Letters of Condolence on death of Jane Stanford, 1905

To Mrs. Jane Lathrop Stanford on her seventieth birthday.

August 25, 1898.

To you, beneath life's reddening sunset ray, Seeing what visions with reverted eyes! - Hope, joy and anguish, boundless sacrifice, And faith triumphant on the Dolorous Way; To you, in sign of all words cannot say, Thankful at least to know your sorrow lies Safe locked now with the dead year's sanctities, This friendly token let us bring today.

For us, still sorrow that your years creep on; For you, but gladness. The world's claim is quit - Fulfilled, and nobly. Happy, who can sit At eventide and look back to the dawn Saying, Not empty has the day withdrawn. Wait for the sunset; peace comes after it.

Alphonso G. Newcomer.

Accompanying a framed copy of Abbott Thayer's "Caritas".

Quoted from Washington Post, April 16, 1905

Mrs. Stanford's Memory Extolled.

The resolution extolling the memory of Mrs. Stanford, who had benefited the cause espoused by teh council, was drawn up by Miss Susan B. Anthony and Mrs. May Wright Sewall, and is as follows:

"Resolved, That the partnership of interest, responsibility, self-denial, and aggressive effor existing between leland Stanford and his wife during the years of their struggle for material success, furnished an example worthy of imitation. It was in this partnership that Mrs. Stanford developed those qualities which justified her husband in making her the sole executrix of their large fortune.

"Resolved, That in Mrs. Stanford's constant demonstration of the possession of sagacity, judgment, and fidelity which justified her husband's will, the public respect for women has been invitably strengthened and increased. It was on the death of Mrs. Stanford that for the first time in the history of our country the flags were hung at half-mast by the order of the governor of a great State, and thus they were maintained for days. It was on her death that for the first time, by order of the directors, the flags were hung at half-mast at every station on a great system of railroads stretching from sea to sea, not only that all the employees of its roads, but that the great public should also feel the loss sustained by a powerful corporation.

"Resolved, That this unparalleled manifestation of respect for the memory of a woman was justified by this woman's life, whose habitual prudence, philanthropic service, and ideal fidelity has lifted the standard of public expectation of womanhood in respect of these qualities.

Further resolved, That in the effort of Mrs. Stanford to administer the large estate according to the will and spirit of her deceased husband, which was also her spirit and will, she has not only placed under permanent obligation ot her memory the great cuase of higher education in the United States, but has expanded the university founded by herself and her husband as a memorial to their beloeved son into a memorial also of her husband, and by a fidelity unto death has transformed it into a memorial to the very spirit of maternal devotion, of wifely loyalty, and of public beneficence."

THE CALIFORNIA STATE ASSOCIATION.

Resolution on the death of Mrs. Stanford.

At a regular meeting of the California State Association recently held at the Ebbitt House the following preamble and resolutions were adopted:

Wherease on the 28th day of February, 1905, the sad intelligence was cabled from Honolulu, H.I., throughout the universe of the untimely death of Mrs. Jan Lathrop Stanford; and

Wherease the departure from this life of such a noble and charitable woman came as a deplorable shock to all Californians and to friends everywhere. The many goods deeds she has done for the cause of education, the advancement of civilization, and the uplifting of humanity is universally attested, and a great deal of what she did never will be known; and

Wherease we also recognize and appreciate that the supreme ideals of the Stanfords have been rounded out to the highest perfection, and that the lamented souls of the father, mother and son now lay side by side in peaceful repose in the palatial mausoleum at the university campus, having left behind them a grand monument that shall stanford for ages; and

Wherease the name "Stanford" will be perpetuated and revered for all time to come, especially by the thousands of students from all parts of the world who can avail themselves of the opportunities offered by that great instituation of learning at Palo Alto, Calif.;

Therefore, be it

(underlined) Resolved (end underline), That the California State Association of Washington, D.C., expresses its profound sorrow at the death of Mrs. Stanford, whose life had been full of so much usefulness to mankind in general and to California in particular, that we tender to her surviving relatives our heartfelt sympathy in their great bereavement. Be it further

(underlined) Resolved (end underline), That these resolutions be spread in full upon the minutes of this association and a copy thereof, properly attested by the officer of this association, be forwarded to Mrs. Stanford's brothers, Ariel and Charles Lathrop, Prof. David Starr Jordan, President of the Leland Stanford Junior University, and to the press of California.

M.F. O'Donoghue C.T. Vogel A.J. Boyer Chas. W. Otis A.A. Nathan G.W. McCord H.W. Graham

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junoir University, held this eighteenth day of March, 1905, the followign minute on the death of the late MRS. JANE LATHROP STANFORD was presented from the committee previously appointed, and after discussion, was unanimously adopted. It was ordered to be spread in full on the minutes of the Board, to be engrossed and placed in the Library of the University and to be furnished to the press.

The honored life of Jane Lathrop Stanford is closed. After years of loneliness and sorrow, of shinglehearted devotion and sacrifice, she saw at last her beloved University fully equipped and endowed for its great mission, the noblest monument ever erected by parental love. Her busy mind was still forming new plans and hopes for its future, when she met her death. Her name and work will live, and it is fitting that those whom she selected to maintain what she had built, and who have been especially honored by her friendship and confidence, should publicly declare their knowledge of her nobility of character, her efforts and her success.

In 1885 Mrs. Stanford joined with her husband in executing the founding grant of the Leland Stanford Junior University in memory of their only son whose name it bears. Her husband's death in 1895 left the work barely begun, and added to her grief the crushing burden of responsibilities such as her sheltered life had never known. She bravely took up the load. Her strengh and skill grew with her task and were equal to each occasion. "Wise, steadfast in the strengh of God, and true", for ten years she directed teh businessaffairs of the University, planned and superintended the erection of the