Charles Crocker

Charles Crocker (September 16, 1822 – August 14, 1888) was an American railroad executive who was one of the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad, which constructed the westernmost portion of the first transcontinental railroad, and took control with partners of the Southern Pacific Railroad.<ref name="CCObit1888">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Early years

Crocker was born in Troy, New York on September 16, 1822.<ref name="CCObit1888"/> He was the son of Eliza (née Wright) and Isaac Crocker,Template:Contradictory inline a modest family. They joined the nineteenth-century migration west and moved to Indiana when he was 14, where they had a farm. Crocker soon became independent, working on several farms, a sawmill, and at an iron forge.<ref name="CCObit1888"/>

At the age of 23, in 1845, he founded a small, independent iron forge of his own. He used money saved from his earnings to invest later in the new railroad business after moving to California, which had become a boom state since the Gold Rush. His older brother Edwin B. Crocker had become an attorney by the time Crocker was investing in railroads.<ref name="PBS"/>

Founding a railroad

Pacific Railroad Bond, City and County of San Francisco, 1865

The Truckee River at Verdi, Nevada. When the Central Pacific Railroad reached the site in 1868, Charles Crocker pulled a slip of paper from a hat and read the name of Giuseppe Verdi ; so, the town was named after the Italian opera composer.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Charles Crocker's Second Empire-Italian Villa style mansion (1877), formerly at the N.W. corner of California & Taylor, on Nob Hill, San Francisco, now the site of Grace Cathedral.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1861, after hearing an intriguing presentation by Theodore Judah, he was one of the four principal investors, along with Mark Hopkins, Collis Huntington and Leland Stanford (also known as The Big Four), who formed the Central Pacific Railroad, which constructed the western portion of the First transcontinental railroad in North America. His position with the company was that of construction supervisor and president of Charles Crocker & Co., a Central Pacific subsidiary founded expressly for the purpose of building the railroad.

Crocker bought train plows to plow the tracks of snow through the mountains, but they derailed due to ice on the tracks. He had more than Template:Convert of snow sheds built to cover the tracks in the Sierra Nevada mountains, to prevent the tracks from getting covered with snow in the winter. This project cost over $2 million.<ref>"Charles Crocker", The West, PBS-WETA</ref>

In 1864, Charles asked his older brother Edwin to serve as legal counsel for the Central Pacific Railroad.<ref name="PBS">Template:Cite web</ref>

While the Central Pacific was still under construction in 1868, Crocker and his three associates acquired control of the Southern Pacific Railroad. It built the westernmost portion of the second transcontinental railroad. Deming, New Mexico, is named after his wife, Mary Ann Deming Crocker. A silver spike was driven here in 1881 to commemorate the meeting of the Southern Pacific with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroads, completing the construction of the second transcontinental railroad in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On September 5, 1876, at the Lang Southern Pacific Station, a California Historic Landmark, Crocker hammered a golden spike into a railroad tie, the ceremonial spike was driven to celebrate the completion of San Joaquin Valley rail line. The completion of the line connected the City of Los Angeles with San Francisco and First transcontinental railroad line.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Banking

Crocker was briefly the controlling shareholder of Wells Fargo in 1869 and served as president. After he sold down, he was replaced by John J. Valentine, Sr.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Crocker also acquired controlling interest for his son William in Woolworth National Bank, which was renamed Crocker-Anglo Bank.

In 1963, Crocker-Anglo Bank merged with Los Angeles' Citizens National Bank, to become Crocker-Citizens Bank<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and later, Crocker National Bank.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The San Francisco-based bank no longer exists, as it was acquired by Wells Fargo in 1986.<ref name=cnwf86erg>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=wfac>Template:Cite news</ref>

Nob Hill Spite fence

Nob Hill and the 40 foot tall spite fence

Crocker built a mansion on Nob Hill, San Francisco. When his attempts to buy Template:AnchorNicholas Yung's adjacent property were rebuffed, he built a 40-foot spite fence around three sides of the neighbor's property. Legal challenges to the fence were unavailing. The feud lasted many years, and the fence was only removed after the death of Mrs. Yung, and the sale of the property by Yung's heirs to Crocker's family. Spite fences were thereafter made illegal in San Francisco. The mansion was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Though the disaster rendered the infamous dispute and its resolution moot, Crocker's family donated the entire block of land to charity, in support of the Episcopal Diocese of California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1910, in the same plot where the fence stood, the cornerstone was laid for Grace Cathedral.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Painting of Crocker's daughter, Harriet, by Giovanni Boldini, 1887

In 1852, Crocker was married to Mary Ann Deming.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Mary was the daughter of John Jay Deming and Emily (née Reed) Deming. Together, they had six children, four of whom survived to adulthood:<ref name="1888Will">Template:Cite news</ref>

• Charles Frederick Crocker (1854–1897), who married Jennie Ella Easton (1858–1887).<ref name=CFCobit1854>Template:Cite news Template:Subscription required</ref><ref name=SFC-970718>Template:Cite news</ref>
• George Crocker (1856–1909), who married Emma Hanchett (1855–1904).<ref name=nyt-dyiga>

Template:Cite newsTemplate:PD-notice</ref><ref name=nyt-die-cancer>Template:Cite newsTemplate:PD-notice</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

• Harriet Valentine Crocker (1859–1935), who married Charles Beatty Alexander (1849–1927).<ref name="1920Engagement">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• William Henry Crocker (1861–1937), who married Ethel Sperry (1861–1934).<ref name=WHCOBit1937>Template:Cite news</ref>

Crocker was seriously injured in a New York City carriage accident in 1886,<ref name="1886Accident">Template:Cite news</ref> never fully recovered, and died two years later on August 14, 1888.<ref name="CCDying1888">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="CCObit1888"/> He was buried in a mausoleum located on "Millionaire's Row" at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The massive granite structure was designed by the New York architect A. Page Brown, who later designed the San Francisco Ferry Building.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web Use "Crocker" as the search text.</ref> Crocker's estate has been valued at between $300 million and $400 million at the time of his death in 1888.

During his lifetime Charles Crocker amassed a considerable collection of works of art.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Crocker's tomb in Mountain View Cemetery

Honors

Mount Crocker is named in his honor.<ref>Erwin G. Gudde, California Place Names, University of California Press, 1969, Template:ISBN, page 96.</ref> It is located in California's Sierra Nevada mountains.

See also

• Crocker family
• List of people associated with the California Gold Rush

External links

• Template:Cite book