Stephen Thornton Gage (1831 - 1916)

Born 7 Mar 1831 in Ashtabula, Ohio, United States

Ancestors

Died 30 Sep 1916 at age 85 in Oakland, Alameda, California, United States

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Biography

Stephen Gage was born in Appalachia, in Ohio.

Stephen Gage was an Ohioan.

Stephen was born in 1831. He is the son of Joshua Gage.

Books

History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming: 1540-1888

Gage, an intense unionist, was born in Astabula county, Ohio, march 7, 1831. his father Joshua Gage, a man of sterling qualities, was one <of> the early pioneers in Ohio. Stephen, who worked during the summer, and attended school in winter, began teaching, farming, and conducting a saw-mill alternately up to 1852. During this year he crossed the plains with an ox-team, driving the entire distance himself, and making the quickest trip across the plains on record. In California he engaged in milling, mining and merchandizing. In 1856, at the age of twenty-four years, he was elected to the legislature, being the youngest member of that body. He was one of the committee who drafted an able report on the important question of a transcontinental railroad. He held various offices up to 1860. During this and the succeeding year he engaged in transporting goods over the Sierra Nevada to the Washoe mines, his pack-trains being the largest on the road.

In 1862 he became a resident of Virginia City, where he was prominent in federal and state politics. Later, he had much to do with railroad matters. He was invaluable to the Central Pacific road during the early struggles of that corporation. His arguments before legislative committees were logical and ingenious, stamping him as a man of marked ability.

In 1871 he removed to San Francisco. He was later the only officer of the road located outside of Sacramento at that date. Later, he removed to Oakland, Cal. In 1885 he was appointed assistant president of the Southern Pacific system of railroads. ^[1]

Sources

“Oakland Tribune”, (Oakland, California), 09 Oct 1916, page 10, “ Career of the Late Stephen T. Gage as a Builder of the Great West Sketched by His Brother”

Census

United States Census, 1910, Stephen T Gage, Oakland Ward 5, Alameda, California, United States. Stock raising.

Death

Find A Grave: Memorial #5984

Footnotes

1. ↑ History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming: 1540-1888, by Hubert Howe Bancroft, Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor, published by the History Company, 1890, Nevada, pages 187-199, https://books.google.com/books?id=oAITAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA187