Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-02-15
A SUCCESSFUL AMERICAN.
STORY OF SENATOR STANFORD'S
INTERESTING LIFE.
An Albany County Boy Who Went
West and Found Both Fame
and Fortune.

|
Senate, man who is pointed out perhaps
as often as any other, is Senator Stanford.
Tall, but well proportional, with gray
ish mustache and whiskers, full, round
head well covered with hair turning gray,
a strong nose an expressive mouth and an
expansive forehead, Senator Stanford sits
easily in his chair apparently little inter
ested, but at the same time deep observer
of all that passes about him.
AN ALBANY BOY.
In 1924 Leland Stanford was born in a
farmers house on the Schenectady turn
pike, three miles from Albany. He was
the son Of a prosperous farmer of good
American stock, with a lineage going back
to the early colonial days. A farmers
| boy he was and continued to be until his
| seventeenth year, sturdy, stalwart, indus
trious and intelligent. At the age of II
he went to the CaZenovia Seminary where
Philip ID. Armour Senator Hawley, Chas.
Dudley Warner, Bishop Andrews and
many other men, now prominent in Amer
lean life, received their early education.
SEEKING A PROFESSION.
Young Stanford had made up his mind
to study the law and to seek his fame and
fortune in that inviting profession, espe-
cially inviting at that time to American
youth with an inclination to public life.
| At Cazenovia he was careful, plodding
student, not especially brilliant, but with
a genius for hard work which made him
2onspicuously successful. Leaving the in
stitution he went to Albany and studied
law in the Office of Henry Wheaton. There
were two other members of the firm. Mr..
| Doolittle and Amos X. Hadley. After
remaining in this Office for three years
young Stanford, always ambitious and
eager to do for himself, was impressed by
Horace Greeley's advice to go West" He
was advised by Mr.. Wheaton to continue
the study Of law and was promised the
place Of Mr.. Doolittle when the latter re-
tired from the firm, as he expected to
within = few years. But the young man
was restless and was not satisfied by the
promise. Mr.. Hadley advised him to open
an Office in Albany. He said: "If you
will get ready for business, business will
get ready for you" After thinking the
matter over carefully young Stanford re-
solved to go West, and in lS4S he started
for Chicago.
| DRIVEN OUT BY MOSQUITOES.
Arriving in that city with letters of in
PRODUCTION from Albany friends he foresaw
its coming growth, but was so disturbed by
the attacks of clouds of mosquitoes, to
which he had a special aversion, that he
finally, in disgust, packed up his belong
ings and started for Fort Washington,
about thirty miles from Milwaukee. He
had been lead to believe that it would be-
come a thriving city by his observations
on the way to Chicago lie noticed many
immigrants arriving in the town, which
was Just being laid out. Many new build
| ings were being erected, and while at the
depot he had been told by gossiper that
Fort Washington was bound to become a
great and prosperous Western metropolis.
For three years young Stanford remained
at Fort Washington practicing law In
that time he had made nearly $1,000, all
of which had been absorbed in the pur-
chase of library. This was the largest
and best law library in the State at that
time, and its reputation was so widespread
that the Supreme Court Judges often tray
eled from Milwaukee to Fort Washington
to consult its volumes.
! HIS FIRST MISFORTUNE.
Fate pointed out the way to the young
man. One night fire broke out which
consumed the building containing the
young lawyers office He arrived on the
scene in time to see the flames licking up
his precious library and all the contents of
his Office. There, while gazing at the re-
morseless flames, he says he decided to go
TO California. He had five brothers living
in Sacramento who had been anxious to
have him with them, and he resolved that
he would go Taking what he had accu-
mulated-about S600-and selling little
piece of timber land-about forty acres
which he had purchased, he left Fort
Washington with $1,000, the accumulation
of three years.
MODEST AMBITION.
He had resolutely made up his mind to
go to California, the land that was then
supposed to be flowing with milk and hon
ey, with occasional chunks of gold thrown
in, to stay year or two, save $4,000,
and return. He went at once into a store
at Sacramento and finding business profita-
bic, continued in it, and at the close of
three years found himself worth over
$4,000, and quite contented with the Pa
cifc coast. His business continued to inn
prove, and as his fortune grew larger his
alert and active mind began to take in
wider fields of operation.
| AN ALBANY ENGINEERS SUGGESTION.
| The young man remembered that when
a lad, an engineer named Asa Whitney, of
| A lbnnU hoI frannarflx- tall-aI Mr.
| Stanford's father in regard to project for
the building of railroad to Oregon. Whit
new was one of the engineers who built the
old Albany and Schenectady Railroad
| He was man of prominence and an en-
gineer of conceded ability. At that early
| day he had in his mind the project of a
trans-continental railroad, and young Stan
ford, who had listened to the conversations
between his father and Whitney, and who
still bore in mind the suggestions that had
been developed, was impressed with the be-
lief that the time had come, or would soon
come, when the "iron horse1 would cross
the continent About this time n surveyor
had been travelling about the Rockies max
ing surveys. There was general impress
sion abroad that railroad would shortly
be built, and this surveyor, more enter
| prlslng than some Others, already began to
look over the field to find railroad pass
in the mountains.
CoNCEIvING GREAT PROJECT.
Mr.. Stanford, at his store, consulted with
his brothers and with Huntington and
Crocker, who were also store-keepers and
intimate friends, and together they seri-
ously discussed the project of a railroad
that would reach into the mining camps
on the borders of Nevada. These camps
were then being located. The rates of
freightage were very high, and it was seen
beyond doubt that railroad, no matter if
it was very costly to build, would bring in
a handsome revenue. The engineer who
had made the surveys was called in the
council, and finally it was decided to or
ganize under the State law and build a
road over the Sierras about $50 miles for
the transportation of mining supplies and
materials, as well as for passenger bust
ness. This road of course would have no
Eastern terminus of Importance, but it was
hoped if the project for the construction of
trans-continental railroad from Omaha
West was taken up, that their line would
be made the Western outlet.
THE BEGINNING OF THE ROAD.