Final Two of Big Four

Collis Huntington said of Leland Stanford, "a good businessman, and a clean man in all respects."  Stanford had a rather easy start in California  in 1852 with his two brothers who owned a grocery and mining supply store in several gold camps.  The son of a tavern owner, Stanford was born in 1824 in New York, near Albany.  He and his brothers sold cut wood to Mohawk and Hudson Railroad.  He studied law at age 20 after being somewhat of a dubious student, and after three years was admitted to the bar.  Stanford married Jane Lathrop in 1849 and moved to Wisconsin where he practiced law until his office burned down. In 1852 he joined his brothers in their prosperous California business. 

Stanford was a very deliberate man and entered politics and became governor of California in 1861.  His only child died at age 15.  Stanford founded Stanford Junior University in Palo Alto in memory of his son in 1885.  After Stanford died in 1893, his widow used his wealth to support Sanford University.

The final New Yorker of the Big Four, Charles Crocker, was born in Troy in 1822, the son of a saloon owner.  His father and brothers went to Indiana for farmland and 14 year old "Bull" Crocker was left in charge of his mother and sister at home.  Crocker worked on the Hudson River ferry and in the Renasseler and Santiago Railroad Station.  After the family joined his father in Indiana, Charles left home and went west, joining a wagon train bound for California in 1850. There Charles tried mining and opened a dry goods store in Sacramento in 1852.  His store burned down also, but Crocker rebuilt it and prospered.

When Theodore Judah brought his railroad vision to the "Big Four", Crocker was enthusiastic.  Charles was known to his partners as a hard-drinking, profane and "bull-voiced" man - but they recognized his value to them.  When the problems of building the Central Pacific seemed insurmountable, he was ready, willing and able to take charge.

Next time...The Partnership Prospers
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On April 23, 1859, William Byers distributes the first newspaper ever published in the frontier boomtown of Denver, beating a rival publisher by a mere 20 minutes.  In Byers’ case, his competitor was the Cherry Creek Pioneer. Byers set to work on the first edition of his newspaper shortly after he arrived in Denver in March, working with a handpress in the attic of a local saloon.