Charles Crocker
| Charles Crocker | |
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 Charles Crocker, c. 1872 by Stephen W. Shaw |
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| Born | September 16, 1822 Troy, New York, USA |
| Died | August 14, 1888 (aged 65) Monterey, California, USA |
| Net worth | USD $20 million at the time of his death (approximately 1/608th of US GNP)[1] |
Charles Crocker (September 16, 1822 – August 14, 1888) was an American railroad executive.
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[edit] Early years
Crocker was born in Troy, New York, the son of Eliza (née Wright) and Isaac Crocker, a modest family, and moved to an Indiana farm at age 14. He soon became independent, working on several farms, a sawmill, and at an iron forge. In 1845 he founded a small, independent iron forge of his own. He used this money to later invest in the railroad business.
[edit] Running a railroad
In 1861, after hearing a very 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 became 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 CP subsidiary founded expressly for the purpose of building the railroad. Charles Crocker also bought train plows to plow the tracks. This, however, did not work because they would frequently derail due to ice on the tracks. This led him to build over 40 miles of snow sheds to cover the tracks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, to help stop the tracks from getting covered with snow in the winter. This project cost over $2 million.[2]
While the Central Pacific was still under construction, Crocker and his associates acquired control of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1868.
Deming, New Mexico, is named after Mary Ann Deming Crocker, wife of Charles Crocker. A golden spike was driven here in 1881 to commemorate the meeting of the Southern Pacific with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, completing the construction of the second transcontinental railroad in the United States.[citation needed]
[edit] Banking
Crocker was briefly the controlling shareholder of Wells Fargo in 1869 serving as President but sold down and was replaced by John J. Valentine, Sr..[3] Charles Crocker also acquired controlling interest in Woolworth National Bank for his son William, which became Crocker-Anglo Bank. In 1963, Crocker-Anglo Bank later merged with Los Angeles' Citizens National Bank, to become Crocker-Citizens Bank [4] and later, Crocker Bank.[citation needed] The San Francisco, California, based bank no longer exists. It was acquired by Wells Fargo Bank in 1986.
[edit] Personal life
Charles Crocker was the younger brother of Edwin B. Crocker. Charles asked his older brother to work as legal counsel for Central Pacific Railroad in 1864.[5]
In 1886 he was seriously injured in a New York City carriage accident. He never fully recovered, and died two years later. Crocker is buried in a mausoleum located on "Millionaire's Row" at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. The massive granite structure was designed by New York architect Arthur Page Brown who later designed the San Francisco Ferry Building.[6][7] Crocker's estate has been valued at between $300 million and $400 million at the time of his death, in 1888.
[edit] References
- ^ Klepper, Michael; Gunther, Michael (1996), The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates—A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present, Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group, p. xiii, ISBN 9780806518008, OCLC 33818143
- ^ [1]
- ^ Fradkin, Philip L. (2002). Stage Coach, The History of Wells Fargo. ISBN 9780743227629. http://books.google.com/books?id=QILdMe7lYXgC&lpg=PA219&dq=%22charlescrocker%22%22wellsfargo%22&pg.
- ^ "Banking: The Urge to Unrmerge". Time. August 27, 1965. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,828371,00.html. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
- ^ "People & Events: Edwin Bryant Crocker (1818-1875)". Public Broadcasting Service. 1999-2003. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tcrr/peopleevents/p_ecrocker.html. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
- ^ "The Tombs of Charles Crocker etal.". Central Pacific RR Photograghic Museum. http://cprr.org/Museum/Mt_View_Tombs.html.
- ^ "For May Day, Remembering Vincent St. John". LaborStandard.org. http://www.laborstandard.org/New_Postings/Vincent_St_John.htm. Use "Crocker" as the search text.
[edit] External links
- Ambrose, Stephen E. (2000). Nothing Like It In The World; The men who built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-84609-8.
- Charles Crocker at Find a Grave
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