SANFORD, Horatio W.

Horatio W. Sanford

SANFORD, Horatio W. (Sherburne, Chenango Co., NY-Sherburne, NY, 1884). Iowa's most successful real estate businessman prior to the CIVIL WAR. Through shrewd investment in Dubuque land between 1846 and 1858, Sanford saw his net worth increase from $10,000 to over $100,000. Between 1846 and 1864, this enterprising Dubuque businessman was involved in 2,879 private land deals.

Sanford never hired a clerk or entrusted his business to anyone else. This fact is made even more incredible when it has been estimated that over one million acres of land in northern Iowa passed through his company.

As a boy, Sanford came to Dubuque when the village claimed only five hundred citizens. Earning $50.00 per month as a clerk for several merchants, Sanford bought a lot on Bluff Street and began loaning money at the established rate of 25 percent interest, a rate somewhat lower than that generally charged in new MINING towns. By 1850 his attention was given entirely to his land agency and loaning money. He moved his business from a second-story back room in the J. Christman and Company hardware store on Main below Fourth Street to the corner of Fourth and Main.

Although Sanford purchased the Sanford Block in 1856, he made most of his purchases of city property between 1854 and 1855. By then most of the public land in eastern Iowa was sold. Although he did not sell much until after 1860, Sanford sold all his country property by 1865.

Sanford was briefly one of the organizers of the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad. He withdrew due to the speculative nature of the business and invested his money in government bonds and securities. Upon his retirement from business, Sanford became one of Dubuque's most traveled citizens with at least seven tours to Europe and others to Africa, and South America.