Leland Stanford: The Controversial Life of America’s Western Railroad Tycoon

this video is brought to you by nordvpn give yourself options online go to nordvpn.com forward slash biographics to get a two-year plan with a huge discount plus four additional months for free more on them in a bit there's no doubt that leland stanford deserved the title robert baron he relied on unscrupulous and immoral practices to achieve his fortune he used his influence as governor to benefit his private businesses he rallied against immigrants but then used them to build his railroads because they were cheaper and yet this is not how he's usually remembered lynn and stanford managed to shed the stigma of ruthless robber baron that still applies to many other rich industrialists of his time mainly thanks to his philanthropy in his later years whether or not this is deserved you can decide for yourself as we explore the life and the man behind america's first transcontinental railroad leland stanford [Music] stanford was born on march the 9th 1824 in vaterfield new york a town that no longer exists as it's been divided into several other towns his parents were josiah stanford and elizabeth phillips both descendants of immigrants who originally settled in massachusetts before moving to new york state leland was their fourth son and he had seven siblings including a younger brother thomas welton stanford who went on to relocate to australia where he became known as the country's father of spiritualism after founding the victorian association of progressive spiritualists jose stanford was a farmer and a pretty successful one at that but he still insisted that all of his boys worked on the farm growing up that is what leland did and his education was split between the local school and homeschooling when he got a bit older leland was sent to the clinton liberal institute prep school in clinton new york and afterwards he studied law at casanova's seminary in 1845 the 21 year old leland stanford moved to albany where he apprenticed at the law office of wheaton doolittle and hadley in 1848 he passed the bar and relocated to port washington wisconsin where he opened his own practice as a present for him his father had assembled for leland a law library which was said to be one of the most extensive in the entire country around the same time leland stanford met and fell in love with jane elizabeth lathrop the daughter of a successful merchant from albany the two got married in 1850 and would go on to have one child together leland stanford jr two of stanford siblings died when they were young but of the remaining six leyland seemed to be the only one willing to settle down and lead a quiet life all the others moved across the country to california tempted by all the new business opportunities provided by the gold rush this interested leland as well but he seemed reluctant to leave his current life behind at least that was until 1852 when his entire home burned down including his beloved library with nothing keeping him in port washington anymore stanford packed up his bags and headed out to california while his wife returned to her family in albany new york and waited for him to get settled later that same year stanford made his way to michigan city california known today as michigan bluff and opened a general store there it did pretty well due to its optimal location in the heart of mining country stanford was liked and respected by his peers and also served as a justice of the peace he stayed there for a few years before selling the place and returning to his wife in albany now that they were better off financially the couple executed a permanent move to california this time settling in sacramento where stanford did business with his brothers [Music] throughout his life leland stanford showed an interest in politics once he was settled in california he became an active member of the newly formed republican party which mainly consisted of former whig party members he attended the first convention of the california republican party and he was named a delegate and began running for office he first was a candidate for state treasurer in 1857 and then governor in 1859 but he lost both elections since the opposing democratic party had a strong foothold in the state stanford ran again for governor in 1861 and things went differently this time the rublings benefited from turmoil within the democratic party over the issue of slavery some were against it while others particularly in the south defended the practice since there was no way to find common ground the party divided into two the democrats and the southern democrats they each performed their own candidate and basically split the democratic vote almost down the middle allowing the republicans to swoop in and win the election on september the 4th 1861 leland stanford became the first republican governor of california his inauguration was on january 10 1862 although it didn't really have what you would call an auspicious start at the time california and the surrounding states were experiencing the great flood of 1862 which still remains the largest in california's history in the months of december and january the state saw almost 43 days of continuous rain the rivers flowing down from the sierra nevada mountains turned into powerful and violent torrents that swept away houses and even entire shanty towns on the day that stanford was supposed to be inaugurated in sacramento the city's levees broke causing a 10-foot high flood to swallow the streets