Jane Lathrop Stanford Papers

STANFORD UNIVERSITY FUND

THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS

Mrs. Jane L. Stanford Gives Valuable Property to the Leland Stanford, Jr., University, and Will Have a Few Million Left for Heirs - Gifts Accepted.

San Francisco, Dec. 11. - Mrs. Jane L. Stanford has executed and delivered to the board of trustees of the Leland Stanford, Jr. university, two deeds of grant and one deed of gift. One of the deeds of grant covers all of the real estate heretofore given to the university, including the university campus of about 9000 acres. The other deed of grant covers the Stanford residence upon California Street, which is eventually to be used for educational purposes.

The deed of gift covers bonds and stocks heretofore given and certain securities not included in former grants. The grants are confirmatory in character and are made under the provisions of the Stanford university constitutional amendment, which legalized grants and gifts made to the university. This amendment was adopted in order to set at rest any question as to the validity of the original endowment and to prevent legal technicalities from interfering with future donations to this educational institution, which was founded by Mr. and Mrs. Stanford as a memorial to their only son.

The deeds delivered practically cover the grants made in the original endowment, which, however, is more than doubled in value, chiefly owing to the remarkable business ability displayed by Mrs. Stanford in the management of the vast interest left in her charge by the death of her husband. By these grants she has conveyed to the Leland Stanford, Jr., university, for the benefit of the people of California, about $18,000,000 in stocks and bonds, $10,000,000 to $12,000,000 in real estate, including the university buildings and equipments. All of the bonds are first mortgage and the stocks, with scarcely an exception, are what are known as gilt edge securities.

F. F. Lieb of San Jose, president of the board of directors, received the deeds on behalf of the board, and also took formal possession of the bonds and other personal property. Messrs. Charles G. Lathrop, Joseph D. Grant and Timothy Hopkins, resident trustees, were also present. The legal features of the donation were conducted by Mrs. Stanford's attorneys, Crothers & Crothers.

Notwithstanding that she has now given the equivalent of over $25,000,000 to the Leland Stanford, Jr., university, making it one of the richest institutions of the kind in the world, Mrs. Stanford has not impoverished herself, but is understood to still retain several millions for her personal use and to provide for the various members of her family. It is believed that the amount of her endowment to the university, which she aided in founding, exceeds in amount any similar gift in history.

LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Stanford University, Cal.

June 4, 1990

Mr. Charles G. Lathrop,

819 Market St.,

San Francisco, Calif.

Dear Sir:

You are, of course, aware of Mrs. Stanford's desire to establish a scholarship in honor of her son. You probably know also that she wishes you to name the incumbent, with the suggestion that a boy in the Los Angeles High School named John T. Cooper, in whom she has become considerably interested be the first to hold it.

I have written to Los Angeles in regard to Mr. Cooper but have only learned that he is one of the brightest boys in the High School, with the promise on the part of the principal that he will look up Mr. Cooper's record further. I suspect that he is in the junior class and lacks a year of being ready to enter the University. If this is the case, it would be better for him to wait, and the appointment might be given, if you should see fit, for the year to some one else. I have, of course, no desire to forestall your choice. I give, however, on another sheet a list of some of the boys with little means who show special promise. Of these I know only the first two named personally. The statement as to the others I take from the records. There are, of course, many others worthy of such honor. I suggest these names merely for your use in case you should need them.

Very truly yours,

David S Jordan

PROVIDED, however, that if either should die before the younger attains the age of twenty-five years, this trust shall cease and determine as to one-half of said one-third of a million dollars and that proportion of the trust property shall belong and be delivered to the children of the one so dying, or if there be no such children, then to the other; and the trust shall thereafter continue as to the other one-half of said one-third of a million dollars until the survivor reaches the age of twenty-five years, at which time the trust as to the remainder of said one-third of a million dollars shall cease and determine and the property shall belong to and be delivered to said survivor, but if such survivor dies before attaining such age of twenty-five years this trust shall then cease and determine and the trust property shall belong to and be delivered to his or her children, or if there be none such, then to his or her heirs at law.

II.

I give and bequeath to my brother CHARLES GARDNER LATHROP the sum of One Million ($1,000,000) Dollars.

III.

I give and bequeath to HERBERT C. NASH, the devoted tutor and loving friend of my dear son, also faithful secretary of my dear husband, the sum of Fifteen Thousand ($15,000) Dollars.

IV.

I give and bequeath to MISS BERTHA BERNER, secretary and devoted friend to me through seventeen years of trial and sorrow, the sum of Fifteen Thousand ($15,000) Dollars.

V.

To the following faithful and devoted servants, MRS. CHARLES ROBERTSON, housekeeper for twelve years; to CHARLES WOOSTER, coach-

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Since executing former Wills, a kind Providence has brought about more favorable conditions in the affairs of the Estate left me by my beloved husband, and for this reason I have greatly enlarged my gifts to the Leland Stanford Junior University, and I now feel justified in enlarging, as I have done in this Will, my bequests to my relatives and friends and different charities, which have been ever dear to my heart.

XXI.

All my wardrobe and wearing apparel, all household linen in my city and country homes, and all toilet articles of my own, my dear husband's and son's, Leland Stanford, Junior, I direct shall be distributed by my brother CHARLES GARDNER LATHROP, according to his best judgement, between himself and his daughter JENNIE STANFORD LATHROP.

The wardrobes of my dear son Leland Stanford, Junior, and of my beloved husband, I give to my brother CHARLES GARDNER LATHROP, knowing he will carry out my wishes in regard thereto, and I also give and bequeath to my said brother all such silver plate as is not mentioned as having already been given to the Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University, and by them to be placed in the Museum connected with said University.

XXII.

All silver in the house corner Powell and California Streets, San Francisco, California, and my country home on the Palo Alto Farm, Santa Clara County, all the Elkington silver dinner set and ornaments, gold plated service, dinner plates, gold Russian spoons, salt cellars, egg cups, special gifts of affection from my husband,

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and other silver, are designated already in a deed of gift to the Trustees; also all the works of art, paintings, curios, china of rare quality, photographs, rare old furniture, vases, clocks, statutes of all kinds, marbles, bronzes, mosaics of all kinds; marble busts, already given to the Trustees from my home at Palo Alto Farm and San Francisco also included and to be placed in the Museum as aforesaid named, and I hereby confirm the gift of the articles mentioned in this Paragraph.

XXIII.

All the rest, residue and remainder of my property and estate, of every kind and nature and wheresoever situated, not hereinbefore disposed of, I give, devise and bequeath to the BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY, as founded and endowed by my husband and myself by our joint grant of November eleventh, 1885, recorded in the County of Santa Clara, in Liber 83 of Deeds at page 23, et seq., and confirmed by my grants dated December 9th, 1901, to have and to hold to the said Trustees and to their successors forever as an integral part of the endowment of the said University, upon the trust that the principal thereof shall forever remain intact, and that the rents, issues and profits thereof shall be devoted to the maintenance of said University for the uses and purposes and upon the trusts in the said Grant and to which the endowment made by the said Grant is devoted.

I desire and again request of the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University that they shall, as soon as possible, place and safely preserve in the Museum of the University all articles which I have given them from my homes mentioned, only excepting what is given to my brother Charles G. Lathrop. All

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