William Sharon
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United States Senator William Sharon (January 9, 1821-November 13, 1885) from Nevada profited from the Comstock Lode.
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[edit] Early life
He was born in Smithfield, Ohio, January 9, 1821. He attended Athens College. He moved to St. Louis, Missouri and studied law. He was admitted to the bar and practiced. He engaged in mercantile pursuits in Carrollton, Illinois.
[edit] Career in the west
William moved to California in 1849 and engaged in business in Sacramento. He moved to San Francisco in 1850 and was a dealer in real estate. He moved to Virginia City, Nevada in 1864 as manager of the branch of the Bank of California and became interested in silver mining.
Senator Sharon was a business partner of William Chapman Ralston and was the Nevada agent for the Bank of California. He and Ralston profited greatly from loaning money to mining operations and then foreclosing on those operations when the owners defaulted.
William Sharon acquired many of Ralston's assets in 1875 when Ralston's financial empire collapsed and he died. He was thought by some of his contemporaries to have actually aided the collapse. He certainly was the main beneficiary of Ralston's assets. Those assets included the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and Ralston Hall in Belmont, California.
He became the father-in-law of future Congressman and Senator from Nevada, Francis G. Newlands.
[edit] Senator
He was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1875, to March 3, 1881. He served as the chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining in the 45th United States Congress.
[edit] Later years
He resided in San Francisco until his death on November 13, 1885. He is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco. His final years saw a legal battle that was the juiciest scandal of its time. Two lawsuits Sharon vs. Sharon, 1884 and Sharon vs Hill, 1885 encapsulated his death. He lost the first case and before the appeal was decided, he was already dead, but he won, thus ruining Sarah Althea's Hill's hopes to be recognized as his wife or widow.
[edit] References
- Kroninger, Robert. Sarah and the Senator. Berkeley, Calif.: Howell-North, 1964
- Roberts, Gary L. In Pursuit of Duty. American West 7 (September 1970): 27-33, 62-63
- This article incorporates facts obtained from the public domain Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
- Hudson, Lynne. The Making of Mammy Pleasant: A Black Entrepreneur in Nineteenth Century San Francisco Chicago and Urbana IL.: University of Illinois Press, 2003. (p63)
- Stone, Irving. "Men to Match My Mountains."
| Preceded by William M. Stewart |
United States Senator (Class 1) from Nevada 1875–1881 Served alongside: John P. Jones |
Succeeded by James G. Fair |
