Jane Lathrop Stanford
From Palo Alto Wiki
Jane Lathrop Stanford (August 25, 1828–February 28, 1905), was the wife of Leland Stanford and cofounded Stanford University with her husband.
Born Jane Eliza Lathrop in Albany, New York, she married Leland Stanford on Sept. 30, 1850.
Upon the death of their only son, Leland Stanford, Jr., the elder Leland turned to his wife, Jane, and said, famously, "The children of California shall be our children." They then founded Leland Stanford Junior University in their son's honor. After Leland's death, Jane took control of the University, and it was at Jane Stanford's direction that Stanford University gained an early focus on the arts, and it was she who advocated the admission of women.
Jane Stanford also figured prominently in the issue of academic freedom when she sought, and ultimately succeeded, in having Stanford University economist Edward A. Ross fired for making speeches favoring Democrat William Jennings Bryan and for his liberal economic teachings. This resulted in the American Association of University Professors' "Report on Academic Freedom and Tenure" (1915, by Arthur Oncken Lovejoy and Edwin R. A. Seligman,) and in the writing of the AAUP 1915 Declaration of Principles.
In 1905, Jane Stanfod was at the center of one of America's legendary mysteries. She died of strychnine poisoning while on the island of Oahu, Hawaii in a Moana Hotel room.
An account of events says that on the evening of February 28 at the hotel, Stanford had asked for bicarbonate of soda to settle her stomach. Her personal secretary Bertha Berner prepared the solution, which Stanford drank. At 11:15 p.m., Stanford cried out for her servants and Moana Hotel staff to fetch a physician feeling that she had lost sensations. Robert W. P. Cutler, who wrote the book, The Mysterious Death of Jane Stanford, recounted what took place upon the arrival of Moana Hotel physician, Dr. Francis Howard Humphris:
As Humphris tried to administer a solution of bromine and chloral hydrate, Mrs. Stanford, now in anguish, exclaimed, "My jaws are stiff. This is a horrible death to die." Whereupon she was seized by a tetanic spasm that progressed relentlessly to a state of severe rigidity: her jaws clamped shut, her thighs opened widely, her feet twisted inwards, her fingers and thumbs clenched into tight fists, and her head drew back. Finally, her respiration ceased. Stanford was dead from strychnine poisoning. Who killed her, remains a mystery. Today, the room no longer exists; it was stripped for expansion of the lobby.
She is buried at the Stanford family mausoleum on the Stanford campus.
