Draft:Alfred A. Cohen


 * - Corrected text that now points to reliable sources. Greg Henderson (talk)10:30, 06 June 2024 (UTC)

Alfred A. Cohen (July 17, 1829 – November 16, 1887) was an English American lawyer and railroad financier best known for founding the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad, the first ferry and railroad system in Alameda County, California, connecting Alameda with San Francisco. More significantly, Cohen served as the chief attorney for the Central Pacific Railroad, funded by The Big Four, which established Oakland as the western terminus of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869.

Early life and education
Cohen was born on July 17, 1829, in London, England. He completed his formal education at a school in Exeter, South West England until he was 14 years old, when his parents sent him to Canada, where he worked as an errand boy. In 1847, Cohen joined his older brother in Jamaica in the West Indies.

Career
In 1849, during the California gold rush, Cohen sailed from New York to California, arriving in 1850. He engaged in a commission business in San Francisco. On July 17, 1854, he married Emilie Gibbons in San Francisco. Two years later, they moved to Alameda, California, which became his permanent home. He and Emilie had seven children, including photographer Edgar A. Cohen.

In 1872, Cohen built a 250 acre family estate in Fernside, Alameda. The mansion was destroyed by fire on March 23, 1897, including an art gallery with paintings, furniture, and a library. The home was unoccupied at the time of the fire.

In Alameda, Cohen completed his law studies, passed the bar in 1857, and began practicing law. He was elected Justice of the Peace in Alameda County. In 1862, he retired from practicing law to construct a ferry and railroad system.

In 1863 Cohen together with Charles Minturn, E. B. Mastick, and others, incorporated the San Francisco and Alameda Railroad (SF&A) to provide passenger and freight ferry-train service to Alameda, San Leandro, and Hayward. This was the first railroad system in Alameda County. Cohen became president of SF&A.

In 1865, Cohen gained control of the overextended San Francisco and Oakland Railroad (SF&O). In April 1868, Central Pacific Railroad's (CPRR) The Big Four: Stanford, Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington, and Mark Hopkins, decided to make Oakland the western terminus of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. CPRR's subsidiary purchased the majority of stock of the struggling SF&O from Cohen in August 1868, while retaining Cohen on the CPRR payroll as a lawyer. In August 1869 the CPRR subsidiary also purchased most of the stock of SF&A, bankrupt by the 1868 Hayward earthquake. In 1875, Cohen was instrumental in bringing a transfer of CPRR to Southern Pacific Railroad.

In 1876, Cohen advocated for the passage of a bill to regulate fares and freights. CPRR began action against him, entitled, "The Central Pacific Railroad Co. vs. Alfred A. Cohen." This judgment was rendered in Cohen's favor. He then returned to private practice, continuing to provide legal services while maintaining his involvement with the CPRR as advisory counsel.

Novelist Jules Verne met Cohen in 1867 on board the SS Great Eastern and made him, with his wife, passengers and characters of the ship in his novel A Floating City.

Death and legacy
Cohen died on November 16, 1887, in Sidney, Nebraska, from paralysis while traveling on a Central Pacific train returning to San Francisco from the East Coast.

Many of Cohen's biographical materials and railroad documents are housed in the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley, and cover such topics as biographical outlines, legal documents related to the Central Pacific Railroad stock manipulation, and letters and telegrams.