even so stanford insisted on holding the ceremony so he was taken to the capitol building by rowboat afterwards he rode back to his mansion and stanford to get inside his home through a second story window because the first floor was entirely submerged this lasted for months forcing the new governor to temporarily move the state legislature to san francisco we have a first-hand account of the devastation from surveyor william brewer who visited sacramento in march two months after stanford's inauguration he said such a desolate scene i hope to never see again most of the city is still underwater and has been there for three months a part is out of the water that is the streets are above water but every low place is full cellars and yards are full houses and walls wet everything uncomfortable no description that i can write will give you any adequate conception of the discomfort and wretchedness this must give rise to the new capital is far out in the water the governor's house stands as in a lake churches public buildings private buildings everything a wet or in the water not a road leading from the city as possible business is a dead standstill everything looks forlorn and wretched many houses have partially toppled over some have been carried from their foundations several streets now avenues of water are blocked up with houses that have floated in them dead animals lie about here and there a dreadful picture i don't think the city will ever rise from the shock i don't see how it can one of stanford's first initiatives as governor was to begin a long-term project to raise sacramento's entire downtown district by 10 to 15 feet so that something like this would never happen again as far as his other policies go stanford was also credited with cutting the state debt in half helping to preserve california's forests and keeping the state in the union during the civil war he only served as governor for two years in fact he was the last to do so before the length of the mandate changed to four years one controversy stemming from stanford's time as governor was his heavy stance against chinese immigrants whom he referred to as an inferior race in his inauguration speech he said asia with a numberless million sends to our shores the dregs of a population there can be no doubt that the presence of numbers among us have a degraded and distinct people must exercise a deleterious influence upon the superior race and to a certain extent repel desirable immigration it will afford me great pleasure to concur with the legislature in any constitutional action having for its object the repression of the immigration of the asiatic races this caused some backlash for the governor not because of the words but because of his hypocrisy stanford was against chinese immigration but at the same time he had no problem using them as cheap labor to build his railroads it is unclear how much of this affected his political career but he was not re-nominated for a second term and in fact he did not hold another political office after the governorship for two decades okay so more about leland stafford just a bit but first a quick word from today's video sponsor nordvpn we've talked about the benefits of vpns before on this channel look it's not 1999 you shouldn't be using the internet like it is bad actors are out there trying to steal your data and your personal information corporations are tracking your browser activity and bombarding you 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embarked on a business endeavor that turned him into one of the richest men in america like many of his fellow robber barons stanford invested in the railroad it all started with a civil engineer named theodore judah after planning and building several regional railroads he believed he had surveyed a viable route to traverse the mountains of california and into the neighboring states this section could then be joined up with other railroads to form what was at the time the most ambitious engineering project in american history the first transcontinental railroad judor organized a meeting in sacramento where he outlined his plans but most other attendees bulked his ideas one man didn't and his name was collis p huntington he was one of the city's most successful merchants he held a private meeting with judah and he told the engineer that he would find more men willing to invest in his plans those men were banker charles crocker merchant mark hopkins and leland stanford together with huntington they were known as the big four the main investors behind what became the central pacific railroad or cprr with stanford serving as president of the new company u.s congress chartered the rail company in 1862. that same year congress also passed the pacific railroad acts in order to promote the construction of the transcontinental railroad obviously things were made much easier for the cprr because its president also happened to be the governor of california in fact throughout his entire two-year term leland stanford used his political influence to assist his private business also securing land grants loans and other benefits construction on the railroad began in earnest in 1863 handled mainly by charles crocker leland's stanford also devoted himself to the railroad industry once his governorship had ended but it seems that he had a habit of frustrating his business partners by either staying silent for days on end or for coming up with harebrained schemes crocker described him as being awful lazy and as someone who needed