Brannan, Samuel, once a prominent Elder in the Church, was born in the State of Maine in 1819. He migrated to Lake county, Ohio, in 1833, where he entered upon an apprenticeship to learn letter press printing, and he also entered into land speculation early in life. Becoming a convert to "Mormonism," he labored as a missionary for some time in the East and at length was appointed to preside over the branches of the Church in the Eastern States. While occupying that position he published a paper in the interest of the Church called "The New York Messenger." At the time of the general exodus of the Saints from Nauvoo, Elder Brannan, agreeable to instructions from the Church authorities, chartered the ship "Brooklyn," on which he sailed from New York Feb. 4, 1846, in charge of about two hundred and thirty Saints. The ship doubled Cape Horn, touched at the Juan Fernandez Islands and also the Hawaiian Islands and arrived in the Bay of San Francisco, Cal., July 31, 1846. In the spring of 1847 Elder Brannan crossed the Sierra Nevada mountains and traveled east by way of Fort Hall as far as Green river, where he met Pres. Brigham Young and the other pioneers, and used every influence in his power with the president to have the Saints settle in California, instead of Salt Lake Valley. Being unable to change the president in his course, Elder Brannan returned to California, disappointed, and then turned his attention to financial matters. Later he speculated very heavily in town lots when the city of San Francisco was surveyed, and at one time he owned nearly all the property butting on Market Street. Prior to his trip east to meet the pioneers he had projected and published at Yerba Bueno (now San Francisco) the "California Star," which was the first periodical published in San Francisco and was the parent of the subsequent "Alta-Californian." In the fall of 1847 he opened up a store at Sutter's Fort, the first establishment of the kind in the Sacramento Valley. He continued his business during the heat of the gold excitement and laid the foundation for great wealth. In 1849 he returned to San Francisco and conducted an extensive business under the firm name of Osborn and Brannan for nearly a year, dealing in Chinese merchandise. Later he served as a member of the first regular town council in San Francisco. In 1851 he visited Hawaii and bought extensive properties in Honolulu. In 1853 he was elected State senator in California, and he was one of the founders of the first school in San Francisco. Many of the most elegant structures in the city were built by him and there was scarcely an institution of public usefulness in which he was not associated. In 1857 he visited Europe, and in 1868 he purchased from Abel Stearn extensive land tracts (one hundred and sixty thousand acres of land) in Los Angeles county, which resulted in the opening of extensive tracts of land to settlement by small farmers. Later he became owner of valuable property in Nevada and several places in California. In Napa Valley, California, he became the proprietor of the Calistoga Hot Springs and a valuable estate of three thousand acres of land surrounding these springs. In due course of time Samuel Brannan lost most of his property and died a poor man in or near San Diego, Southern California. Bishop Edwin N. Austin, one of the passengers who made the [p.607] famous voyage from New York to California in the ship "Brooklyn," in 1846, visited San Diego, in 1905, and soon afterwards wrote the following: "On Tuesday, May 30, 1905, I visited the Mount Hope cemetery at San Diego, Cal., for the purpose of seeking the last resting place of the renowned Samuel Brannan. . . . After examining the records I found information to the following effect: Samuel Brannan died May 14, 1889, in the city of San Diego in great poverty. Some acquaintance furnished a casket for his remains. As he had no money to buy a lot in the cemetery, his body laid in the receiving vault at San Diego city for more than a year, when Alexander Bledon bought a lot in the Mount Hope cemetery, to which his remains were removed in 1890. He was buried in division 4, section 2, lot 7. A 2x2x7 inch stake is the only mark at the grave." The "Deseret News," at the time of Samuel Brannan's death, wrote the following, editorially: "Sam Brannan, the California pioneer, is dead. . . . He breathed his last . . . having suffered agonies for two weeks from inflammation of the bowels. His name and career are familiar to the people of Utah. He was once a 'Mormon' and obtained some prominence in early times, as he took a company by water from New York to San Francisco, and wanted our people to settle on the coast. His course and habits were not consistent with the life of a Latter-day Saint, and he was disconnected with the Church and plunged into the speculations and excitements of pioneer Californian experience. He was at one time quite wealthy, but finally drifted into poverty. He hoped to recuperate by the sale of land which he acquired by a Mexican grant in Sonora, but never realized his expectations. He had some redeeming qualities, and it is to be hoped that these will outweigh the faults which were manifested in his adventurous and eventful life. Poor Sam! will be the general expression over the news of his departure to another sphere."