Amasa Leland Stanford, otherwise known as Leland Stanford, was a businessman and politician. He was a financier of the transcontinental railroad, and became president of the Central Pacific railroad. Stanford was also the first Republican governor in California and created a college, Stanford University. Along with these many accomplishments, Leland Stanford had a loving wife and family, as well as a son named Leland Stanford Jr. Leland Stanford was born March 9, 1824 in Watervliet, New York. His parents, Josiah Stanford and Elizabeth Phillip Stanford, were English tavern keepers. When Stanford was twelve, they moved to Elm Grove, New York, where his father bought a small hotel. At seventeen years of age, Leland Stanford attended the Clinton
