Leland Stanford (9 March 1824-21 June 1893) was the Republican Governor of California from 10 January 1862 to 10 December 1863 (succeeding John G. Downey and preceding Frederick Low) and a US Senator from 4 March 1885 to 21 June 1893 (succeeding James T. Farley and preceding George Clement Perkins).
Biography[]
Amasa Leland Stanford was born in Watervliet (now Colonie), Albany County, New York in 1824, and he came from a prominent political family. He was raised in Lisha Kill and Roessleville, and he became a lawyer in Albany in 1845. In 1848, he moved to Port Washington, Wisconsin, and he ran a law library and was the Whig nominee for Washington County district attorney in 1850. After losing his law library in a fire, he followed his five brothers to California in 1852 during the Gold Rush. He became the owner of a general store in Michigan City, Placer County before serving as a justice of the peace and organizing the Sacramento Public Library. In 1856, he and his wife moved to Sacramento, where he became one of the "Big Four" investors in the Central Pacific Railroad. Stanford helped to organize the California Republican Party in 1856, serving as a presidential elector in 1856 and 1860. While he was a failed gubernatorial candidate in 1859, he was elected in 1861, serving for two years and halving the state's debt, advocating for the conservation of the forests, and establishing San Jose State University. He founded Pacific Life in 1868 and served as its president from 1868 to 1876, as President of the Southern Pacific Railroad from 1868 to 1890, and US Senator from 1885 until his death in 1893. As a Senator, he advanced Populist legislation such as the creation of worker-owned cooperatives and a bill to allow the issuance of currency backed by land value rather than the gold standard, but both initiatives were unsuccessful. He also founded Stanford University in 1885, naming it in honor of his late son. He died in office in 1893.