Leland Stanford — Railroad, Stanford University, Governor

**Leland Stanford** was the founding generation of Silicon Valley's grandfather — the man who built the railroad that connected California to the nation, governed the state, served in the Senate, and then, devastated by the death of his only son, poured his fortune into creating the university that would eventually spawn the technology industry. Born in 1824 in Watervliet, New York, Stanford studied law, followed the Gold Rush to California in 1852 (selling supplies to miners, not mining — a pattern common among those who actually got rich), and built a successful wholesale grocery business in Sacramento.