Samuel Brannan

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Samuel Brannan

Samuel Brannan (March 2, 1819 – May 14, 1889), was the first publicist of the California Gold Rush and the first millionaire because of the rush. Brannan Street in San Francisco is named after him.

Brannan was born in Saco, Maine. As a teenager, his family moved to Ohio, where Brannan learned to be a printer. He joined the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Brannan moved to New York in 1844, and began printing The New York Messenger, a Latter Day Saint newspaper.

On February 4, 1846, shortly after the death of Church leader Joseph Smith, Jr., Brannan and about 240 other Latter Day Saints from New York set sail aboard the ship Brooklyn for California, via Cape Horn. The group planned on helping create an independent Mormon nation in the Mexican territory of California.^{[citation needed]} Brannan had an antiquated printing press and a complete flour mill on board. They landed at Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) on July 31, 1846, tripling the size of the village.

Brannan used his printing press to establish the first newspaper in San Francisco, the California Star. He also established the first school in San Francisco. In 1847, he opened a store at Sutter's Fort, in what is now Sacramento. In June 1847, Brannan traveled overland to Green River, Wyoming, to meet with Brigham Young, leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who was on his initial trip across the plains to the Great Basin. The men discussed the feasibility of the larger group of Mormons settling in California. However, Young rejected the California proposal in favor of settlement in what is today Utah. Brannan chose to return to California.

Early in 1848, employees of John Sutter paid for goods in his store with gold they had found at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma, California. Brannan went to the mill and, as a representative of the LDS Church, he received the tithes of the LDS workers there from the gold they had found in their spare time. Brannan took this gold back to San Francisco, purchased every shovel in the city, and then ran through the streets yelling, "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"

Samuel Brannan's store at Sutter's Fort

Brannan opened more stores to sell goods to the miners (his Sutter Fort store sold US$150,000 a month in 1849), and began buying land in San Francisco. At about this time, Brannan was accused of diverting church money, including collected tithes, to fund his private ventures. An LDS envoy was sent to Brannan and he sent them back reportedly telling them "You go back and tell Brigham Young that I'll give up the Lord's money when he sends me a receipt signed by the Lord." Brannan was later excommunicated from the LDS Church. He was elected to the first town council of San Francisco and, after a series of sensational crimes in the area, was the organizer of the Committee of Vigilance, which functioned as a de facto police force.

In 1851, Brannan visited Hawaii, and purchased large amounts of land in Honolulu. In 1853 he was elected to the California State Senate. He was involved in developing trade with China, financial agreements with Mexico, founding the Society of California Pioneers, and developing banks, railroads and telegraph companies. Brannan built the first incarnation of the famous Cliff House in San Francisco in 1858. In 1868 he purchased 160,000 acres (647 km²) of land in Los Angeles County, California.

Brannan lost much of his personal fortune after a divorce from his wife. It was ruled that Brannan's wife was entitled to half of their holdings, payable in cash. Because the vast majority of Brannan's holdings were in real estate, he was forced to liquidate to pay the divorce settlement. After visiting the hot springs in Napa County, Brannan bought a huge tract of land and founded the village of Calistoga, (a combination of the words California and Saratoga) planning a resort. Failing at that, he became a brewer, then developed a problem with alcohol. Forsaking the city he helped found, he drifted to San Diego, remarried and set up a small ranch near the Mexican border, where he engaged in land speculation with the Mexican government near Sonora. At the age of sixty-nine, he was paid the sum of forty-nine thousand dollars in interest from the government of Mexico. He quit drinking, paid all his debts and died penniless at the age of seventy near San Diego, California (specifically, in Escondido) on May 14, 1889, after suffering from bowel inflammation.

Many California features, including Brannan Street (in San Francisco), Brannan Island, Brannan Bluff, Brannan Creek, Brannan Mountain, Brannin Springs, and Brannon River, are named after him. Also Sam Brannan Middle School is named after Mr. Brannan.^[1]

Several cities in California honor Sam Brannan as their founder, two being Yuba City, and Calistoga, California. In Sacramento, Brannan partnered with John Sutter Jr. laid out the unofficial land sub-divisions that became Sacramento, with William Tecumseh Sherman doing the surveying work.