Leland Stanford

Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824 – June 21, 1893) was an American tycoon, industrialist, robber baron, politician and founder of Stanford University. Stanford was born in 1824 in what was then Watervliet, New York (in what is now the town of Colonie). He was one of eight children of Josiah and Elizabeth Phillips Stanford. Stanford was raised on family farms in Lisha Kill and Roessleville (after 1836) areas of Watervliet. The family home in Roessleville was called Elm Grove. The Elm Grove home was razed in the 1940s. His immigrant ancestor, Thomas Stanford, settled in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the 17th century. Later ancestors settled in the Mohawk Valley of New York about 1720. Stanford's father was a farmer of some means....