The Curious Tales of Leland & Jane Stanford.

Leland Stanford is known as being an early primary investor and then President of Central Pacific Railroads and later founder (with his wife Jane) of the Stanford University. Interesting stories are associated with Leland, including "The Inventor and the Tycoon" by Edward Bell of which initially piqued this writer's interest and this post. This article does not focus however, upon Sanford's association with the "inventor" Eadweard Muybridge. Extensive land grants and bonds were authorized to be issued so that two railroad lines (Central Pacific and Pacific Union) could construct a transcontinental railway. This authorization occurred in 1862 when Abraham Lincoln approved the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862, as a war measure for the preservation of the union. Leland was present at the physical joining of the two railroad lines (Central Pacific from San Francisco and Western Pacific from Omaha/Council Bluffs) meeting at Promontory Summit, Utah in 1869. Leland later commissioned Thomas Hill to make a painting of the event but Stanford did not want the painting particularly accurate (we have photos for that, he said in effect). Stanford advised Hill that only he should be depicted with a hammer and he further instructed Hill that people to be painted about him were to be of his friends and business partners whether they were actually there or not at the event . Stanford "told Hill who would appear and where they might be placed-seventy one people altogether and they had to be recognizable" "Inventor and Tycoon, p. 102. However, later Leland changes his mind as to some of the painted individuals and makes Thomas Hill paint over some of the figures and turn them into other favored people. However, one of Stanford's partners, Charles Crocker was not near enough to the center of the painting and so when Crocker saw the painting, Crocker became enraged! So.....Stanford never paid Thomas Hill for his (year's long worth) work. No depiction of the Chinese men who had been imported to build the railroad are in the painting. Another story is that Leland and his wife had been childless for eighteen years of their marriage but suddenly, at the age of thirty nine, Jane was pregnant with a boy which would be named after his father! However, Leland Stanford Jr. however caught typhoid in Athens, Greece shortly before his 16th birthday when on a trip abroad with his family and was then rushed to Italy for medical treatment. Leland Stanford Jr. died from typhus in Florence, Italy. Later, in his memory, Leland and his wife, Jane founded Sanford University which was built on the grounds that had been Leland Stanford Sr.'s horse stock farm where he bred horses in Palo Alto. Leland Stanford died in 1893 and thereafter Jane oversaw Stanford University with the attentive care and concern of a mother. David Starr Jordan had been chosen based upon a recommendation by the Stanfords to be the President of Stanford University. However, Jane became concerned about Jordan's conduct and asked professor Goebel (her friend and confident) to keep a paper trail re Jordan's conduct. Finally, it was concluded by Jane that she would remove Jordan from his position as President of Sanford. Meanwhile (1905), there was an incident wherein she was poisoned by strychnine when she drank some spiked Poland mineral water in her home. The taste of the water had been bitter so she only had had a sip but fell sick but survived the ordeal. It was undetermined how that had happened. Shortly thereafter, she went to Hawaii for rest and further recovery (also had a chest cold) only to find her tummy troubled and thus she asked for and received by her trusted personal secretary of Bertha Berner, a bottle of bicarbonate soda only to find herself poisoned once again. Several physicians were called to her aid but she was not saved: "As Humphris tried to administer a solution of bromine and chloral hydrate, Mrs. Stanford, now in anguish, exclaimed, “My jaws are stiff [Humphris confirmed the contraction of her jaw muscles by palpation]. This is a horrible death to die.” Whereupon she was seized by a tetanic spasm that progressed relentlessly to a state of severe rigidity: her jaws clamped shut, her thighs opened widely, her feet twisted inwards, her fingers and thumbs clenched into tight fists, and her head drew back. Finally, her respiration ceased." Source: The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford (Stanford University Press, 2003), Stanford physician Robert W.P. Cutler. Strychnine was found in the bicarbonate soda just as it had been found in the mineral water. An autopsy and an inquiry by a coroner’s jury followed. After reviewing the autopsy report and hearing three full days of testimony, the jury took only two minutes to reach its conclusion: “... Jane Lathrop Stanford came to her death ... from strychnine poisoning, said strychnine having been introduced into a bottle of bicarbonate of soda with felonious intent by some person or persons to this jury unknown.... ” A dispatch in The New York Times of March 11, 1905, stated that the verdict was "written out with the knowledge and assistance of Deputy High Sheriff Rawlins," implying that the jurors may have been coached on what conclusion to reach. By this time, Jordan was en route to Honolulu with a party of his own. Upon his arrival, Jordan quickly hired a local physician, Ernest Coniston Waterhouse, to dispute the cause of death. Waterhouse was paid $7000 to complete a four page document which found that contrary to the earlier reports of poisoning, Mrs. Stanford had died of heart failure. Whether Jordan tried to contradict the findings of the other physicians to protect the University's reputation or to protect his job is still unknown today. Whether the trusted personal secretary was somehow (whether wittingly or not) a part of this poisoning is unclear either ( she was the only party present at both poisonings but she had been a trusted employee of twenty years standing). After Jane's death, Jordan fired Goebel from his position. See also: http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=36459