It is impossible in our narrow limits even to allude to the numberless public affairs in which this gentleman has been engaged. The cause of education always found in him an ardent supporter. He was one of the founders of the first school in San Francisco, and contributed liberally to the edifice. Many of the most elegant structures in the city were built by him, and there is scarcely an institution of public usefulness that has not experienced the benefits of his impulsive generosity. Libraries; institutes; lectures for charitable purposes; churches; Sunday schools; works of art; literary societies; military companies; hospitals; poor artists, authors, and editors; needy inventors, and suffering humanity generally, of whatever religion or nationality, have had cause gratefully to remember his liberality. Not only associations of public beneficence have found a friend in Mr. Brannan, but he has been a pioneer in, and a liberal encourager of, a curious variety of enterprises, embracing some of the most useful branches of California industry. The importation, via Panama, of rare breeds of French and Spanish merino sheep, at a time when the success of such investment was problematical; the collection throughout France, Spain, and Italy, of choice varieties of grape cuttings, he having visited Europe in 1857 for that and other purposes; the reclaiming of tuleland along the San Joaquin river, thus setting the example to others; the raising of blood stock, and the improvement of his extensive farming lands in various parts of the State, have divided his attention with the management of his real estate in San Francisco. The Pacific Railroad, Overland Telegraph, Express Companies, banking and insurance and loan associations-enterprises connected with and forming the very essence of the prosperity of California-all of these have found in Mr. Brannan one of their most ready and intelligent coöperators.

In 1868, he purchased the entire landed estates of Abel Stearns in Los Angeles county, embracing an area of about one hundred and seventy thousand acres, which resulted in the opening of those extensive tracts to settlement by small farmers, thus greatly stimulating the

industry of that portion of the State. In the silver mining regions of Eastern Nevada, Mr. Brannan's restless business talents have also been exerted, in the erection. at Robinson District of saw mills, quartz mills, and smelting works, the building of toll roads, and development of one of the richest mineral districts in that State; together with the location of valuable tracts of timber and agricultural lands near Mineral City and in Steptoe Valley.

Here,

From among his numerous enterprises, we may particularize the instance of Napa Valley, where he is the proprietor of the Calistoga Hot Springs, and a valuable estate of three thousand acres surrounding them. his all-pervading activity has created out of bare nature the principal watering place in California, not inaptly termed the "Saratoga of the Pacific Coast." This famous place of fashionable resort is too well known in California to require any extended description at our hands. Its climate, rivaling the most celebrated localities of Italy or the south of France, and the scenery, uniting the grandeur of the loftiest summits of the coast range with the pastoral features of the adjacent rich farming country, have made Calistoga the favorite resort of tourists and invalids from all parts of the country. This costly scene of comfort and healthful recreation Mr. Brannan has reared by his own unaided resources, and the effect of his far-reaching enterprise is felt in the impetus he has given to the prosperity of all that section. of the State. The Napa Valley Railroad, connecting Calistoga with tide water at Vallejo, is especially due to his persistent energy.

We cannot close this imperfect sketch without recording the unwavering and outspoken loyalty of Mr. Brannan to the cause of the Union in the darkest periods of its trial by fire and sword. On the stump, in the press, among the people, his voice has been heard in emphatic denunciation of the rebellion, and his contributions in aid of the cause he espoused were unstinted in fitting out officers for the war, in printing and disseminating loyal documents, and in every way strengthening the

hands of the Government. In the second Lincoln campaign, Mr. Brannan was chosen as one of the Presidential Electors from California. During that memorable contest he canvassed the northern part of the State, and aided materially in carrying the Union ticket. His generous sympathies were not confined to his native land. The cause of freedom in Mexico, menaced by the French intervention, received his substantial aid. In 1866, he armed and equipped at his own expense a company to join President Juarez, and these recruits, composed of hardy and experienced frontiersmen, rendered important services in expelling the foreign invaders.

Mr. Brannan is a signal example of the American self-made man. Starting in life a poor boy, thrown early on his own resources, and with few of the advantages possessed by the youth of the succeeding generation, he had the sagacity to foresee the mighty future of the Pacific coast, and the pluck and energy to avail himself of the circumstances of the times. As his influence in the community has thus far been beneficial to the welfare of California, so it is equally certain that it will continue to be exerted for the best interests of his adopted State.

PHILIP L. EDWARDS.

BY ROBERT E. PRAPER

PHIL

HILIP LEGGET EDWARDS was born in Breckenridge county, Kentucky, on the 14th of July, 1812; died the 1st of May, 1869; hence he was fifty-six years, nine months, and seventeen days old. His father and mother, Thomas Edwards and Jane Edwards, (whose maiden name was Jane Cunningham) were both natives of Virginia. At quite an early period they bade farewell to their native home, and marched westward to the then frontier State of Kentucky. Enterprise, coupled with adventure-the love of unrestrained freedom to enjoy the extended fields of nature ere they had been incumbered with a dense population-were leading characteristics of the Edwards. family.

Virginia had, it is true, more of the comforts of life and promises of leisure than the wilderness west of the Alleghanies could offer; yet the father of Colonel Edwards stopped not to consider a life of ease in the land of his birthplace, but eagerly sought to lead the van of empire, whose path was westward. His move from the scenes of his childhood, instead of satisfying his desire to see new places and fasten his attachment for a particular locality, rather stimulated his inclination still farther west, for in 1824 he was again on the road of emigration, this time to the outposts of the white settlements in the State of Missouri.