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—