Horace Carpentier
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Horace Walpole Carpentier (1824–1918) was a lawyer and the first
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
of
Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
. He is also remembered as president of the
Overland Telegraph Company The Overland Telegraph Company was one of the organizations responsible for constructing the Electrical telegraph, telegraph line which resulted in the first transcontinental telegraph, first transcontinental telegraph network in the United States ...
and for defrauding the
Peralta family Peralta may refer to: Places * Peralta, Navarre, village in the South of Navarre, Spain * Peralta, New Mexico, village, United States * Peralta (Mesoamerican site), pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico ...
, a prominent
Californio Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sinc ...
family who historically owned much of the
East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa countie ...
during the Spanish and Mexican eras, from their lands.


Life

Carpentier was born in
Galway, New York Galway () is a town located in Saratoga County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 3,589. The town contains a village also named Galway. Both the town and village are located in the western part of ...
in July 1824. He graduated Valedictorian with the Class of 1848 at Columbia College.


California

Carpentier came to California during the
Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...
, as he is listed as a passenger on the ship ''Panama'' in the ''New York Herald'', February 6, 1849. In 1854, he was appointed "Major General" of the California State Militia. On May 4, 1852 Horace Carpentier persuaded the new California state legislature to
incorporate Incorporation may refer to: * Incorporation (business), the creation of a corporation * Incorporation of a place, creation of municipal corporation such as a city or county * Incorporation (academic), awarding a degree based on the student having ...
Oakland as a town. Then, on May 17, he persuaded the new town's trustees to pass an ordinance "for the disposal of the waterfront belonging to the town of Oakland." That ordinance gave complete, lucrative control of Oakland's waterfront to Carpentier. When this was discovered in 1855 after he had been elected Oakland's first mayor in 1854, he was ousted by an angry citizenry and replaced by Charles Campbell who became Mayor on March 5, 1855. Carpentier presided over the
California State Telegraph Company The California State Telegraph Company was a business originally organized to provide telegraph service between San Francisco and Marysville, California. By the spring of 1861, the company had expanded its service area south to Los Angeles, north t ...
, before heading the Overland Telegraph Company. The Overland was formed in order to construct the western portion of the transcontinental telegraph. On October 24, 1861, Carpentier sent the first telegram from the west to the east over the newly completed transcontinental telegraph line. The telegram was addressed to President
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
: "I announce to you that the telegraph to California has this day been completed. May it be a bond of perpetuity between the states of the Atlantic and those of the Pacific". Carpentier notoriously represented members of the
Peralta family Peralta may refer to: Places * Peralta, Navarre, village in the South of Navarre, Spain * Peralta, New Mexico, village, United States * Peralta (Mesoamerican site), pre-Columbian Mesoamerican archaeological site in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico ...
, the original Spanish land grant owners of the entire region now encompassing Oakland and Berkeley, in various legal proceedings ostensibly initiated to protect their holdings. The end result of these proceedings was that Carpentier himself received large chunks of what remained of their holdings as compensation for his services. Carpentier also acquired most of Rancho Laguna de los Palos Colorados, and part of Rancho San Ramon.


Return to New York

By 1888, Carpentier had moved back to New York City. He had a second home in Galway in Saratoga County, New York. He was elected to the board of trustees of Columbia University, his alma mater, in 1906, serving until his death. He died at his home on January 31, 1918.


Contributing to the Dean Lung endowment at Columbia

Carpentier contributed $250,000 to an endowment that initiated Chinese studies at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and helped to catalyse broader East Asian studies at the university. This was done in honor of his valet , who in 1902 had contributed $12,000 of his savings to the establishment of Chinese Studies at Columbia. In the same year, sinologist
Friedrich Hirth Friedrich Hirth, Ph.D. (16 April 1845 in Gräfentonna, Saxe-Gotha – 10 January 1927 in Munich) was a German-American sinologist. Biography He was educated at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Greifswald (Ph.D., 1869). He was in the ...
was appointed the first Dean Lung professor of Chinese, soon receiving a substantial collection of books from the Chinese government. To mark the establishment of the foundation of the Dean Lung Chair of Chinese at Columbia,
Herbert Giles Herbert Allen Giles (, 8 December 184513 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist who was the professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British dip ...
gave a series of lectures titled " China and the Chinese". Endowed professors include
David Der-wei Wang David Der-wei Wang (; born November 6, 1954) is a literary historian, critic, and the Edward C. Henderson Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University. He has written extensively on post-late Qing Chinese fiction, comparative literary the ...
, Madeleine Zelin (current),
Luther Carrington Goodrich Luther Carrington Goodrich (September 21, 1894 – August 10, 1986) was an American sinologist and historian of China. A prolific author, he is perhaps best remembered for his work on the ''Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644''. Life Luthe ...
and
Hans Bielenstein Hans Henrik August Bielenstein (8 April 1920 − 8 March 2015) was a Swedish sinologist and Dean Lung Professor Emeritus from Columbia University specialising in the history of the Han Dynasty. Life Hans Henrik August Bielenstein was born on 8 Ap ...
.


Family life

Carpentier remained single his entire life, although he seems to have shared a household with his cousin Harriet for many years in Oakland. (Several references mention Harriet as his niece, but the 1880 US Census for Oakland and the 1900 Census for New York show "sister", although in fact she was a second cousin). Their brother Edward also lived with them for a time. The Carpentier home was located in the oldest section of Oakland at Alice and Third Streets. Alice Street was named for his other sister. Carpentier had another brother, James S. Carpentier, in whose name he made a donation to Columbia University. He made another donation in the name of his mother, Henrietta Carpentier, and another in the name of his brother Edward.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carpentier, Horace Mayors of Oakland, California Columbia College (New York) alumni People from Galway, New York 1824 births 1918 deaths 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century American politicians