Editing Leland Stanford (section)

==Businesses==
In 1852, having lost his law library and other property to a fire, Stanford followed his five brothers to California during the [[California gold rush]]. His wife, Jane, returned (temporarily) to Albany and her family. He went into business with his brothers and became the keeper of a general store for [[miners]] in [[Michigan City, California]], later the name changed to Michigan Bluff in [[Placer County, California|Placer County]]; later he had a wholesale house. He served as a [[justice of the peace]] and helped organize the [[Sacramento]] Library Association, which later became the Sacramento Public Library. In 1855, he returned to Albany to join his wife, but found the pace too slow after the excitement of developing California.

=== Central Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads ===
[[File:San Francisco Pacific Railroad Bond WPRR 1865.jpg|thumb|left|Pacific Railroad Bond, City, and County of San Francisco, 1865]] In 1856, he and Jane moved to [[Sacramento]], where he engaged in mercantile pursuits on a large scale. He was one of the four merchants known popularly as "[[The Big Four (Central Pacific Railroad)|The Big Four]]" (or among themselves as "'''''the Associates'''''"), who were the key investors in Chief Engineer [[Theodore Dehone Judah]]'s plan for the [[Central Pacific Railroad]]. The five of them incorporated it on June 28, 1861, and Stanford was elected as its president. The other three associates were [[Charles Crocker]], [[Mark Hopkins (railroad)|Mark Hopkins]], and [[Collis Potter Huntington|Collis P. Huntington]]. 
The Central Pacific's first locomotive, named ''[[Gov. Stanford]]'' in his honor, is preserved on static display at the [[California State Railroad Museum]], in Sacramento.<ref name="DictAmBio502">{{cite journal |last1=Powers |first1=William H. |year=1929 |title=Dictionary of American Biography |journal=Science |volume=XVII |issue=1805 |pages=121–2 |bibcode=1929Sci....70..121P |doi=10.1126/science.70.1805.121 |pmid=17813847}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| first=Keith| last=Wheeler| title=The Railroaders| url=https://archive.org/details/railroaders00time| url-access=registration| pages=[https://archive.org/details/railroaders00time/page/60 60–61]| location=New York| publisher=Time-Life Books| year=1973}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| first1=Timothy S.| last1=Dieberg| first2=Joseph A.| last2=Strapac| title=Southern Pacific Company Steam Locomotive Compendium| year=1987| publisher=Shade Tree Books| location=Huntington Beach, CA| isbn=0-930742-12-5| pages=25, 33}}</ref>

Stanford ran unsuccessfully for governor of California in 1859. He was nominated again in 1861 and won the election. Due to the [[Great Flood of 1862]], he had to row to his inauguration in a rowboat.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Zhong |first=Raymond |date=2022-08-15 |title=Why the 'Big One' Could Be Something Other Than an Earthquake |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/15/us/california-superstorm.html |access-date=2022-09-18 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He served one term, then limited to two years.

While the Central Pacific was under construction, Stanford and his associates in 1868 acquired control of the [[Southern Pacific Railroad]]. Stanford was elected president of the Southern Pacific, a post he held until 1890 (except for a brief period in 1869–1870 when Tevis was acting president) when he was ousted by [[Collis Huntington]].

[[File:Leland Stanford and CPRR Officers 1870.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Leland Stanford and the officers of the CPRR in 1870]]As head of the railroad company that built the western portion of the "[[First Transcontinental Railroad (North America)|First Transcontinental Railroad]]" from [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] eastward over the [[Sierra Nevada (U.S.)|Sierra Nevada mountains]] in California to Nevada and Utah, Stanford presided at the ceremonial driving of "[[golden spike|Last Spike]]" in [[Promontory, Utah]], on May 10, 1869. The grade of the CPRR met that of the [[Union Pacific Railroad]], which had been built westward from its eastern terminus at [[Council Bluffs, Iowa]]/[[Omaha, Nebraska]]. He was even given the honor of driving the final spike.

