him thirteen years to pay for his first twenty-two acres, the nucleus of his present place; since then he has added by purchasing adjoining until he has 102 acres in a body, and it took forty-four years to pay for it with all the improvements, for he kept right on improving.

About forty years ago Mr. Brown helped put out the pear trees on what is now Mrs. Weston's place. There were some trees left, so he set them on his own place, which was the beginning of his present orchard, in what is now the greatest Bartlett pear district in California. Mr. Brown alone has 102 acres, which is said to be the finest Bartlett pear orchard in the United States-decidedly an inspiring triumph after years of hardship and discourage- ments. Mr. Brown and his wife also have other valuable realty holdings and are active in financial as well as commercial circles.

In San Jose, January 29, 1885, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Emma Lobb, also a native of Eng- land, who was born at St. Hoswell, a daughter of Henry and Jane Lobb, who emigrated with their family via the Isthmus of Panama in 1869, to Nevada County, Cal .; the father was a miner in Grass Val- ley until they came to San Jose, where he and his wife passed their remaining years. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Brown has been blessed with the birth of five children: Alfred is the foreman of his father's ranch and is also the owner of pear orchards and a prominent nurseryman, raising all kinds of fruit trees for the wholesale and retail trade. He has come to be known as an authority on horticulture and his advice is frequently sought by others. Albert is engaged in auto transportation, having a fleet of trucks for the purpose; he married Miss Viola Chew and they have three children. His headquarters are in San Jose where he resides with his family. Wal- ter, when only seventeen, enlisted for service on the Mexican border, was later sent to France, where he was wounded, and was honorably discharged at the completion of his patriotic service; he married Isabel Shirley and they have one son. Ella L. is a graduate of the San Jose State Normal, and during the World War served for ten months in the Red Cross as a field volunteer, paying her own expenses. She went

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overseas, serving in France, and since her return makes her home with her parents. She is very fond of travel and is somewhat of a globe trotter, having visited every continent, as well as the South Seas, Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, West Indies and Azores, and has also dug gold in Alaska. She has crossed the Arctic Circle and has sailed almost to the Antarctic Circle. She is now in charge of the relief work for San Jose Post No. 89, American Legion, and is a member of American Women's Overseas League of San Francisco. Edith, a gradu- ate of the Santa Clara high school, was also very patriotic and was placed in charge of Red Cross work for the Jefferson district during the war. She is now the wife of Floyd Jamison, who served with the A. E. F. in France; he is an electrician, and they make their home in San Jose, where she is active in the work of Trinity Episcopal Church.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 60

Author: Sawyer, Eugene T Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1934

Author: Sawyer, Eugene T
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1934