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James Lick | |
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| Born | (1796-08-25)August 25, 1796 Stumpstown (Fredericksburg)Pennsylvania, US |
| Died | October 1, 1876(1876-10-01) (aged 80) San Francisco, California, US |
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James Lick (August 25, 1796 – October 1, 1876) was an American real estate investor, carpenter,piano builder, land baron, and patron of the sciences. The wealthiest man inCalifornia at the time of his death, Lick left the majority of his estate to social and scientific causes.[1]
James Lick was born toPennsylvania Dutch parents in Stumpstown (Fredericksburg),Pennsylvania on August 25, 1796.[2] Lick's paternal grandfather, WilliamLük, was a German immigrant from thePalatinate, and served in theAmerican Revolutionary War.[3][4] William's son, John,anglicized the family name to Lick.[2]
The son of acarpenter, Lick began learning the craft at an early age. When he was twenty-one, he had a romance with Barbara Snavely, the mother of his only child, John Henry. They never married, and the romance failed. Lick left Stumpstown forBaltimore, Maryland, where he learned the art of piano making. He quickly mastered the skill, and moved toNew York City and established his own shop. In 1821 Lick moved toArgentina, after learning that his pianos were beingexported toSouth America.
Lick found his time inBuenos Aires to be difficult, because of his ignorance ofSpanish and the turbulent political situation in the country. Despite this, his business thrived, and in 1825 Lick left Argentina to tourEurope for a year. On his return trip, his ship was captured by thePortuguese, and the passengers and crew were taken toMontevideo asprisoners of war. Lick escaped captivity and returned to Buenos Aires on foot.
In 1832, Lick returned to Stumpstown. He failed to reunite with Barbara Snavely and their son, and returned to Buenos Aires. He decided the political situation was too unstable and moved toValparaíso,Chile. After four years, he again moved his business, this time toLima,Peru.
In 1846, Lick returned toNorth America. Anticipating theMexican–American War and the future annexation ofCalifornia, he decided to settle there. A backlog of orders for his pianos delayed him 18 months, as his Mexican workers returned to their homes to join the Mexican Army. He finished the orders himself.
Lick arrived inSan Francisco, California, in January 1848,[5] bringing with him his tools, work bench, $30,000 ingold (valued at approximately $2.75 million as of 2020), and 600 pounds (275 kilograms) ofchocolate. The chocolate quickly sold, so Lick sent back word convincing his friend and neighbor inPeru, theconfectionerDomingo Ghirardelli, to move to San Francisco, where he founded theGhirardelli Chocolate Company.[6]
Upon his arrival, Lick began buyingreal estate in the small village of San Francisco. The discovery of gold atSutter's Mill nearSacramento a few days after Lick's arrival in the future state began theCalifornia Gold Rush and created a housing boom in San Francisco, which grew from about one thousand residents in 1848 to over twenty thousand by 1850. Lick got a touch of "gold fever" and sought to mine the metal, but after a week decided his fortune was to be made by owning land, not digging in it. Lick continued buying land in San Francisco, and also began buying farmland in and aroundSan Jose, where he plantedorchards and built the largestflour mill in the state. He invited his son to join him there in 1854; however, the younger Lick suffered from poor health and returned to Pennsylvania in 1863.
In 1861, Lick began construction of ahotel, known asLick House,[7] 41 Montgomery Street (Lick Street,[8]111 Sutter Street[9]), at the intersection with Sutter Street, in San Francisco. The hotel had a dining room that could seat 400, based on a similar room at thepalace of Versailles. Lick House was considered the finest[citation needed] hotel west of theMississippi River. The hotel was destroyed in the fire following theSan Francisco earthquake of 1906. TheHunter-Dulin Building was constructed 1925-1927.[10]
Following the construction, Lick returned to his San Jose orchards. In 1874, Lick suffered a massivestroke in the kitchen of his home inSanta Clara. The following morning, he was found by his employee, Thomas Fraser, and taken to Lick House, where he could be better cared for. At the time of his illness, his estates, outside his considerable area inSanta Clara County and San Francisco, included large holdings aroundLake Tahoe, a largeranch inLos Angeles County, and all ofSanta Catalina Island,[11] making Lick the richest man in California.
In the next three years, Lick spent his time determining how to dispense his fortune. He originally wanted to build giant statues of himself and his parents, and erect apyramid larger than theGreat Pyramid of Giza in his own honor in downtown San Francisco. Through the efforts of George Davidson, president of theCalifornia Academy of Sciences, Lick was persuaded to leave the greatest portion of his fortune to the establishment of a mountaintopobservatory, with the largest, most powerfultelescope yet built.[12]
In 1874, he placed $3,000,000 ($65,200,000 relative value in 2017) at the disposal of seven trustees, by whom the funds were to be applied to specific uses. He replaced the board in 1875 withFaxon Atherton, John Nightingale,Bernard D. Murphy and his son, John H. Lick.[13]
The principal divisions of the funds were:[14]
Lick had had an interest in astronomy since at least 1860, when he andGeorge Madeira, the founder of the first observatory in California, spent several nights observing. They had also met again in 1873 and Lick said that Madeira's telescopes were the only ones he had ever used. In 1875, Thomas Fraser recommended a site at thesummit ofMount Hamilton, near San Jose. Lick approved, on the condition that Santa Clara County build a "first-class" road to the site. The county agreed and the road was completed by the fall of 1876.
On October 1, 1876, Lick died in his room in Lick House, San Francisco.[15] In 1887, his body was moved to its final resting place, under the future home of theGreat Lick Refracting Telescope.[3]
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