Stanford University
The Birth of the University
In 1876, former California Governor Leland
Stanford purchased 650 acres of Rancho San Francisquito for a country
home and began the development of his famous Palo Alto Stock Farm. He
later bought adjoining properties totaling more than 8,000 acres.
The little town that was beginning to emerge near the land
took the name Palo Alto (tall tree) after a giant California redwood on
the bank of San Francisquito Creek. The tree itself is still there and
would later become the university's symbol and centerpiece of its
official seal.Leland Stanford, who grew up and studied law in New York, moved West after the gold rush and, like many of his wealthy contemporaries, made his fortune in the railroads. He was a leader of the Republican Party, governor of California and later a U.S. senator. He and Jane had one son, who died of typhoid fever in 1884 when the family was traveling in Italy. Leland Jr. was just 15. Within weeks of his death, the Stanfords decided that, because they no longer could do anything for their own child, "the children of California shall be our children." They quickly set about to find a lasting way to memorialize their beloved son.
The Stanfords considered several possibilities – a university, a technical school, a museum. While on the East Coast, they visited Harvard, MIT, Cornell and Johns Hopkins to seek advice on starting a new university in California. (See note regarding accounts of the Stanfords visit with Harvard President Charles W. Eliot.) Ultimately, they decided to establish two institutions in Leland Junior's name - the University and a museum. From the outset they made some untraditional choices: the university would be coeducational, in a time when most were all-male; non-denominational, when most were associated with a religious organization; and avowedly practical, producing "cultured and useful citizens."
For more information go to below link:
https://www.stanford.edu/about/history
