Samuel Brannon was born on March 2, 1819 in Saco, Massachusetts. He and his family moved to Ohio when he was 14 where he became a printer’s apprentice. In 1842 he became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, eventually rising to Church Elder.
In 1846, two years after Mormon founder Joseph Smith was murdered, the congregation opted to move west. While Brigham Young moved the Navarou, Illinois congregation across land to Utah, Brannan was entrusted with moving the 238-member New York congregation by ship to California. Brannan was hoping to set up a Mormon community outside of US jurisdiction by settling in San Francisco (then known as Yerba Buena), but he was disappointed when, on July 31st, his ship arrived only to learn that only a few days before John B Montgomery had claimed California as US territory.
On January 9, 1847 Brannan founded the California Star, the first San Francisco newspaper. A year later the paper merged with Monterey’s The Californian to become The Daily Alta California and Brannan sold his shares. He moved to Sacramento, known at the time as Sutter’s Fort, and opened a general store. Soon thereafter, employees of John Sutter paid for goods with gold. Seeing an opportunity, Brannon stocked his store with mining supplies, then traveled to San Francisco where he ran up and down Montgomery holding jar of gold over his head shouting “Gold! Gold!”. Many consider this the day that the Gold Rush was born.
Would-be miners flocked to his store, making Brannan a wealthy man. He opened additional stores and bought land in both San Francisco and Sacramento. He was part of a group of businessmen that built San Francisco’s first wharf and in 1850 was elected to San Francisco’s first Town Council.
With a sudden influx of miners into the City came an uptick in violent crime which overwhelmed law enforcement. In 1851 the City witnessed two murders go unpunished and Brannon formed the first of two Committees of Vigilance Committee[1]. The Committee took law and order into their own hands, arresting and publicly trying and hanging two alleged murderers. While the Committee was in existence for less than three months, Brannan’s involvement led to him being disfellowshipped from the LDS Church.
Brannan was elected a California Senator in 1853. In 1861 he founded the town of Calistoga. A year later he established the Napa Valley Railroad and purchased California’s first steam locomotive. Poor land owners were infuriated at Brannan’s takeover of the area and attempted to assassinate him in 1869. Brannan was shot 8 times but survived, though he had to use a cane for the rest of his life.
In 1870 his second wife filed for divorce and a judge ruled that the wife was entitled to half their holdings in cash. Brannon was forced to sell all of his land, leaving him overextended. He slowly descended into alcoholism and poverty. He eventually moved to Southern California and died at the age of 70 on May 5, 1889 in an Escondido, California boarding house from inflammation of the bowels. His body laid unclaimed for over a year before his burial costs were covered by an unknown benefactor. Over the years his name faded into obscurity, but in San Francisco Samuel Brannan is remembered as a founding father.
[1] Committees of Vigilence: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3195
