Henry Newhall

Infobox Person
name = Henry Mayo Newhall

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image_size = 200x200px
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1825|05|13
birth_place = Saugus, Massachusetts
death_date = death date|1882|03|13
death_place = San Francisco, California
occupation = Businessman
spouse =
parents =
children =

Henry Mayo Newhall (May 13, 1825–March 13, 1882) was an American businessman, whose land holdings eventually formed the current city of Santa Clarita, California.

Life

Born in Saugus, Massachusetts, Newhall came to California, like many others, in search of gold during the California Gold Rush. He had been working as an auctioneer when news of the gold rush reached the East Coast. He left by ship, arriving on the West Coast in 1850. However, he had been forced to stop in the Isthmus of Panama for six months to recover from an illness he contracted. Upon his arrival in San Francisco, many of the good mining sites had already been claimed, [cite web | url=http://www.newhallfoundation.org/aboutHMN.html | title=About Henry Mayo Newhall | publisher=Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation | date=2000 | accessdate=2007-04-20] so he opened an auction house instead. H.M. Newhall & Company became extremely successful.

Newhall's next business interest was railroads. He invested in rail companies that would connect San Francisco to other cities and became president of the San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road. In 1870, he and his partners sold the company to Southern Pacific Railroad, whose board of directors he now sat on.

After railroads, Newhall turned his eye to real estate and ranching. He purchased a number of the old Spanish and Mexican land grants in the state for a total of convert|143000|acre|km2|0|lk=in between Monterey and Los Angeles counties. The most significant portion was the convert|46460|acre|km2|0|adj=on Rancho San Francisco in northern Los Angeles County, which he purchased for $2/acre, [cite news | url=http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/signal/worden/lw060795.htm | title=Prime Valencia Real Estate, $2 an Acre | publisher=Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society | first=Leon | last=Worden | date=June 7 1995 | accessdate=2007-04-20] and which became known as Newhall Ranch after Newhall's death. Within this territory, he granted a right-of-way to Southern Pacific through what is now Newhall Pass, and he also sold them a portion of the land, upon which the company built a town they named after him: Newhall. The first station built on the line he named for his hometown, Saugus.

Newhall split his time between his ranch and auction house still in San Francisco, but after a bout of food poisoning in 1880, he retired to his ranch. [cite book | title=A California
| first=Ruth Waldo | last=Newhall | year=1992 | publisher=Newhall Land and Farming Company] In March 1882, while horseback riding around his property, he was thrown from the horse. Taken back to San Francisco for treatment, he died a few days later on March 13.

His family then incorporated the Newhall Land and Farming Company, which oversaw the towns on its land as planned communities.

References