A Son Dies and Stanford University is Founded

Typhoid Claims a Teen; A Learning Institution Honors Him

Feb 6, 2009

Leland Stanford Jr. was traveling abroad in 1884 when he began to feel ill in Athens. In Italy he felt worse and was diagnosed with the bacterial disease.

He died in Florence on March 13, 1884 with his parents present, as the entire family had been traveling abroad since May 1883. (In 10 months of traveling, they had visited England, France, Italy, Austria and Greece before returning again to Italy.) He was 15.

He had contracted a "mild" case of typhoid-possibly by drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated food in Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey or Greece. At first he seemed to improve under diligent medical care and nursing, but suddenly he took a turn for the worse.

A Father's Dream; New Parents at Mid-Life

In the early morning hours of the first day following his son's death, the senior Standord dreamed about him. He later recounted to David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University, that Leland Junior had spoken to him in the dream. When Stanford awoke, he had a powerful new mission. In his words: "The children of California shall be our children." It was not long before he and Jane Lathrop Stanford, the boy's mother, decided to establish a university in his honor.

Born in Sacramento, California on May 14, 1868, the younger Stanford was his parents' only child. Married for 18 years when their son was born, Leland was 44 and Jane was 39. The senior Stanford was president of the Central Pacific Railroad. From January 1862 to December 1863 he had been govenor of California.

The younger Stanford grew up in homes in Sacramento, San Francisco and Palo Alto. At the Palo Alto Stock Farm, the Stanford country estate and horse farm, young Stanford enjoyed picnics and riding his pony. He and his parents were laid to rest in a mausoleum there.

Palo Alto Stock Farm Selected as Site of the University; The University Opens

The Stanfords decided that the Palo Alto Stock Farm would be the site of the Leland Stanford Junior University, now referred to as Stanford University. The university was founded in 1885 when Stanford granted his Palo Alto lands for the university's use. Fifteen buildings had been constructured by March 1891. Also in March, 40-year-old Dr. Starr, then president of Indiana University in Bloomington, accepted the presidency. Stanford University opened on October 1, 1891.

Charles Allerton Coolidge was the architect. The grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, the landscape architect who had designed New York's Central Park.

Orrin, Elliott Leslie. Stanford University: The First Twenty-Five Years. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1937.

Mirrielees, Edith R. Stanford: The Story of a University. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1959.

The copyright of the article A Son Dies and Stanford University is Founded in American History is owned by Linda N. Riggins. Permission to republish A Son Dies and Stanford University is Founded in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.