Amasa Leland Stanford, known as Leland Stanford, was born on March 3, 1824 in Watervliet, New York to Josiah and Elizabeth Phillips Stanford. Josiah Stanford was a prosperous farmer and building supply merchant. As a young man, Leland worked with his father on local transportation, which became the impetus for his interest and, ultimately, his success as a railroad tycoon. Leland was educated in law and admitted to the bar in 1845. Like many of his era, Leland embraced the opportunities offered in the West and ultimately moved to Sacramento, California.
In California he established a very successful business supplying mining supplies and gained popularity with those around him by using his law skills to settle claim disputes and other law related issues. His popularity led him into politics and after some early defeats, became the state’s first Republican governor.
In 1861, Stanford, along with three other Sacramento business owners, Crocker, Hopkins and Huntington, founded the Central Pacific Railroad Company. Leland served as president and director of the railroad from its launch until he died. The Central Pacific began laying track 1863 and finally joined with the Union Pacific on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah which completed link that united the West with the rest of the US. After this milestone, Leland Stanford continued to build his fortune in the railroad industry but also invested in vineyards and in breeding racing stock. The methods he used in training horses and his interest in how horses moved gave rise to sponsorship to experiments in motion picture photography.
Among the philanthropic contributions of Leland Stanford is Stanford University, which was started as a tribute to his only child who died at the age of 15.
At his death on June 21, 1893, most of Leland Stanford’s enormous estate passed to his wife, Jane Elizabeth Lathrop Stanford. Mrs. Stanford used it to support Stanford University.
Contributed by Laurel Fountain-Beilfuss
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