somebody else to follow him or to stop the leaks and do the work whereas huntington considered his management style to be the circus despite tensions between the big four and other problems that came along the cpr was built at a rapid pace thanks in no small part to the 15 000 chinese immigrants who constituted the bulk of the workforce used to lay down the 700-mile railway that started in sacramento and ended in utah although he rallied against immigrants as a politician stanford changed his tune when he saw the savings since he didn't have to pay them as much as american workers or provide them with living accommodations a similar thing was happening with the eastern railways except that they mainly relied on irish labor instead of chinese the central pacific railroad was completed on may 10 1869 when it was connected to the union pacific railroad to form the first transcontinental railroad this happened in promontory utah and has been hailed as the first mass media event in the united states it was celebrated across the entire country almost in real time thanks to telegraph messages and the numerous journalists and photographers who were on hand document the momentous occasion a golden spike was used to symbolically join the rails of the two companies and the man who drove it in was none other than leland stanford forever linking his name to one of the country's most ambitious and most successful endeavors central pacific's first locomotive was also named the governor stanford in his honor the end of the project also did not mean the end of stanford's involvement in the rail industry afterwards the big four sought to extend their railroad monopoly and began in california where they either bought or built other regional railways which were consolidated with the cpr a particular importance was the southern pacific company and a subsidiary southern pacific railroad which in time would grow to become bigger more successful and more important than the central pacific railroad in fact in 1885 cprr was leased to the southern pacific company and remained a subsidiary before being officially merged [Music] we're not involved in railroads or politics leland stanford had a few other interests to keep him busy and he was the kind of man who liked to go big in all of his pursuits he got into wine at one point so stanford bought two vineyards and turned one of them the great vina ranch in tahima county california into the largest winery in the world he also developed a fondness for horses so stanford found at the palo alto stock farm where he bred racehorses this inadvertently led to a landmark moment in photography when standard approached english photographer edward muybridge in 1873 and asked him to take a photograph of one of his favorite horses during a full gallop at the time muybridge considered this task impossible just a few instantaneous shots had ever been taken and these were under exceptional circumstances and none of them featured a horse at high speed even so he gave it his best shot and the end result was a blurry image that nevertheless pleased stanford who wanted to fund mybridge to refine his technique over the next few years muybridge had other things on his mind including a murder trial for killing his wife's lover but once that was sorted out he went back to working for stanford that original image from 1873 has never been published but a new much better one from 1877 has showing stanford's horse oxidant being driven by jazz tennant with stanford's money muybridge was ready to try something revolutionary he called it chrono photography and it represented a series of images taken in quick succession which were meant to show the movement of an object basically a precursor of motion pictures in 1878 edward muybridge made history when he photographed stanford's horse sally gardner using 12 cameras arranged to trigger one after another which showed the full motion of a horse during gallop it was something the world had never seen before and muybridge did a whole series of them although the practice fell out of favor with the arrival of motion pictures there's a legend which says that the whole reason why stanford funded bybridge's research was to settle a 25 000 bet over whether or not a horse lifts all four feet off the ground simultaneously while running although the tail remains popular it's never been substantiated by historical evidence yes in case you were wondering a horse does lift all of its legs off the ground at the same time during a gallop but only when they're tucked inside and not when they're outstretched while leland stanford's contribution to photography was important it was not what turned him into a household name neither was his political career or his development of america's railroads but rather it was the university that bears his name but that's not technically correct although everyone calls it stanford university and assumes it's named after the man who founded it its official moniker is actually leland stanford junior university and it's named after leland and jane stanford's only child lil junior who tragically died in 1884 at the age of 15 after developing typhoid fever while on a european vacation with his parents in his honor his parents decided to open university and like with everything else leon stanford did he went big he used most of his money and most of his land for the new school and even that was almost not enough stanford university opened its stores in 1891 but by that point its main benefactor was an ill man long