Routinely voted amongst the top three universities in the world, Stanford is perhaps the most well known educational institution globally. Thousands of students, both local and foreign, apply to the prestigious University each year, hoping to be one of the lucky ones to be admitted. However, due to the immense competition, only a couple of thousand candidates receive the honour.
A little known fact about the University is its nickname, “the farm”. Like many old universities, Stanford also has a rather eventful past. The University’s origin is enshrined in a personal loss that sparked one of the grandest education institutes in the world.
In this Article
Who Founded Stanford University?
To learn about the origin’s of the University, we need to meet the founders’ first. Amasa Leland Stanford was the 8th governor of California and served from 1862 to 1863. Eight years after his 2-year term as the governor, Mr Stanford became a United States senator, an office he would hold from 1885 to 1893.
However, besides being a politician, he was also a businessman and the president of the Central Pacific Railroad.
Serving as the president of one of the most influential companies at the time, Mr Stanford accumulated a big fortune over the course of his career. Moreover, he wielded great power as the president of CPR and oversaw the construction of the first transcontinental railroad.
Jane Elizabeth Lathrop was Stanford’s first and only wife who had an essential role in establishing the University. The marriage took place in Albany, NY, in 1850, and the couple didn’t have any children for years until their firstborn, Leland DeWitt Stanford, in 1868.
The Tragedy That Prompted Establishment of the University
Like many prominent historical events, there lies a personal loss at the heart of Stanford’s inception. After years of a childless marriage, the Stanford’s welcomed their first and only child, Leland DeWitt Stanford, in 1868.
However, as fate would have it, Leland DeWitt Stanford passed away at the age of 15 from typhoid fever. Struck with grief and wanting to do something good for humanity, Mr Stanford and his wife decided to build a university as a memorial to their son.
The founding president David Starr Jordan and the Stanfords wanted the University to be non-sectarian, co-educational and above all, affordable, to inspire a tradition of well-educated and cultured graduates. Stanford University officially came into being on 9th March 1885.
Why is the University nicknamed “the farm”?
Mr Stanford was fond of horses and, as such, owned vast amounts of land for keeping them. One such property he owned was known as the Palo Alto stock farm, which was chosen as the birthplace of the main campus of Stanford University.
Due to the University being built on a farm, it was affectionately referred to as the farm by students and staff members. This tradition has survived for more than a century, and you will still hear people refer to the University as the farm.
The main campus situated on the farm takes up 8,180 acres making it one of the largest universities in the world.