Background
Samuel Brannan was born on March 2, 1819 in Saco, York County, Maine to to Thomas and Sara Emery Brannan.
Businessman journalist Settler
Samuel Brannan was born on March 2, 1819 in Saco, York County, Maine to to Thomas and Sara Emery Brannan.
Samuel received his elementary education in Saco, York County and spent the early years of his life there. When he was fourteen years old he removed with his sister to Lake County, Ohio, where he learned the trade of a printer.
Completing his apprenticeship Lake County, Ohio in 1836, Samuel Brannan visited most of the states of the Union during the next five years as a journeyman printer.
In 1842 he moved to New York City, where he published the New York Messenger and later the New York Prophet for the Mormon church. In November 1845, when a conference of Mormons in New York City decided to move some of their number to a new home in Mexican California, Brannan was chosen to conduct the expedition. He chartered the ship Brooklyn, and sailed from New York City on February 4, 1846, with two hundred and thirty-eight emigrants, including seventy men, sixty-eight women, and one hundred children.
After sailing around South America and making a brief stop at the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands, the Brooklyn passed through the Golden Gate and anchored before the village of Yerba Buena (San Francisco) on the last day of July 1846. By this time the Mexican War was in progress, and California had been occupied by American troops. Though somewhat disappointed at seeing the stars and stripes floating above the adobe custom house, Brannan and his followers went ashore and made themselves at home in their new environment.
They were the first Anglo-American settlers to arrive in California after its capture by the United States--an advance contingent of the hundreds of thousands that were soon to follow. Shortly after his arrival, Sam, as his contemporaries called him, became a leader in the village.
On January 9, 1847, he began the publication of the California Star, which was the first newspaper in San Francisco. In the same year he moved to Sutter's Fort, where he conducted a store until 1849.
Early in 1848 gold was found at the fort; and it is claimed that Brannan was the first to carry the news of this important discovery to San Francisco.
In 1849 he closed his store at Sutter's Fort and returned to San Francisco, which had grown into a thriving city. To him this offered greater opportunities for leadership. The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance of 1851 was organized in his office.
In the fifties and early sixties he used his wealth that he gained making investments in real estate in San Francisco and Sacramento in promoting agriculture, establishing banks, organizing railway, telegraph, and express companies, and contributing large sums for philanthropic purposes.
Unfortunately during last years of his life Samuel Brannan lost most of his property due to discovery that he was hoarding sacred funds to further his own wealth and his excommunication from the church. He died a poor, lonley man; and an apostate to his Church.
Brannan died at age 70 in Escondido, California, Sunday, May 5, 1889, from inflammation of the bowels and his body is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery.
His conversion to the Mormon faith in 1842 proved to be the turning point in his career. Brannan soon became a leading spirit in the church and was made an elder, and his ability was shortly given even larger recognition. However, at the end of his life he was excommunicated from the Church because of him hoarding sacred funds for his own wealth. Consequently, at he time of his death he was an apostate to his Church.
Much of its immediate success was due to his fearless initiative; but his impetuous nature and his frequent demands for summary punishment finally led to his resignation.
Quotations: On the occasion of the gold discovery in San Francisco it is said that he "bolted into San Francisco from the diggings, travel-stained with his long journey, and rushed through the old Plaza hatless, crying out with his bull-throated bellow: 'Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!' "
Brannan was a member of the Society of California Pioneers.
At the time when Brannan arrived to California along with the first Anglo-American settlers, he was described as "deep-chested, broad-shouldered, shaggy-headed, " with "flashing black eyes. " "His dress was dandified, his speech bombastic, his manners coarse, his courage and generosity boundless. "
The later years of his life were marred by a too frequent indulgence in strong drink. Then his brilliant personality became "clouded by dissipation, his wealth melted away, his position was lost, and he died in poverty and obscurity, in Escondido, San Diego County. "
Quotes from others about the person
In an attempt to evaluate his services to California, H. H. Bancroft, who did not have a favorable impression of him, nevertheless wrote: "He probably did more for San Francisco and for other places than was effected by the combined efforts of scores of other men. "
He was married twice: before being called as a missionary he had married Harriet ("Hattie") Hatch with whom he had one child. Then he fell in love with with Ann Eliza Corwin and took her as his wife although it was said that Brannan had never officially divorced his first wife. However, their union fell apart in 1870 when Anna Eliza Corwin left Brannan.
1856–1931
1823–1916
soldier, businessman, educator
engineer
American pioneer
1852–1854
1845–1931
