Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. 2026 Golden Harvest Fandango Weekend

Discover Gold, Reclaiming Our Past: California Pioneers of African Descent (1840-1875) featuring Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. on his birthday weekend, October 23-26, 2026

Leidesdorff was named the U.S. Vice Consul to Mexico in 1845, he became the nation’s first American diplomat of known African ancestry while serving as Treasuer of San Francisco in 1847 during the transition from Mexican rule to US rule.

Leidesdorff built his SF City Hotel, an early SF Civic Center of activity, first shipping warehouse, long wharf and operated the first steamboat on San Francisco Bay. Today’s Landing at Leidesdorff.

He donated the land and served on the SF School Board that built the first public school in California at Portsmouth Square.

William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr., was born October 23, 1810 on the island of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies, now the U.S. Virgin Islands.

William was the son of Danish Jewish merchant Wilhelm Leidesdorff and Anna Marie Sparks, a free Cuban woman of African ancestry.

His parents first met in New Orleans Creole high society and moved to live together while planning to raise a blessed family just outside of Christenstead, in Danish St. Croix.

As the eldest son, William Jr. became a seasoned and trusted Ship Captain operating out of the Port of New Orleans until the Negro Seamen Acts prohibited him from continuing his lucrative maritime business in the changing international Southern Lort.

In 1840 Leidesdorff sailed the 106-ton schooner Julia Ann from the Port of New Yort around Cape Horn to California and settled in the Mexican village of Yerba Buena on San Francisco Bay.

Over the next three years he became a very successful merchant, making frequent trips between California, Mexico and Hawaii. In 1844, Mexican California Governor Micheltorena confirmed his land grant of 8 Spanish leagues, or 35,521 acres, Rancho Rio De Los Americanos along the American River today’s Sacramento County.

Ranch Rio de Los Americanos was located downstream from Coloma where James Marshall discovered gold in January 1848.

Vast quantities of gold were reported on his land at a mile long gravel bar named Negro Bar where today's Historic Folsom District remains a transportation hub for the region.

Negro Hill, Mormon Island and Negro Bar, early 1848 Gold Mining towns anchored the Historic Gold Mining District where the "African Founding Father of California" helped facilitate his a vast lucrative Cattle and Wheat agribusiness, in today’s City of Rancho Cordova, along the “Wild and Scenic” American River Parkway a very unique urban working landscape.

Leidesdorff died very unexpectedly on May 18, 1848 he was given the buried the same day inside San Francisco Mission Dolores Church. The legacy of Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. continues to inspire “cultural ambassadors” globally.