Joel Parker Whitney papers, 1859-1922

Joel Parker Whitney was a leading mine operator, importer, land developer, sheep raiser, cattleman, fruit grower, reclamation and conservation advocate, financier, author, socialite, sportsman, and promoter of the West in the last half of the 19th century.

Whitney was born in Gardner, Massachusetts, on June 27, 1835. At the age of 17, he arrived in San Francisco. Here he joined his brothers in the importing business, which, along with the introduction of superior sheep breeding stock, soon made him a rich man. He invested some of his gains in the mercantile business in New England and set up an office in Boston.

Whitney attended Lincoln’s first inauguration in 1861 and served briefly in the Civil War. He went to the mine fields of Colorado following the war, where he took up his hobby of collecting mineral ores. Through this interest he placed mining investments wisely, particularly in silver.

At 32 Whitney was termed the “representative man of Colorado” and was sent by the state to the Paris Exposition of 1867, where he exhibited a collection of minerals for which he was awarded a gold medal. His frequent trips abroad brought foreign capital to his American enterprises.

Whitney also invested in the Union Pacific Railroad being built in Wyoming. In the early 1870s he transferred some of his extensive enterprises to Placer County, California. Here he continued his method of development through promotion and became active in reclaiming swamplands for agriculture, sheep raising, and fruit culture. He helped form a commission to find lands for the displaced Indians of northern California and stimulated interest in irrigation. His Spring Valley Ranch near Rocklin in Placer County became an estate. In 1878 he married Lucy Chadwick; they had three children.

An incurable developer, Whitney turned to New Mexico mines, railroad and land development, and cattle raising. In these ventures he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Weathering the losses, he invested in later years in real estate and hotel building.

Joel Parker Whitney died in Monterey, California, in 1913.