The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-07-02
Sketch OF the California Benefactor.
From the San Francisco CALI

James Lick has been among the most
noteworthy of all our earlier pioneers.
Naturally modest and reticent to the
last degree, nearly all the acts of his
eventful life have remained unnoticed
until recently. We first find him in the
interior of Pennsylvania, a young mar
ried man, quietly pursuing course of
operations, evincing great enterprise i'm
their planning, untiring energy in their
execution, and promising great advantages
the pampas of Brazil and Buenos Ayres,
with his thousands of horses and cattle,
in the capacity of a great proprietor
from whom the governments of those
countries derived their supplies for the
cavalry and the commissariat. Again,
we find him on the other side of the con-
tinent, operating in the commercial me-
tropolis of Chill and Peru; everywhere,
and at all times, SO quiet and unobtru-
siye that none save those with whom he
had transactions in business, and those
who observed the external improvements
wrought by his enterprises, would be
aware of his existence. His mode, in all
departments of life, has never been in
rut, but sm generis. In Valparaiso he
was not only doing new things, but do
ing them in his own way. And, strange
as it may seem in such quiet man, he
was always reaching into enterprises in
advance of others, "taking time by the
forelock." When the news of the gold
discovery in California reached Valpar-
also, he was in business that would have
taken an ordinary man series of months,
at least, to so close up that he could
leave it with any sort of consistency; yet
he put doubloons enough in his trunk to
make $4,000, besides the expenses of the
trip, intrusted his business to a conf
Dental friend, and stepped on board the
first vessel leaving his place for San
Francisco. Arriving here, he found ex
actly what his sagaciOus mind had pre-
dicted from the moment that the golden
news reached him-viz., a SPLENDID OPP
portunity to invest in real estate. He
scanned the situation, foresaw the growth
of the town, selected his "corner lots"
with great good judgment, and invested
his meney. The property he then pur-
chased with $4,000 is perhaps to-day
worth many millions. In the first few
years he built sparingly and with great
care; afterward, literally and magnif-
Gently. In 1853 John B. Weller, United
States Senator from California said i'm
his place, "I would not give six bits for
all the agricultural lands in California"
At this very time Mr.. Lick was prepar-
ing the foundations of Touring mill in
Santa Clara County, which, with its
massive foundations, fine burr stones,
and interior finishings of solid mahogany,
had, before it was completed, cost him
half million of dollars. This done,
he took fifty acres of adjoining land, re-
duced its surface to spirit level, and
set by the square and compass, with his
own hands, the whole with the choicest
varieties of pear trees. These operations
and various others proved very remuner-
ative. He subsequently erected the
magnificent hotel in the city which bears
his name. Recently his acts have placed
him in the front rank of philanthropists
of this or any other country. He gave
to the Society of California Pioneers the
lot on Montgomery street, on which
Pioneer Hall stands.
Mr.. Lick has been for many months in
poor health, but has devoted all his at
tention to the arrangement of plans for
the disposal of his wealth in manner to
secure the greastest amount of good to
the coming generation of his fellow
men.