hubert howe bancroft - Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History ...

646 RAILROADS—CENTRAL PACIFIC SYSTEM.
since his advent in California. To him were largely
intrusted the financial management of the company's
affairs, the negotiation of loans, and the purchase and
forwarding of supplies, all of which duties he successfully
performed. For such purposes no better selection
could have been made. Judah was a native of
Bridgeport, Connecticut, who was educated at Rensselaer
Polytechic Institute of Troy, New York, and
still a young man, having been born in 1826. He possessed
enthusiasm, and the courage of his convictions.
Charles Crocker loved work for work's sake. Entirely
a self-made man, a man of remarkable energy,
of strong physique and power of will, he had already
become one of the most successful merchants in Sacramento.
He knew how to manage men in gangs, having
developed some coal mines in the west before
coming to California. He knew the value of money,
and to quote himself, was always trying to " make a
dollar buy a dollar and five cents' worth of material."
No danger of wastefulness with him. E. B. Crocker,
who held ten shares in the company, was an engineer
by education, and afterward a lawyer by profession,
a man of good ability, and one of the most industrious
members of the bar. He was appointed by Governor
Stanford to the supreme bench in 1863, to fill
an unexpired term, after which he became counsellor
to the company.
Hopkins' most marked traits were less of the positive
sort than those of his associates, by whom he is
described as "one of the truest and best men that ever
lived," and as a balance-wheel in the company. "I
never thought anything finished until Hopkins looked
at it," says the vice-president, wl ich is praise enough.
Like Stanford and Crocker, his earlier career had
been passed in New York.
Bailey, the secretary, was a jeweller of Sacramento,
and a friend of Judah's, who was introduced
by him to Stanford, Hopkins, Huntington,
and Crock 3r. He was succeeded at one of the early