Stanford moved with his family from Sacramento to San Francisco in 1874, where he assumed presidency of the [[Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company]], the steamship line to Japan and China associated with the Central Pacific.<ref name=NatCycofAmBio>{{cite book| title=The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography| volume=II| page=129| location=New York| publisher=James T. White & Company| year=1899| edition=reprint| orig-year=1891}}</ref>

The [[Southern Pacific Company]] was organized in 1884 as a holding company for the Central Pacific-Southern Pacific system. Stanford was president of the Southern Pacific Company from 1885 until 1890 when he was forced out of that post (as well as the presidency of the Southern Pacific Railroad) by Collis Huntington, the company's ranking vice president and the corporate directorate. That was thought to be retaliation for Stanford's election to the [[US Senate]] in 1885 over Huntington's friend, [[Aaron A. Sargent]].<ref name="DictAm"/>

Stanford was elected chairman of the Southern Pacific Railroad's executive committee in 1890, and he held this post and the presidency of the Central Pacific Railroad until his death.<ref name="DictAm">{{cite journal| title=Dictionary of American Biography| journal=Science| volume=XVII| issue=1805| pages=121–122| bibcode=1929Sci....70..121P| last1=Powers| first1=William H.| year=1929| doi=10.1126/science.70.1805.121| pmid=17813847}}</ref>

=== Other interests ===
In May 1868, he joined [[Lloyd Tevis]], [[Darius Ogden Mills]], H.D. Bacon, Hopkins, and Crocker in forming the Pacific Union Express Company. It merged in 1870 with [[Wells Fargo and Company]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Loomis |first=Noel M. |title=Wells Fargo |publisher=Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. |year=1968 |location=New York |pages=199–200 |author-link=Noel Loomis}}</ref> Stanford was a director of Wells Fargo and Company from 1870 to January 1884. After a brief retirement from the board, he served again from February 1884 to his death in June 1893.{{sfn|Loomis|1968|pp=215, 255, 270}} Also in May 1868, he started the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company (now [[Pacific Life]]) and served as its first president from 1868 to 1876.

He owned two wineries, the [[Leland Stanford Winery]] in [[Alameda County, California|Alameda County]] founded in 1869, and run and later inherited by his brother Josiah, and the {{convert|55000|acre|km2|0}} [[Rancho Bosquejo|Great Vina Ranch]] in [[Tehama County, California|Tehama County]], containing what was then the largest vineyard in the world at {{convert|3575|acre|km2|0}} and given to Stanford University.<ref>{{cite book| first=Thomas| last=Pinney| year=1989| title=A History of Wine in America from the Beginnings to Prohibition| volume=1| publisher=University of California Press| isbn=978-0-520-06224-5}}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2019}}
[[Image:The_Horse_in_Motion_high_res.jpg|left|thumb|Muybridge's ''[[The Horse in Motion]],'' 1878]]

Stanford was also interested in horses and owned the [[Rancho Esquon|Gridley tract]] of {{convert|17800|acre|km2|0}} in [[Butte County, California|Butte County]]. In [[Santa Clara County, California|Santa Clara County]], he founded his [[Palo Alto Stock Farm]].<ref name=NatCycofAmBio /><ref>{{cite journal| title=Dictionary of American Biography| journal=Science| volume=XVII| issue=1805| bibcode=1929Sci....70..121P| last1=Powers| first1=William H.| pages=121–2| year=1929| doi=10.1126/science.70.1805.121| pmid=17813847}}</ref> He bred [[Standardbred]] horses to be raced as trotters, including his chief sire, Electioneer (sired by [[Hambletonian 10|Hambletonian]])<ref name="electioneer">{{cite web |title=ELECTIONEER |url=https://harnessmuseum.com/content/electioneer |website=Harness Museum |access-date=July 6, 2018 }}</ref> and his winning offspring: Arion,<ref name="arion">{{cite web |title=ARION |url=https://harnessmuseum.com/content/arion |website=Harness Museum |access-date=July 6, 2018 }}</ref> Sunol,<ref name="sunol">{{cite web |title=SUNOL |url=https://harnessmuseum.com/content/sunol |website=Harness Museum |access-date=July 6, 2018}}</ref> Palo Alto, and Chimes<ref name="chimes">{{cite web |title=CHIMES |url=https://harnessmuseum.com/content/chimes |website=Harness Museum |access-date=July 6, 2018}}</ref> (out of Stanford's best known dam Beautiful Bells<ref name="bells">{{cite web |title=BEAUTIFUL BELLS |url=https://harnessmuseum.com/content/beautiful-bells |website=Harness Museum |access-date=July 6, 2018}}</ref>); and [[Thoroughbreds]] for flat racing. In 1872, Stanford commissioned the photographer [[Eadweard Muybridge]] to undertake scientific studies of the gaits of horses at a trot and gallop at the Agricultural Park race track in Sacramento. Images of the horses' feet were captured there, later moving to his Palo Alto Stock Farm. He wanted to determine if the horses ever had all four feet off the ground at the same time. The result was the proto-film ''[[Sallie Gardner at a Gallop]]'' (1878). As the [[Palo Alto]] breeding farm was later developed into the [[Stanford University]], the university was nicknamed "The Farm."