Correspondence, telegrams; business, legal, financial, and official papers; speeches, journals, and newsclippings; and other materials relating to the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad, Stanford's political career, business and financial interests, and the founding and construction of Stanford University.

Leland Stanford was born March 9, 1824 in Waltervliet Township, New York. He was admitted to the practice of law in 1848 and married Jane Lathrop in 1850. In 1852 Stanford moved to California where he first worked as a storekeeper in Mother Lode mining camps and later became a successful Sacramento businessman. Stanford was a leader in organizing the Republican party in California and was elected governor in 1861 at the age of 37. Early in the 1860s Stanford joined with three other Sacramento merchants--Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, and Collis P. Huntington--in the building of the Central Pacific Railroad. In 1884, Leland and Jane founded Leland Stanford Jr. University in memory of their son. Stanford died June 21, 1893 during his second term as United States Senator.

5 Linear feet

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