James Ben Ali Haggin (December 9, 1822 – September 12, 1914) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

attorney,

ranch A ranch (from es, rancho/Mexican Spanish) is an area of land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of a farm. These terms are most ofte ...

er, investor, art collector, and a major owner and breeder in the sport of

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

. Haggin made a fortune in the aftermath of the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...

and was a multi-millionaire by 1880. Those who recounted James Ben Ali Haggin's appearance often noted his short stature and "slightly Oriental appearance handed down from his Turkish ancestors".

Life

Haggin was born in Harrodsburg, Mercer County,

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, a descendant of one of the state's pioneer families who had settled there in 1775 and a descendant of Ibrahim Ben Ali, who was an early American settler of Turkish origin. He graduated from Centre College at

Danville, Kentucky Danville is a home rule-class city in Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 17,236 at the 2020 Census. Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which include ...

, then entered the practice of law. On December 28, 1846, James Ben Ali Haggin married Eliza Jane Sanders of

Natchez, Mississippi Natchez ( ) is the county seat of and only city in Adams County, Mississippi, United States. Natchez has a total population of 14,520 (as of the 2020 census). Located on the Mississippi River across from Vidalia in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, ...

with whom he had five children. She died in 1893 and on December 30, 1897 the seventy-five-year-old Haggin married twenty-eight-year-old Margaret Pearl Voorhies at her stepfather's residence in

Versailles, Kentucky Versailles () is a home rule-class city in Woodford County, Kentucky, United States. It lies by road west of Lexington and is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. Versailles has a population of 9,316 according to 2017 cen ...

. Miss Voorhies was a niece of his first wife. In October 1850 he joined a Kentucky acquaintance, Lloyd Tevis, in opening a law office in Sacramento. They moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

in 1853. He built a large and impressive Nob Hill mansion on the east side of Taylor Street between Clay and Washington streets, which stood until the earthquake and fire of 1906. It was to decorate the walls of the 61 rooms of this mansion that Haggin began the core of the family art collection that would eventually be housed in the Haggin Museum (named for his son Louis Terah Haggin) in Stockton, California. Haggin and Tevis married sisters, daughters of Colonel Lewis Sanders, a Kentuckian who had emigrated to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Haggin and Tevis acquired the

Rancho Del Paso Rancho Del Paso was a Mexican land grant in present-day Sacramento County, California, In 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena, Captain John Sutter’s old friend, gave 44,000 acres to Elijah Grimes. Grimes called it the Rancho del Paso because i ...

land grant near Sacramento. The two invested in the mining business with George Hearst as one of their partners. Hearst, Haggin, Tevis and Co. became one of the largest mining companies in the United States; its operations included the Ontario silver mine in Park City, Utah, the Homestake Mine in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...

, and with Marcus Daly, the

Anaconda Copper Company The Anaconda Copper Mining Company, known as the Amalgamated Copper Company between 1899 to 1915, was an American mining company headquartered in Butte, Montana. It was one of the largest trusts of the early 20th century and one of the largest mi ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

. Th
James Ben Ali Haggin Papers, 1887-1914
are kept at the

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it reta ...

at the University of California at Berkeley.

Thoroughbred racing

Haggin purchased the

horse farm near

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

in 1859. He made it one of the country's most important

horse breeding Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in ...

and Thoroughbred racing operations whose horses competed from coast-to-coast. In 1905, Haggin stopped using Rancho De Paso as a horse breeding farm and concentrated his breeding efforts at his Elmendorf Farm in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest ...

. Haggin had acquired Elmendorf in 1897 and until his death in 1914 worked to develop it into the largest horse breeding operation in the United States of its era.

Major racing successes

Haggin owned the colt

Tyrant A tyrant (), in the modern English usage of the word, is an absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defend their positions by resorting to ...

which in 1885 he sent to compete as a three-year-old on the

U.S. East Coast The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Eastern United States meets the North Atlantic Ocean. The eastern seaboard contains the coa ...

where he won the prestigious

Withers The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of an animal, typically a quadruped. In many species, it is the tallest point of the body. In horses and dogs, it is the standard place to measure the animal's height. In contrast, cattle a ...

and

Belmont Stakes The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nickname ...

, the latter becoming the third leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series. The following year his colt Ben Ali won the 1886 Kentucky Derby. At Rancho Del Paso Haggin bred

Comanche The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in ...

and Africander, colts which won the 1893 and 1903 Belmont Stakes respectively.

Honors

He is the namesake of the Ben Ali Stakes at

Keeneland Race Course Keeneland Association, Inc. is an equine business based in Lexington, Kentucky. It includes two distinct divisions: the Keeneland Race Course, a Thoroughbred racing facility, and Keeneland Sales, a horse auction complex. It is also known for it ...

in Lexington. Mount Haggin (10,607 ft / 3,233 m), in the

Anaconda Range The Anaconda Range, informally known as the "Pintlers", is a group of high mountains located in southwestern Montana, in the northwestern United States. The mountain range takes its name from the nearby town of Anaconda, founded by Marcus Daly ...

ten miles from the town of

Anaconda Anacondas or water boas are a group of large snakes of the genus '' Eunectes''. They are found in tropical South America. Four species are currently recognized. Description Although the name applies to a group of snakes, it is often used t ...

in southwestern

, also is named for James Ben Ali Haggin.

Personal life

Haggin was the eldest of eight children of Terah Temple and Adeline (Ben Ali) Haggin, the daughter of Ibrahim Ben Ali, a Turkish army officer. In 1846 Haggin married Eliza Jane Sanders; they had two sons and three daughters, including Louis Terah, James Ben Ali, Jr., Margaret Sanders, Adeline Ben Ali, and Edith Hunter In 1897 Haggin married Margaret ("Pearl") Voorhies of Versailles, Kentucky. Haggin died September 12, 1914, at his

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

, residence and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York. His grandson, James Ben Ali Haggin III, was a portrait painter and stage designer. His grandson, Richard Lounsbery, was a businessman and amateur painter who established the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. His descendants in Thoroughbred racing include Louis Lee Haggin II and

William Haggin Perry William Haggin Perry (December 5, 1910 - November 12, 1993) was an American owner and breeder of thoroughbred racehorses. Early life Perry was the son of Henry Pierrepont Perry, a Wall Street stockbroker, and Edith Lounsbery, who was the daughter ...

References

External links

James Ben Ali Haggin biography sourced from the ''History of Kentucky'' (1928), J. S. Clarke Publishing Company, Louisville Kentucky

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090211101321/http://delpasocountryclub.com/delpasohistory/index.cfm?fuseaction=cor_av&artID=2208 History of Rancho Del Paso at the Del Paso Country Club {{DEFAULTSORT:Haggin, James Ben Ali 1822 births 1914 deaths Centre College alumni California lawyers American mining businesspeople American racehorse owners and breeders Owners of Kentucky Derby winners People from Harrodsburg, Kentucky American people of Turkish descent Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) Agriculture in Kentucky Businesspeople from Kentucky 19th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American lawyers