The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-01-16
f,TTFORNIA'S RICH MEN.
,v WHO HAVE NOPE THAN RE-
81 LIVED EARLY DR. ANS.

-.szfi1l Now Ne 3rly all Started With
Idle or Nothing.
From the Net1 York Times.
v,vsd by the presence of a season of
-.,s-iry in a most bountiful year, when,
re its eloquent Golden Gate words, Tag
..-l,.re. the mainstay of the well-being of
.--.,-,rnouweaIth, has strobe forward with
lssgue boots and the soil has an
80 the prayer of the husba oman, when
-, and herds have increased and multi
"a and when the mines have yielded
stored treasures to the magian pick of
:. miner" the San Francisco Examiner
CHRISTMAS morning published an inter-
lin, review of the lives of thirty-nine of
C-,-fornia's most successful accumulators.
1--htsan columns were devoted to the
-57Iionsires. Most of them were early set
Us They were wonderful people. Espe-
.;.uv we're they wonderful in their ability
y sorssee. and to foresee remarkable things.
The article tells how, ''in their hope
inspired vision, grain sprouted In green
inognes from the footsteps OF steer and
S-S1co. great steamers came and went,
.Lvttles in the loom of trade; putting en-
-ioos MERGED the ribs of the mountains and
ss-oTted down the slopes, black cavalry of
soTsmarce shrieking in the face of DAWN
When a citizen of the effete east has visions
- nnfing and snorting engines and black
oayslry the doctors give him bromide. But
California is a land of wonders, and the
,7sions of her early settlers have not only
baan realized. Her resources and her
sc6ievements are far beyond the dreams OF
her pioneers.
ons of them is a native Californian. The
others were born in far away states or
~ foreign countries. They were the men
Who kept the money SO easily made years
eco That was the difficult thing to do.
Thousands of men made money and spent it.
ONLY the few made money and kept it.
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
Washington. 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 business,
that be watched their destruction with
calm Indifference. He said fare
well 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 accommodating money in a
mining country than by digging it out of
the ground. He went to Sacramento and
engaged in mercantile pursuits, and when,
10 1861, he was invited to join c. P. Hunt
ingtou, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins
in the organization of the Central Pacific
Railroad Company, he had already acquired
fortune of some magnitude.
The year 1861 was good one for Stan
ford. He was chosen president of the rail-
road and elected governor of the state. He
served as governor until December, 1868.
He had found time, however, TO hurry
along the construction Of the railroad, one
of his achievements being the building of
500 miles over the Sierra Nevada noun.
tains in 1913 days. and it was on May IS,
1869, that he drove the last spike which
marked the completion of the road and its
Junction with the Union Pacific at Promon-
tory Point. Stanford branched out then as
railroad owner. He became the president
OF the Southern Pacific. and held the place
until April last, when, much to his disgust,
his friend of early DAYS and opponent of
later years. G. P. Huntington, succeeded
him, and then was fairly started the battle
between the two magnates which il 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 worshIped his boy, and
S2O,0O0,00O monument to his memory is in
process of construction at Palo Alto in the
form OF university. Mr.. Stanford has
been 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 senator's for
tune vary. They run from $40 O0O. 900 to
S9O,OOO, 900. Californians who are in a posi-
pon to know, however, give the amount as
SoU,OOO.OCO, on the interest on which the
senator manages to keep the wolf from the
door.
man of interesting individuality is ex-
senator James &. Fair All rich Califor-
mans are interesting, but Fair is especially
50, because, perhaps of the prominent part
he played in bold and successful speculative
campo gns with those other men of nerve,
Flood, Mackay and OBrien. Fair was an
lisn lad. Clegher, Tyrone county, Ireland,
was his birthplace, and December, 1881. was
tne Time Of his birth. He was 16 years old
Snen. while struggling for livelihood in
Onlcago, he heard that double eagles grew
On trees and we're to be had for the shaking.
ana That mon drank champagne from pals
III country far in the west, He
vent there overland. He mined with
OUT success until, in 1860, he went to Vir-
gina City. New, and out of the Comstock
uGe ne took the greater part of his present
colossal fortune. 1t was few years after
ward when the great bonanza firm was
formed. 1t was dissolved only few years
aso Dy OBriens death. Fair began to in
'eSt IN real estate in San Francisco in 1868,
anu The advance in values has steadily
Iuci eased his fortune. He owns
no" eighty acres of land in
tIe business portion of the city.
ISir quilt railroad called the South Pa
Guc Coast railroad about eleven years ago.
II 81 him comparatively small sum. 1t
ran from Oakland to Santa Cruz. Four
years ago the Southern Pacific wanted the
f f. they got it after paying 81 200, 900
t1l IT, This was practically all profit, for
me me operation of the road rad paid for it.
WIN this 81, 100000, the SIS, 100000 which
H oe LOOK out OF the Comstock lode, and his
Gan Gan Francisco real estate, the Irish lads
All vuhe Is estimated at about $50, 100000
Luck helped the richest man in Alameda
TToVGhtY-vulgar luck He is Frederick
ppelger. He was a cobbler in Germany.
G Early IN the fifties he went to Oakland,
Ual. There be mended shoes. He only
- tieuued enough to give him living and
10 oqy each month a lottery ticket. One
Say ne was envied by the thousands who
ouy lottery tickets and never win. He had
won $4,000. With it he bought two blocks
in n-l. ma