Samuel Brannan
This article written and copyright 2013 by Will Johnson, wjhonson@aol.com, Professional Genealogist
He was born 2 Mar 1819 in Saco, Maine, the son of Thomas Brannan and his second wife Sarah Knox. He moved to Hancock County, Ohio with his elder sister Mary Anne and her new husband Alexander Badlam who had converted to Mormonism.
New York Times,
In New York City, "He worked in the "Democrat" office for Messrs Bolton & Livingston" (a newspaper) This must have been in 1841 which is the only year that newspaper existed.
The Latter Day Saints persecuted from place to place, evidently formed a plan to go to the Western ocean. Samuel Brannan who was at the time the publisher of "The Prophet", the church newsletter in New York City, was appointed in Sep 1845 to charter a ship and lead those Saints living in the East. John S Fowler's wife Jerusha (nee Ensign, previously thought by some historians to have been a man), their children, and her Ensign parents and siblings, went on the ship Brooklyn, while John was either already at, or traveled back to, Nauvoo where he received a patriarchal blessing from Asahel Smith that same month of Feb 1846.
The ship carrying 238 passengers, with Captain Abel Richardson, sailed around the Horn and headed first to Honolulu in Hawaii which at that time was called the "Sandwich Islands". En route, ten passengers died, and two were born. This ship arrived at Yerba Buena (now San Francisco) on 31 Jul 1846, just shortly after war had been declared between the U.S. and Mexico. Since the purpose of the Mormons was to establish a self-sustaining colony, they scouted for land, and planted in Nov 1846 at "New Hope", later called Stanislaus City, and now called Ripon. (Source) Some of the immigrants were left at that spot, while others, living at Yerba Buena, found various jobs to raise money for their group. Samuel Brannan who had brought his printing press with him, commenced publishing at Yerba Buena, the "California Star" in January 1847. His press had been setup in the grist mill that had been built by Nathan Spear. (Source) For more on the ship Brooklyn see "Gold Rush Saints" at this link.
In Apr 1847, Samuel Brannan headed East to meet the rest of the Saints to guide them to California. He met the Pioneer Company with Brigham Young on the Green River in (present-day Wyoming) where he guided the Mormon Battalion to the Salt Lake. He stayed at the Salt Lake a short time, then returned to California, on the way back becoming a partner in a general store at Sutter's Fort, with Charles C Smith. (Source) In Aug 1847 he is addressed in a letter from Brigham Young to "the Saints in California under the Presidency of Elder Samuel Brannan." (Source)
James Marshall on 24 Jan 1848 while overseeing the construction of a sawmill on John Sutter's land, was the first to discover gold. At first Sam did not give much credit to the reports of gold discoveries, however he opened a new store, right next to the sawmill selling mining equipment and supplies. And then on 1 Apr 1848 in his newspaper, he ran "six pages of articles about how easy it was to find and collect gold'. On 12 May 1848 he arrived in San Francisco, from the gold area, and showed off a little bottle of gold to encourage belief. http://books.google.com/books?id=rXAfElpmULIC&pg=PA16
John S Fowler, came to California by the Fall of 1848 and perhaps he came with Samuel on this trip from Salt Lake. For more intricate details of Sam Brannan see "Riches For All" at this link. In an election at Sutter's Fort (then called New Helvetia), John was elected Second Alcalde of New Helvetia, in the Fall of 1848, but he resigned his position that Spring when he was called upon to arrest Pickett. John Fowler and Samuel "Sam" Brannan, "used the frame of Sutter's grist mill upstream from Sutter's Fort to build the City Hotel in Sacramento." They had brought the frame of the mill from Brighton to Sacramento and set it up a block away from Sam's store. John S Fowler or sometimes just "J S" Fowler, owned the City Hotel in Sacramento in 1849 and 1850 at least He ran for California State Assembly in 1849 but lost, and was nominated for Sacramento City Council but apparently lost again. He was in business in 1849 with H C Cardwell, E L Brown and John Harris as "Cardwell, Brown and Co".
With the money he made, Sam begin buying prime real estate in San Francisco, Sacramento, and the Napa Valley.
In 1859, he used his influence to promote a railroad through the Napa Valley to his Calistoga Mineral Springs resort
http://books.google.com/books?id=6gyxWHRLAWgC&pg=PA135
In 1863, in San Francisco, along with Joseph Winans (husband of his niece) and Peter Burnett, founded the Pacific Bank
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50C13F93F59137B93C5A9178CD85F448784F9
In 1870 sues Leland Stanford
Granted 126 square miles in the state of Sonora, Mexico
Obituary
Book Review of the 1944 biography which had been written by Reva Scott