Benjamin Minturn Hartshorne (May 7 1826–March 21 1902) was an American businessman rose to prominence during the California Gold Rush. He was involved in Sacramento River and Colorado River steamboats as well as maritime shipping.
Benjamin M. Hartshorne | |
|---|---|
 Daguerreotype of Hartshorne, c. 1850 | |
| Born | 7 May 1826 Highlands, New Jersey, United States |
| Died | 21 March 1902 (aged 75) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
Early life
editBorn on May 7, 1826, in Highlands, New Jersey, Benjamin was the son of Robert Hartshorne.[1]
Business in California
editHartshorne moved to California in 1849 and became involved in the ferry business at the Yuma Crossing on the Colorado River with George Alonzo Johnson and other partners from San Francisco.
Seeing the opportunity in bringing supplies to the isolated post of Fort Yuma, Hartshorne and Johnson sold out to their other partners in the Yuma ferry and returned to San Francisco in 1852. The two men then contracted to carry supplies up the Colorado in poled barges, but this endeavor failed due to the strong current and many sandbars in the river. After a steam tug, the 20 horsepower Uncle Sam was successfully used to ascend the river in 1853, Johnson formed the George A. Johnson & Company. Hartshorne was employed as a shipping agent in San Francisco and another partner Captain Alfred H. Wilcox, who was an experienced sea captain, was taken on for his experience in the hazards of the Colorado River Delta.
The company brought the disassembled side-wheel steamboat General Jesup to the Colorado River Delta and assembled it with a more powerful 70 hp engine. There Johnson began successfully shipping cargo and carrying passengers on the Colorado River from its estuary, up to Fort Yuma. This steamboat carried 50 tons of cargo to the fort in 5 days and brought the cost to supply the fort down to $75 a ton from the $500 a ton it cost to ship cargo overland across the desert from San Diego. The route made the Company $4,000 per trip per ship in the estuary of the Colorado River.[2]: 5–12
As the only steamboat company on the Colorado River, Johnson and his partners became wealthy after the discovery of gold along the Colorado River in 1858. Hartshorne, who was president of the company operating the business from San Francisco, invested his new wealth in the California Steam Navigation Company, becoming its vice-president by 1863 and its president in 1865.[2]: 40–41 In 1869, George A. Johnson & Company was incorporated with additional partners as the Colorado Steam Navigation Company with Hartshorne as its president.[2]: 51 [3]: 209
Later life
editAfter both his companies were bought out by the railroads, Hartshorne returned to the family estate in Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1878. Hartshorne died in 1902.
Family
editHartshorne married Julia Norton, a native of Buffalo, New York who moved to San Francisco the previous year in 1862.[4] They had three children. In 1869, shortly after returning from family visit back to the Hartshorne estates in New Jersey, Julia Norton Hartshorne fell ill and died at the age of 30.[5]
References
edit- ^ "Benjamin Minturn Hartshorne". monmouthhistory.emuseum.com. Monmouth County Historical Association. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
- ^ a b c Richard E. Lingenfelter, Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852-1916, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1978 Archived January 18, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Hiram C. Hodge, ARIZONA AS IT IS; OR, THE COMING COUNTRY. COMPILED FROM NOTES OF TRAVEL DURING THE YEARS 1874, 1875, AND 1876, HURD AND HOUGHTON, NEW YORK; H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY, BOSTON; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1877". Archived from the original on 2015-02-16. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
- ^ "Julia Norton Hartshorne". monmouthhistory.emuseum.com. Monmouth County Historical Association. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
- ^ Collection 11, Hartshorne Family, Papers, 1833-1954, Processed by Lois R. Densky, Edited by Gregory J. Plunges, Updated by Laura M. Poll (April 2011, Monmouth County Historical Association Archived 2015-04-02 at the Wayback Machine from monmouthhistory.org accessed March 5, 2015