Samuel Brannon: California's First Millionaire

Samuel Brannon       

The year 1846 was a precipitous year for the church. The saints who had been expelled from Nauvoo were trailing across the continent. Their progress had been excruciatingly slow being hindered by hardships and weather conditions.

In the meantime, 238 saints answered the call to gather in a different fashion. Samuel Brannon advertised in the New York Messenger, a Mormon newspaper, that he had chartered a ship, the Brooklyn (Davies, Mormon Gold). The small, well-used ship began its arduous journey on the same day as the saints who trudged west by wagon in February.

Sam Brannon was appointed by Elder Orson Pratt of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to lead this little band on a 24,000-mile voyage. He presided as they journeyed around South America’s Cape Horn to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) and then on to California, crossing the equator twice in the meantime. Most of them survived cramped living conditions, sickness, harsh weather, boredom, and storms that blew them off course. At the worst of times, these saints would be found praying and singing.

The Brooklyn Ship saints arrived in Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in July 1846, months before President Young departed Winter Quarters for the Rockies. The Brooklyn saints had no choice but to remain in California until they knew where the main body of the church would settle. It didn’t take long before the group determined that California should be the saints’ resting place with the obvious temperate climate and conditions that California offered. They established the first school, the first post office, first bank and first library in Northern California with the heavy supplies that Brigham sent on the ship with them. Brigham Young charged them to travel with the large bulky supplies of essentials since it would have been more difficult to carry them in wagons across prairies, deserts and mountains.

In the spring of 1847, Brother Brannon along with two other companions rode east from California to Nevada via San Francisco through the Truckee River route to find Brother Brigham. Sam found the early vanguard group in Green River, Wyoming. He tried repeatedly to persuade Brigham to settle in Northern California and take advantage of the rich opportunities there. Brigham Young responded, “Let us go to California, and we cannot stay there over five years; but let us stay in the mountains, and we can raise our own potatoes, and eat them; and I calculate to stay here” (Widtsoe, Discourses of Brigham Young, pg 475). The saints had been pushed out of lands that other people desired; now they would try land that nobody desired.

Sam stayed with the main body of the saints for 10 days, but because of his obstinate and self-serving nature, he returned to California disappointed by Brigham’s decision. As he returned to California, he used the same trail as before. Thus, Sam and his traveling companions were another early group of members to venture into what we know as the Truckee Meadows. As he approached the top of the Sierra Mountain pass, he stopped to talk to a group of Mormon Battalion members heading east to join the saints on the plains. Sam used his persuasive powers of speech to sow seeds of discontent by encouraging the men to stay in California rather than join with Brigham.

Sam had an illustrious career as a businessman, contributing to his famous place in history. Some of his fellow ship mates who accompanied him on the Brooklyn criticized him for his greed and exploitation while others under his stewardship were starving and struggling. James Skinner recorded in his autobiography, “The president of the company, Sam Brannon, he and his family lived high at the expense of the poor and needy, the widows and orphans. What he didn’t need [he] sold, which laid the foundation for wealth that he afterwards accumulated” (Kenneth N. Owens, Gold Rush Saints, pg.44).

When gold was discovered at Coloma, California, on January 24, 1848, Brannon immediately established a store near Sutter’s Fort in anticipation of the gold rush. He then appropriated the church printing press to print a special edition paper broadcasting the rich gold stike. He hired Mormon Battalion men to take the papers east while he rode his horse to San Francisco to make the announcement. Sam stepped off the ferry, “took his hat off and swung it, shouting aloud that gold was found” (Kenneth N. Owens, Gold Rush Saints, pg.131).

 As a result of his entrepreneurial spirit, Brannon became California’s first millionaire. Among his many accomplishments, he helped map out and plan the city of Sacramento as well as promote growth in Nevada by investing heavily in the Comstock Lode silver mines. Without Sam’s announcement in his newspaper, The California Star, the gold rush would not have been broadcast so far and wide so quickly. More than any other person, he was the catalyst that sparked the flurry of activity through the Truckee Meadows area as well as California.

Brigham Young requested that Sam join with the main body of saints. Instead of complying with Brigham’s desires and strong sentiments to stay in Utah, Sam went back to California directing his attention toward investments, business and power. He had many business ventures along with land holdings, but eventually his fortune changed. His family fell apart. When he died, he was broken both spiritually and physically. He died a pauper and for two years no one claimed his body for burial.