Jane Stanford

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Portrait of Mr. and Mrs Leland Stanford in 1850

Jane Stanford (August 25, 1828 - February 28, 1905) was the co-founder Stanford University with her husband, Leland Stanford, whom she wed in 1850. She was the daughter of a shopkeeper and lived on Washington Avenue in Albany, New York, before her marriage. She and her husband headed west, first to Wisconsin and then to California.

Early life and marriage

Born Jane Eliza Lathrop in Albany, New York, she was the daughter of Dyer and Jane Anne (Shields) Lathrop.[1] She married Leland Stanford on September 30, 1850, and went to live with him in Port Washington, Wisconsin, where he had practiced law since 1848.

The Stanfords lived in Port Washington until 1852 when, after his law library and other property had been lost to fire, they returned to Albany. Stanford then went to California to join his brothers in mercantile business while Jane remained in Albany with her family. He returned in 1855, and the following year they moved to San Francisco, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits on a large scale.

Stanford was a co-founder of the Central Pacific Railroad, serving as its president from 1861 until his death in 1893. He was also president of the Southern Pacific Railroad from 1868 until ousted from the post by Collis Potter Huntington in 1890.[2]

Stanford University

Upon the death of their only son Leland Stanford, Jr., in 1884 while on a trip in Italy, the elder Leland turned to his wife, Jane, and said, "The children of California shall be our children." They then founded Leland Stanford Junior University in their son's honor. After Leland's death on June 21, 1893, Jane in effect took control of the University and it was at her direction that Stanford University gained an early focus on the arts. She also advocated the admission of women.[3][4][5]

Jane Stanford figured prominently in the issue of academic freedom when she sought and ultimately succeeded in having Stanford University economist Edward A. Ross fired for making speeches favoring Democrat William Jennings Bryan and for his liberal economic teachings. This resulted in the American Association of University Professors' "Report on Academic Freedom and Tenure" of 1915, by Arthur Oncken Lovejoy and Edwin R. A. Seligman, and in the AAUP 1915 Declaration of Principles.

Later life

On November 27, 1890, The New York Times published a report from The Critic, that Jane Stanford had "become a convert to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church."[6]

She made her famous "jewel journey" to London, England during 1897, the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee to dispose of her collection of jewels to raise funds for her University, but she was not able to sell her storied ruby collection. Historian Oscar Lewis said that the Queen, from her carriage, nodded to Stanford, who was watching the parade from a rented window on Fleet Street.

In the late 1890s, Jane Stanford attempted to reconcile her differences with Huntington at his office in New York. "Mr. Huntington", she said, "I have come to make my peace with you." "Well, I declare", was his surprised reaction.[7]

Death

In 1905, Jane Stanford was at the center of one of America's legendary mysteries. She allegedly died of strychnine poisoning while on the island of Oahu, in a room at the Moana Hotel. An account of events says that on the evening of February 28th, Stanford asked for bicarbonate of soda to settle her stomach. Her personal secretary, Bertha Berner, prepared the solution, which Stanford drank. At 11:15 p.m., Stanford cried out for her servants and hotel staff to call for a physician, feeling that she had lost sensation in her body. Robert Cutler, author of "The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford", recounted what took place upon the arrival of Dr. Francis Howard Humphris, the hotel physician:

"As Humphris tried to administer a solution of bromine and chloral hydrate, Mrs. Stanford, now in anguish, exclaimed, 'My jaws are stiff. 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. Stanford was dead from strychnine poisoning."

Controversy resulted from the quick verdict of the coroner's jury, which reached its conclusion in less than two minutes. 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.[8]

The source of the strychnine was never identified. Today, the room no longer exists, having been incorporated in an expansion of the hotel lobby. Stanford was buried alongside her husband Leland and their son at the Stanford family mausoleum on the Stanford campus.

Notes

  1. ^ Dictionary of American Biography, Vo. XVII, p. 502. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935.
  2. ^ Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XVII, pp. 502-504 passim.
  3. ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. II, p. 129. New York: James T. White & Company, 1899. Reprint of 1891 edition.
  4. ^ Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XVII, p. 504.
  5. ^ Cleveland Amory, Who Killed Society?, pp. 432-433. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960.
  6. ^ "Quick Stanford Verdict. Coroner's Jury Reached Its Conclusions in Less Than Two Minutes., The New York Times, November 27, 1890. [1]
  7. ^ Amory, p. 433.
  8. ^ "Quick Stanford Verdict. Coroner's Jury Reached Its Conclusions in Less Than Two Minutes", The New York Times, March 11, 1905. [2]

External links

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