Louis McLane

Louis McLane Jr. (January 20, 1819 – December 13, 1905) was an American financier from a prominent Maryland family, who became a prosperous California forty-niner.

Early life McLane was born on January 20, 1819, in Wilmington, Delaware. He later served as president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Among his siblings were Robert Milligan McLane (a U.S. Representative and Governor of Maryland who served as Ambassador to Mexico, France, and China), Lydia (née McLane) Johnston (wife of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston), Allan McLane (president of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company), James Latimer McLane (president of the National Bank of Baltimore and father of Baltimore mayor Robert McLane), and Juliette (née McLane) Garesché (wife of Peter Bauduy Garesché).

Business career Shortly after his marriage and resignation from the Navy, McLane left for San Francisco and a career as a financier which was to take him away from his family many times during the next thirty years. He was a founder of the Safe Deposit & Trust Co. in 1864 and, during the 1850s, was Wells Fargo's first general manager in San Francisco. On November 1, 1866, he succeeded Danford N. Barney to become president of the Wells Fargo & Company Express, which he reorganized after its takeover of Holladay Overland. He was replaced by Ashbel H. Barney in 1869. McLane also served as the first president of Nevada Bank in 1875, which had been started by William S. O'Brien and James Clair Flood, who succeeded McLane as president in 1881. He returned to Baltimore in 1892.

Katherine Milligan McLane (1850–1927), who did not marry and lived with her sisters Sophie and Elizabeth. Sophie Hoffman McLane (b. 1852), who died unmarried. Samuel Hoffman McLane (1861–1890), who went to school in Croydon, England. Charles Eugene McLane (1871–1941), who served as assistant secretary and treasurer of the Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company;

McLane suffered a stroke of paralysis in October 1901, but he survived. After several years of ill health, he died on December 13, 1905, at 1101 North Charles Street, his residence in Baltimore, Maryland. He was buried at Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore.