Jane Lathrop Stanford Papers

{preprinted: "Century Club of California San Francisco."} To Charles G. Lathrop Esq Palo Alto.At a meeting of the Century Club of California held on March 22nd 1905, the enclosed Resolutions were unanimously adopted, and the meeting the adjourned as a mark of respect for Mrs. Jane L. Stanford an esteemed and honored member of the Club.-

Mrs. B. F. Norris, Cor. Sec.

Newland, Washington Dec. 22, 1901

Mrs Jane L. Stanford. San Francisco, Cal.

My Dear Madam I take the liberty to write to you, also enclose this article cut from one of our local papers. While reading it I was struck by the Vast Amount of wealth that is in your keeping. I appreciate the generosity of yourself and Husband and realise that it will do untold good to Thousands. I hope you may take the time to read this letter all of it, I wish to

STANFORD UNIVERSITY FUND

THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS

Mrs. Jane L. Stanford Gives Valuable Property to the Leland Stanford, Jr., University, and Will Have a Few Million Left for Heirs - Gifts Accepted.

San Francisco, Dec. 11. - Mrs. Jane L. Stanford has executed and delivered to the board of trustees of the Leland Stanford, Jr. university, two deeds of grant and one deed of gift. One of the deeds of grant covers all of the real estate heretofore given to the university, including the university campus of about 9000 acres. The other deed of grant covers the Stanford residence upon California Street, which is eventually to be used for educational purposes.

The deed of gift covers bonds and stocks heretofore given and certain securities not included in former grants. The grants are confirmatory in character and are made under the provisions of the Stanford university constitutional amendment, which legalized grants and gifts made to the university. This amendment was adopted in order to set at rest any question as to the validity of the original endowment and to prevent legal technicalities from interfering with future donations to this educational institution, which was founded by Mr. and Mrs. Stanford as a memorial to their only son.

The deeds delivered practically cover the grants made in the original endowment, which, however, is more than doubled in value, chiefly owing to the remarkable business ability displayed by Mrs. Stanford in the management of the vast interest left in her charge by the death of her husband. By these grants she has conveyed to the Leland Stanford, Jr., university, for the benefit of the people of California, about $18,000,000 in stocks and bonds, $10,000,000 to $12,000,000 in real estate, including the university buildings and equipments. All of the bonds are first mortgage and the stocks, with scarcely an exception, are what are known as gilt edge securities.

F. F. Lieb of San Jose, president of the board of directors, received the deeds on behalf of the board, and also took formal possession of the bonds and other personal property. Messrs. Charles G. Lathrop, Joseph D. Grant and Timothy Hopkins, resident trustees, were also present. The legal features of the donation were conducted by Mrs. Stanford's attorneys, Crothers & Crothers.

Notwithstanding that she has now given the equivalent of over $25,000,000 to the Leland Stanford, Jr., university, making it one of the richest institutions of the kind in the world, Mrs. Stanford has not impoverished herself, but is understood to still retain several millions for her personal use and to provide for the various members of her family. It is believed that the amount of her endowment to the university, which she aided in founding, exceeds in amount any similar gift in history.

W. S. CHAPMAN 306 PINE ST.

San Francisco, Cal., June 21, 1893

Dear Miss Stanford

I was shocked this morning on receipt of the early paper which gave me the news of your sad bereavement.

I beg to extend to you my deepest sympathy and all I can feel or say can give you no comfort for I know that your consolation rests entirely in the well founded hope that your dear husband is now enjoying the society of your lamented son whom you & he have so grieveously mourned so long.

Your dear husband rests forever from his labours which though unfinished have been herculian and well done.

Mr. Stanford was a great man kind husband a great thinker

KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS:

That I, Jane L. Stanford, widow of Leland Stanford, deceased, of Palo Alto, County of Santa Clara, State of California, do hereby create and establish a Scholarship at the Leland Stanford Junior University, situated at Palo Alto, County of Santa Clara, State of California, upon the following terms and conditions, that is to say:

I.

The said Scholarship shall, in memory of my beloved son, be known, as and called the ''LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP".

II.

For the support of such Scholarship, I have given in trust to the Union Trust Company of San Francisco, a corporation, the following personal property, that is to say:

Six (6) first mortgage five per cent. bonds of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Company of Texas, (Mexican & Pacific Extension), Numbers 535 to 540, both inclusive, principal due 1931, interest payable May 1st and November 1st of each year, coupons 39 to 100, both inclusive, attached, said bonds being of the par value of one thousand dollars each; the net income, interest and revenue from which said Trust property said Union Trust Company of San Francisco is to pay over, for the support of said Scholarship, in the manner provided in a certain instrument of even date herewith transferring to it, said Union Trust Company of San Francisco, the said personal property, in trust for purposes designated. The funds with which said bonds were purchased are the savings and earnings of my beloved son from an early date until he passed away on May 14th, 1884, and what I have added in order to make the fund sufficient to establish the Scholarship.

This Scholarship originated in my mind as a fitting and sacred disposal of my dear son's little sum, which he had deposited with the Security Savings Bank, San Francisco, and in accordance with his expressed wish to his father only a few hours before he passed away from his life, which was to this effect -- "live for humanity's sake; live to feed the hungry, clothe the naked.'' His father concluded that the best way to do this was to educate the sons and daughters of the very poor, who otherwise would