Henry Mayo Newhall (1825-1882) was an auctioneer, railroad baron, and gentleman rancher. Born in Saugus, MA – yes, our Saugus is named after his hometown – Newhall took to the sea in his teens and later got into the auction business in Philadelphia, then Nashville. Lured by the Gold Rush, he went to San Francisco in 1850 and made his home and his fortune there. He got into railroads in 1865, then snapped up 143,000 acres all across California in the 1870s. This included his 1875 purchase of the 46,460 acre Rancho San Francisco here in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he set up a ranch. The following year, the town of Newhall was named in his honor by the Southern Pacific Railroad, of which he was a director. Newhall was married twice and had five sons. In 1987, the towns of Newhall and Saugus were incorporated, along with Valencia and Canyon Country, into the City of Santa Clarita. The Newhall Land and Farming Company, run by H.M. Newhall’s heirs, remains a major force in Santa Clarita.
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