Leidesdorff Place San Francisco 4 Editorial Image

Although William Leidesdorff Jr was the son of a Creole mother, it is because his father, William Sr was Danish, Jr was considered Danish.It was because of this, a British planter and business person personally helped to educate Jr, and later sent him to New Orleans for further training with a cotton dealer. When both the cotton dealer and planter died in the 1830`s, leaving their wealth to Leidesdorff, his finances were now settled, his star was now rising. He was about to marry the daughter of another wealthy, white family. Against the advise of his closest advisors, he felt compelled at the last minute to tell her about his mother, the wedding was called off. While leaving to catch a ship for business, Leidesdorff found out his intended had just died, of apparent broken heart, and Leidesdorff himself never married.Despite all this, Leidesdorff became not just one of the wealthiest business men of his time, but most influential. Leidesdorff was such a huge figure for not just San Francisco as a city, but California becoming a state, the first San Francisco street over landfill is named in his honor. As seen 27 July 2022.