suffering from a disease which affected his movement called locomotor ataxia leland stanford lasted two more years dying of heart failure on june 21 1893 aged 69 at his home in palo alto his death caused financial troubles for stanford university further compounded by federal lawsuits against stanford for failure to repay loans the economic depression of 1893 and later the 1906 san francisco earthquake which caused a lot of damage to the campus but eventually stanford university became one of the most prestigious institutes of higher learning in the entire world educating countless nobel laureates road scholars macarthur fellows pulitzer prize winners and even one american president assabet hoover was part of the university's first ever graduating class of 1895. his fellow robber baron turned philanthropist andrew carnegie described stanford's bequest as perhaps the greatest sum ever given by an individual for any purpose an act which undoubtedly had a great influence on the development of engineering medicine and science in the 130 years that followed and ultimately became leland stanford's lasting legacy [Music] normally when the subject of a biographics dies it's about time for us to end the video but that's not actually the case with leland stanford because one of the most interesting events surrounding him happened 12 years after his death a murder mystery and a cover-up both involving his wife who was killed with strychnine on february 28 1905 and her death remains unsolved to this day after her husband's demise jane stanford mainly preoccupied herself with the administration of the university where she sometimes butted head with the board members and professors including the president of stanford university david starr jordan the strange event surrounding jane stanford actually began a month and a half before her death when it is likely that her killer first tried to poison her and failed on the night of january the 14th 1905 jane stanford was at home in her san francisco mansion she had a glass of mineral water before going to bed and noted that it tasted very bitter immediately her throat started to burn so she forced herself to vomit a mate and secretary ran up to see what the matter was and they both tasted the water and agreed that it was unusually bitter the next day they took it to a chemist who confirmed that there was enough strychnine in the bottle to kill jane stanford in just a few minutes the 76 year old survived this time but was left deeply disturbed by this attempt on her life needing time off to recuperate jane stanford planned a trip to hawaii back in san francisco rumors of her attempted poisoning were quelled by the university president david starr jordan who insisted that mrs stanford was seeking warmer climates after a bout with pneumonia the time spent in hawaii did her well at first however on february 28th mrs stanford was in honolulu checked in at the moana hotel she ate a big lunch so for supper she just had some soup and afterwards she asked her secretary bertha burner for some bicarbonate of soda to treat her upset stomach burner did as instructed and later that night after 11 pm she was woken up by cries coming from mrs stanford's room the old woman was in pain and said that she'd been poisoned again the secretary went to get the doctor but this time it was too late mrs stanford's last words were this is a horrible death to die before being taken over by violent spasms and then finally succumbing to the poison it was stricken again which had been found in the bicarbonate of soda jane stanford was surrounded by three physicians when she died and they all said that her symptoms appeared to be those of strict mean poisoning then an autopsy found strychnine in a system and a coroner's jury reached the conclusion that jane lathrop stanford came to her death from strychnine poisoning said strychnine having been introduced into a bottle of bicarbonate of soda with felonous intent by some person or persons to this jury unknown you would think that all of this would make it pretty clear that jane stanford was killed with strychnine but that was not the case thanks to david starr jordan who immediately began to work on a cover-up to indicate that mrs stanford died from heart failure he traveled to honolulu take him with him a san francisco detective and hiring a local doctor both of whom agreed with jordan's own assertion that jane stanford died of natural causes the university president even accused the victim's personal physician of adding the poison to the bicarbonate of soda after her death in order to disguise his own incompetence when it came to treating his patient back in the continental u.s jordan's statement carried more weight than the investigation performed in honolulu so his version of events became the official story for over half a century as to why he did it we're not really sure it could be that he simply did not want any kind of scandal associated with university or it could be that he wanted to deflect suspicion from himself since everyone knew that he and mrs stanford did not get along and there were rumors that she intended to have him removed from the presidency unfortunately due to his actions jane stappard's poisoning has never been properly investigated so her death remains a mystery so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Biographics

Views: 136,573

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: RM92AWoDJeQ

Length: 20min 22sec (1222 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 19 2021