Timeline

1. 1826

   Born January 12 in Wellsville, Ohio, a steamboat town on the Ohio River, to boat builder Robert Ralston III and Mary Wilcoxen Chapman.

2. 1835

   His mother dies when he is nine; his father remarries.

3. 1840s

   Goes to work as a clerk on Mississippi riverboats: cargo logs, fares, passengers, and a front-row seat to the steamboat boom.

4. early 1850s

   In New York, meets Louisa Thorne, niece of Cornelius Vanderbilt. They fall in love and become engaged; she dies after a family voyage to Europe, before they can marry. Ralston carries her miniature portrait for the rest of his life.

5. 1850s

   Works in banking and shipping in Panama, moving gold-rush passengers between the oceans and building the connections that will shape everything after.

6. 1854

   Arrives in San Francisco at 28. Soon his name is on the door: Garrison, Morgan, Fretz & Ralston.

7. 1858

   Marries Elizabeth “Lizzie” Fry on May 20 at Calvary Church on Bush Street, then takes the entire wedding party to Yosemite, widely considered the first honeymoon ever held there.

8. 1859

   The Comstock Lode is discovered in Nevada. Ralston invests heavily; by 1864 he holds top positions in most of the bonanza mines.

9. 1864

   Opens the Bank of California in July, with Darius Ogden Mills as president and himself as cashier. Ralston is its driving force.

10. 1868

    Completes Ralston Hall in Belmont: 55,000 square feet, more than 80 rooms, a mirrored ballroom, and an opera box modeled on the Palais Garnier.

11. 1869

    The California Theatre, financed by Ralston, opens on Bush Street in January. The same year, he averts a run on his bank with a legendary overnight bullion exchange at the U.S. Mint.

12. 1872

    Becomes president of the Bank of California, and is among the financiers duped by the Great Diamond Hoax.

13. early 1870s

    With William Sharon, plans and builds the Palace Hotel, the most elaborate and expensive hotel in the world, at a cost of about $5 million.

14. Aug 26, 1875

    A run on the Bank of California pays out $1.4 million in a single day and empties the vaults. The bank closes its doors.

15. Aug 27, 1875

    Ralston resigns in the morning. That afternoon he goes for his regular swim in the Bay near Meiggs’ Wharf and dies in the water, age 49. The coroner rules an apoplectic stroke.

16. Sep 8, 1875

    Some 50,000 people join his funeral procession, one of the largest in San Francisco’s history.

17. Oct 2, 1875

    Five weeks after his death, the Palace Hotel opens its doors under William Sharon. The same day, the reorganized Bank of California reopens.

The legacy

1. 1923

   The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur purchase the Belmont estate; Ralston Hall becomes the heart of a college campus and, later, a National Historic Landmark.

2. 1941

   San Francisco erects a memorial to Ralston on the Marina Green waterfront.

3. 1996

   The Bank of California merges into Union Bank of California, ending its run as an independent institution 132 years after Ralston opened it.

4. 2022

   Union Bank is absorbed into U.S. Bank, where the lineage of Ralston’s bank quietly lives on today.