Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-08-21
A Grand Career.


ried a daughter of Governor Hinckley
This Croker was soldier in the Nara
gansett war in Rhode Island, and died in
1898. Some of descendants went to Albany,
n. y, about the middle of the last CEN
that State. There Charles Croker was
born on September 10, 1922. At that time
his family was poor, and the addition of
one member was a blessing in disguise.
But Charles soon showed that he was of a
decidedly helpful nature, and he was little
more than child when he began to lend
his father assistance.
There was but little time for education,
but the boy was hungry for learning, and
in the intervals of labor he managed to Sc
cure knowledge of the ordinary English
! branches, and was always a persistent
reader of the newspapers.
Charles Croker was Z years old when
he saw the beginning of the railroad sys-
TENS of the United States. The first charter
for building railroad in this country was
granted by the New York Legislature in
1929, its termini being Albany and Sche-
nectady. The boy watched the work with
extreme interest, and it is possible that he
at that time drew in taste for railroad
building which afterward shaped his life
and made him famous.
When but Q years of age the lad decided
to be sole trader, and began selling news
I papers on the streets of Troy. What he
earned he saved, and from being news
boy he became news-agent, with a stand
and assistants. The venture proved profta-
bic, and in a few years he was in position
to aid his parents in buying farm and
building up a home in Marshall county,
! Ind. For two years and half he worked
hard in clearing, fencing and blowing the
new land, only to see the family broken
up by the death of his mother He then
moved to nelghboring county and worked
as hand in the lumber mill of John J.
Deming, going to school whenever an op-
portunity presented itself
Iron had far more attraction than wood,
however, and in 1841 he started in to
learn the manufacture of bar-iron by work
ing in forge shop. The knowledge here
gained he was speedily and most oppor-
timely able to put into use. A body of
iron ore was discovered near his old home
in Marshall county. This he secured, and
then forming a partnership with the man
who had taught him the trade, engaged In
~
forge was built and worked successfully for
three years, when the news of the gold dis
coveries in California reached the work.
men, and Croker resolved to give up iron
for gold, as he had given up wood for iron.
He sold his forge in 1849, but while wait
ing for the papers of sale the establishment
was burned down. Croker at once, and
as he has since SO often done, proceeded to
repair damages, rebuilt the forge, put it in
running order and closed the sale at a
profit
He started from Marshall county, Ind
on the long trip to the scene of Marshalrs
discovery in the spring of 1850, reaching
Sacramento in the August of the same
year. The trip from the Missouri river to
the Capital of California took him Just 100
days; nineteen years afterward he made
the same journey in one of his palace cars
in just 100 hours.
Having come to California to mine, he
lost no time in doing so, and went at once
to Big Canyon, Ell Dorado county, where
he bought and worked a claim. For six
months he tried this with but limited
success, and then gave it up and turned
his attention to trade, his first step being
to start miners store Prospecting in
this, he moved to Sacramento in the spring
of 1852 and opened dry goods house. 1t
was not long before he took rank as one of
the capitals leading merchants. In the
| fall of the year he went East and was mar
ried, his wife being Miss Mary A. Deming,
daughter of his former employer, John J.
| Deming the Indiana lumber man. About
| two weeks before this Sacramento was
destroyed by fire, Crocker's establishment
with the others. The only source of in
| formation from the West then was by
steamer, and it was not until week after
his marriage that he heard of his loss.
Nothing dismayed, he returned to Cali
fornia, secured ample credit, built new
and larger store and resumed business.
In 1850 he was elected to the State Leg
islature from Sacramento county on the
Republican ticket The picnics of which
he was the life, and the country balls
which he led off in that campaign, are
among the liveliest incidents of the politi-
cal history of the county. Charles
| Croker was also a member of the Com
mon Council and the Levee Commission,
serving well and faithfully in all these ca
pacities.
Before this, however, there was one idea
that had become the engrossing object of
his life, that being the building of the
| Central Pacific Railroad. Taking the
most definite step in his life in 1862 he
sold out his business, and joining his for
tune with those of his brother, Z. B.
Croker, Leland Stanford, c. P. Hunting
| ton and Mark Hopkins, began to prepare
| for the construction of the railroad The
| first move in the enterprise was to have
the route surveyed, and this resulted in
the opinion that the work was well-nigh a
physical impossibility. Not only was
there the steep ascent of the Sierras,
whose lowest pass within a distance of
eighty miles was at an elevation of 1000
feet, as an engineering difficulty of almost
appalling magnitude, but when the
| Sierras were crossed there remained the
middle desert without wood and almost
without population. Then came the pc
cuniary difficulties, Congress refused its
aid until forty miles of rail and telegraph
had been completed as an earnest of what
| was to be done. A charter was obtained
| from the Legislature of California, an or
| ganization was effected and on February
%, 1862, ground was broken and the work
commenced amid the lowering storm of
civil war, with the national finances dis
arranged, the national credit at lowest
ebb, capital distrustful and the very fate
of the nation trembling in the balance,
Charles Croker took the first contract of
eighteen miles, and then, other contrac-
tors having failed to meet their agreements,
the company let him have the contract
for building the entire road from two
miles this side of Newcastle to the State
line His official position was that of
Superintendent of Construction, as well as
being President of the Contract and FL
nance Company, continuing so until the
road was completed and organized.
AS Superintendent he showed an extra
ordinary ability in handling men and ma
terial until his name grew proverbial as
an organizer and manager. Under him
| there Was an army of 10 900 lahorers team