St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-25
One of the Long List Of MILL
Ionaires Is a Shrewd Bust
ness Woman.
Senator Leland Stanford Said
to Be Worth About $780,
100000.
S. G. Havepmale, a Minister,
Has Accumulated a Mill
ion and a Half.


words, agriculture, the mainstay OF
the well being of commonwealth. has
strobe forward with seven-league boots
and the soil has answered the prayer OF
the husbandman, when tiocks and herds
have increased and multiplied, and
when the mines have yielded their
stored treasures to the magIan pick OF
the MINER" the San Francisco Examiner
on Christmas morning published an in
teresting review of the lives of thirty
nine of CALIFORNIA; most successful ac-
cumulators. Eighteen columns were
devoted to the millionaires. Most of
them were early settlers. They were
wonderful people. Especially were
they wonderful in their ability TO fore
see, and to foresee remarkable things.
The article tells how, 'in their hope
inspired vision. grain sprouted IN
green leagues from the footsteps OF
steer and broncho; great steamers came
and went, shuttleS in the loom OF trade;
putting engines pierced the ribs OF the
mountains and Snorted down the slopes,
black cavalry of commerce Shrieking In
the face of dawn" When a citizen of
the effete East has visions of putting
and snorting engines and black cavalry
the doctors give him bromide. But Cal
ifornia is a land of wonders, and the
visions of her early settlers have not
only been realized: her resources and
her achievements are far beyond the
dreams of her pioneers.
One of these capitalists is woman.
Only one Of them is a native Calltor-
man. The others were born in far-away
states or in foreign countries. They
were the men who kept the money so
easily made years ago. That was the
difficult thing to do. Thousands OF meu
made money and spent it. Only the lew
made money and kept 1t.
AS foremost among the wealthy men
of the state, and probably the wealthiest
man in San Francisco county, Leland
Stanford is given. The Western fever
seized Stanford after his admission to
the bar of Albany county, this state.
He went to Wisconsin and opened an
office in the village of Port Wash
ingtOn. There was no wild rush
of clients for his advice during
the four years that he remained
there. One day his office and library
were burned, and Stanford is said to
have arrived at such philosophical
state of mind, owing to the lack OF bust
ness, that he watched their destruction
with calm indifference. He said fare
we'll to the law and to Wisconsin, and
| in 1852 went to California, donned blue
shirt, rolled up its sleeves and went to
| mining at Michigan Bluff, Placer
| county. He was fairly successful as a
miner, but it took him only short time
| to divine the fact that there were
| speedier and better ways Of accumulat-
| ing money in mining country than by
| digging it out of the ground. He went
| to Sacramento and engaged in mercan-
| tile pursuits, ami when, in 1861. he was
| invited to Ejoin c. p. Huntington,
Charles Croker and Mark Hopkins i'll
| the organization of the Central Pacific
| Railroad company, he had already ac-
CURED a fortune Of some magnitude.
The year 1861 was a good one for
| Stanford. He was chosen president OF
the railroad, and elected governor of
| the state. He served as governor until
December, 1868. He had found time,
however, 10 hurry along the construc-
ton of the railroad. one of his achieve
ments being the building OF $50 miles
| over the Sierra Nevada mountains in
296 DAYS, and it was on May Is, 1869,
that he drove the last spike which
marked the completion of the road and
| it's junction with. the Union Pacific at
| PromontoPy Point. Stanford branched
| out then as railroad owner. He be-
came the president of the Southern Pa
| citic, and held the place until April last,
when, much to his disgust, his friend
of early days and opponent of later
years, c.. p. huntington, succeeded
him, and then was fairly started the
battle between the two magnateS which
is still raging under the surface.
Stanford'S grief at the death OF his
only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., which
occurred in 1885 while the family was
in Europe, was overwhelming. He
worshipped his boy, and a S20,000,O00
| monument to his memory is IN process
| of construction at Palo Alto Ill the form
| of university. Mr.. Stanford has been
a member of the United States senate
! since January, 1885. His term expires
next March. He may succeed himself
and he may not. Estimates of the SEN
ator's fortune vary. They run from
| 100000 to S900O0,000. Californians
who are in position to know, however,
| give the amount as $50,000,0 900, on the
interest of which the senator manages
to keep the wolf from the door.
A man of interesting individuality is
ex-senator James q. Fair. All rich
Californians are interesting, but Fair is
especially so, because, perhaps, of the
prominent part he played i'll bold and
successful speculative campaigns with
those men of nerve, Flood, MackaY and
O'Brien. Fair was an Irish lad. Clogher,
Tyrone county, Ireland, was his birth
place, and December, 1881, was the time
of his birth.
He was sixteen years old when, while
strug gIing for livelihood Ill chi
cago, he heard that double eagles grew
4 fnl Nnh 01 fnr no 1 4, II
ing, and that men drank champagne
from pals in a country far in the West.
He went there overland. He mined
without success until. in 1860, he
went to Virginia City, Nevada,
and out of the Comstock lode
he took the greater portion of his. pres
ent colossal fortune. 1t was a few years
atterward when the great bonanza firm
was formed. 1t was dissolved only q
few years ago by O'Brien's death. Fail
began to invest in real estate in San
Francisco in 1868, and the advance il
values has steadily increased his fort
une. He owns now eighty acres OF
land in the business portion OF the city
Fair built railroad called the South
Pacific Coast railroad about eleven
wears ago. 1t cost him comparatively
Small sum. 1t ran from Oakland tt
Santa Cruz. Four years ago the South
ern Pacific wanted the road. They got
it after paying 100000 for it. This
was practically all profit, for the opera
ton of the road had paid for it. Will
this S7,OOO,OO0, the Sl5,000,000 which he
took out of the Comstock lode, and his
San Francisco real estate. the Irish
lads fortune is estimated at about $780,,
100000.
Luck helped the richest man il
Alameda county-vulgar luck. He is
Frederick Delger. He was cobbler il
Germany. Early in the fifties he wen
to Oakland. Cal. There he mended shoes
He only mended enough to give him {
living and to buy each month a lottery
ticket. One day he was envied by the
thousands who buy lottery tickets an(
never win. He hadwon $4,000. Witt
it he bought two blocks of land In Oak
land that half million would not buy
now. He invested in no more lottery
tickets. His land doubled and treble(
and compounded his money. Now he il
the largest property holder in Alamen
| da county.