Leidesdorff Project

The Leidesdorff Project

The Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff was Vice Consul to the United States, first elected City Treasurer of San Francisco, founder of Public Education in California and international merchant.

He owned a large international shipping business, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, and traveled the world buying and selling merchandise. In 1841 he left New Orleans heartbroken after his fiancé' died under very questionable circumstances and resettled in modern day, San Francisco, California.

His mother was of African ancestry and his father of Danish ancestry. His parents were legally married, under Danish law, and they birthed five children. Leidesdorff reminds me of Colin Powell, Bob Marley, Alexander Pushkin or Malcolm X with a multi-ethnic heritage and a demanding standard of excellence.

Tragically, Leidesdorff died May of 1848 and by most accounts was the wealthiest man in California. He owned the largest home in San Francisco, the first City Hotel, and first shipping warehouse. His refined cultural values first brought cosmopolitan elegance to the City by the Bay.

Leidesdorff captained the first steam ship into San Francisco and later Old Sacramento. The Sitka was purchased from Russian fur traders who were from Sitka, Alaska. Leidesdorff was a trusted business partner to the Russian-American Company who later sold the State of Alaska to the United States for 7.2 million dollars.

Early California maps clearly show the town of Leidesdorff and his vast Rancho Rio de Los Americanos. He owned well over 40,000 acres in Sacramento County and help finance his neighbor's expansion of Sutter's Fort. His cattle and wheat ranch provided the prime geography that surrendered the first Electric Power Plant with long distance lines and first Railroad line, west of the Mississippi and he detailed plans for overnight cargo transportation between Sacramento and San Francisco.

Leidesdorff's mother, Anna Marie Sparks and her surviving children were prohibited from effectively contesting the estate and disposition of the "wealthiest man" in early California.

Discriminatory laws enacted by the State of California shortly after the death of U.S. Vice Consul Leidesdorff would not allow the testimony of "Negroes." Prior to the U.S. Civil War, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger Toney, best summed the legal arguments used to deny a just settlement to the family of William Alexander Leidesdorff, "Black people have no rights that white people are bound to respect."

As a young child living in the Dos Rios Housing Project, Sitka Street, Sacramento, CA, I was denied the powerful historical legacy of knowing "The Sitka" was the first steamboat to dock in Old Sacramento.

Today, we can provide an accurate historical accounting of the African contribution to my hometown. I encourage the City of San Francisco to support the Leidesdorff Project at http://www.petitiononline.com/goldursh/

Michael Harris,
The Leidesdorff Project Coordinator