Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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Senator £elanH Stanford. F BIOGRAPHY it must be said with regret that it is at best character, of one who in life has gained the affection and challenged the respect of his fellow-men. And this regret is heightened when biography, failing in this, as it too often does, becomes no more than a dull enumeration of facts from which all the animation and most of the meaning have departed. Fortunate indeed are those who, from a fund of personal recollection, can revivify the coldly recorded facts of a life history, for with them must always remain some of that life’s inspiration and magnetism. It is for this reason that the students who entered the University during the first two years of its existence must always be envied, for they were privileged to know Senator Stanford personally. I,ater comers, it is true, know him and will know him from the written word or the hewn marble ; they will gather impressions also from the Quadrangle’s architectural beauties, and, as Professor Newcomer so beautifully puts it, We venture, however, that the pioneer students will retain most vividly in their memories, associated somehow with the hazy autumn days of ’91, with brown hills, blue sky and inviting vineyards, with cool drives shaded by pine, eucalyptus, or walnut rich in russet coloring, the kindly presence of Iceland Stanford and the grave bow of recognition which made the boyish heart flutter so strangely and stirred the boyish ambition just a little deeper than anything else. Leland Stanford was born in Watervliet, eight miles from Albany, N. Y., on the 9th of March, 1824. His father, Josiah Stanford, a native of Massachusetts, was a successful farmer and railroad contractor. In 1848 the son was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Port Washington, Wis. In 1850 he married Jane Lathrop, the daughter of Dyer Lathrop of Albany. Two years later a fire, in which his valuable law library was destroyed, turned his footsteps toward the mining camps of the Golden State. From July 12, 1852, when he landed in San Francisco, down to 1861, when he became California’s war Governor, mercantile and mining enterprises on a steadily increasing scale claimed his attention. but a sorry attempt to preserve in memory the achievements, the preeminent personality, the strength and gentleness of “ marvel that the very stones disclose The spirit of their builder’s amplitude, And manhood’s deep repose.” 10

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Board of Editors It. oditor-in-Ghiof. W. D. Ijrio’O's. Clssccialo Suitors. F . F. I ledsoe, A. A. CatI)Cart, Aiss Winnifred Harper, Aiss Saral) Comstock, W. J. Neidicr, H. H. Frown, Marr IFe nolds. Qrfjst. D. Fl y I3usincss flQanager. J. F- Fran[ eal)eimer.

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In the same year another honor was conferred upon him, that of the presidency of the Central Pacific Railroad, then recently incorporated for the purpose of building a railroad East across the Rockies. While men generally regarded Leland Stanford and his three associates in this enterprise as harebrained enthusiasts, while jealous rivals scoffed and hindered and capital hung timidly back, the four projectors of the road went quietly to work to do, risked their private fortunes in the venture, and persevered with indomitable energy until they achieved complete success. In May, 1869, Leland Stanford drove the last spike in the line of railroad connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans,—an act which, together with the close of the Civil War, has assured the permanent solidarity of the Union. One year previous to this event, on the 14th of May, 1868, a son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Stanford,—a boy whose brief life, stimulating the philanthropy of his parents, was destined to influence so profoundly for good the lives of thousands of others. These and the succeeding years, down to the time of his election as United States Senator in 1885, were busy ones for the great railroad president. All sorts of business projects claimed his attention ; and all sorts of charitable plans, of which the world at large knew nothing, proved that the heart of the multimillionaire, instead of becoming hardened in the race after wealth, was still large and generous as it had always been. On March 13, 1884, came the crushing blow of young Leland’s sudden death in Italy. The grief of the parents was all but inconsolable, yet how significant is the fact that “within the shadow of this great sorrow” were laid the foundations of the Leland Stanford Junior University. “ The children of California shall be my children,” said Leland Stanford, and by a single act of matchless philanthropy not only perpetuated but immortalized the name which Providence had decreed should not be perpetuated by children of his own. On the 1 st of October, 1891, the University threw open its doors to a hastening throng of eager students. Within less than two years from that time, in the stillness of the midnight hour,—on the night of June 20, 1893,—the news was flashed around the world that Leland Stanford, millionaire, captain of industry, statesman and philanthropist, was dead. “ O mighty soul that trampled sorrow down, Triumphant where the fallen are thickliest strewed, Received this greater than a laurel crown, Man’s deathless gratitude.” W. M. R. 11