The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-11-16
MRS. STANFORD'S FAME
Wealthy but Endured Privation
for Leland Stanford College.
MONUMENT TO THEIR SON
Whom Central Pacific Brought Suit
Against Her Estate-She Sold
Jewels anil Works Of Art, and Liv.
ed on 500 Month In order the


ed on 500 Month In order the
University Would Not Suffer.
A writer in Golfers Weekly" un-
der the caption Of "a Romance of
Philanthrophy," reviews the work of
the late Mrs Leland Stanford and her
famous husband, who died a dozen
years ago. Among other things the
writer says:
In the early SOS Leland Stanford
and his associates, Crocker, Hunting
ton and Hopkins, were classed togeth-
er in the public mind of California
as 'soulless plutocrats' and tyrants.
Stanford was nominated by the COVER
nor as Regent of the State University.
The Senate, controlled the nomlna-
tion. 1t is generally believed that but
for this action there would have been
no Stanford University, and eventual
ly a great part. If not all, of the Stan
ford millions would have gone to the
University of California.
THE Stanfords had a son whom
they idolized He seems to have been
really a remarkable boy, one of those
fine souls oppressed by the burden
benefit of other boys and girls and on
his deathbed he begged his parents to
carry them out He died in 1884 at
sixteen, leaving his father and mother
crushed by a loss whose magnitude
almost unsettled their minds. The
world was blank to them; wealth
had lost its SAVIOR, and they had no
thought but to devote themselves and
their fortune to the realization OF
their boys wishes and to the immor-
talization of his name. They canon
lied his memory, and when the Rev.
DR.. Newman in his funeral sermon
compared the dead boy to Christ
among the doctors, the parallel which
scandalized reverent strangers seem
ed to the bereaved parents only Just
appreciation of his merits.
The next year the Leland Stan
ford, Jr, University was born. Its
queer name was touching reminder
of its real founder. In its museum,
as in a shrine, were displayed odd
little relics of the worshipped boy
his clothes, his intimate personal be-
longings-incongruo little things
a
whole university was his monument.
Its welfare became the absorbing pas
sion of Stanfords' life. A substantial
endowed was decided to it at the
start, but for the bulk of its support
it depended on the continued generosi-
ty of it's founders. Leland Stanford
was elected to the Senate, and in
1893 he died. Although it has been
Understood that his perfume would ul-
timately go to the university, the
greater part of it was left unreserved-
ly 10 his widow. This marked no
change in the original plans. The
two had worked out their ideas to-
gether, their desires were one, and
Stanford knew that there was no way
in which their execution could be so
thoroughly assured as by leaving ev-
erything in Mrs. Stanford's unchecked
control. There had been a board of
trustees from the beginning, but it's
functions had been purely ornamental.
AS long as a Stanford remained a. Q
there would be no other goVern..g
body.
The Central Pacific Railroad owed
many years the corporation, under the
guidance of Coils F. Huntington, at
tempted to evade the payment of that
debt. While this contest was going
on it occurred to the government that
an advantage might be gained by
bringing suit against the personal es-
tates of the men who had incur I'd
the debt, and by an inspiration of geni-
us, the estates selected for the test
case was the particular one that had
been devoted to public purposes. A
suit for $15,000,000 was brought
against the Stanford estate, the whole
property was tied up in the courts,
and Mrs. Stanford was left to bear the
entire expense of defending an action
in which Huntington and his partners
were the chief parties in interest
She told President Jordan that she
could live on 500 a month, as she had
done before, and that the university
COT Id have all the rest She shut
up her great houses, discharged most
of her servants and lived in one wing
of her Palo Alto home. The profes-
sors were asked to wait for part of
their salaries and did so, They were
still getting more than the woman
who furnished their money. The uni
versity scraped along, Mrs. Stanford
sold some personal effects of her
own to meet this deficit, and prepared
to sell her valuable jewels and works
Of art. At last the suit was decided
in her favor, and times became easier
Thus one of the richest women in
the world voluntarily reduced herself
to the position of person of modest
means. But in doing so she won a
distinction all her own. There are
plenty Of rich women but there is
none, or any man either, who has de-
liberately given others fortune com.
parable with that sacrificed by Mrs.
Stanford"