Stanford, LELAND

Stanford, LELAND, railway constructor, millionaire, and senator, was born at Watervliet, New York, 9th March 1824, and in 1856 settled in business in San Francisco. A strong supporter of the Pacific Railway scheme, he was made president of the Central Pacific Company, and superintended the construction of the line. Already governor of California, he was in 1885 elected a United States senator. Out of a fortune estimated at more than 50,000,000 he gave to the state of California 20,000,000 to found, in memory of his son, a university at Palo Alto (q.v.), where, over and above the usual academic studies, telegraphy, type-setting, farming, journalism, &c. should be taught.