AND PACIFIC COAST GUIDE.

 

141

 

LELAND STANFORD.

Ex-Governor Leland Stanford, President
of the Central Pacific Railroad of Califor-
nia, was born in the town of Watervliet, |
Albany county, N. Y., March 9, 1824. His
ancestors were English, who settled in the
Valley of the Mohawk about the beginnin
of the last century. Josiah Stanford,
father of Leland, was a farmer and promi-
nent citizen of the county, whose family
consisted of seven sons—Leland being the
fourth—and one daughter. Until the age
of twenty, Leland’s time was passed at
study and on the farm. He then com-
menced the study of law, and in 1845 en-
tered the law office of Wheaten, Doolittle
& Hudley, in Albany, N. Y. In 1849 he
moved West, and commenced the practice
of law at Port Washington, Wisconsin.
Here, in June, 1850, he was married to
Miss Jane Lathrop. In 1852, we find
him following many of his friends to the
new El Dorado. e landed in California

 

July 12, 1852, proceeded directly to the

mines, and settled at Michigan Bluffs, on
the American River, Placer county, and in
a few years he had not only realized a for-
tune, but so far won the confidence of the
tae cag as to secure the nomination for

tate Treasurer, in 1859, on the Republican
ticket. At this time the Democratic party
had never been beaten, and the canvass
was made on principle. He was defeated ;
but in 1861—a split-up in theranks of the
dominant party having taken place—he
was nominated for Governor, and elected
by a plurality of 23,000 votes. How he per-
formed the trust.is well known. Suffice it
to say, he received the thanks of the Leg-
islature and won the approval of all classes.
Governor Stanford early moved in the in-
terest of the Pacific Railroad; and on the
22d of February, 1863, while Sacramento
was still staggering under the devastat-
ing flood, and all was gloomy in the fu-
ture, with the whole country rent by civil
war, he—all hope, all life and energy—