Thomas Welton Stanford

Who was Thomas Welton Stanford?

Thomas Welton Stanford, also known as Welton Stanford, was an American-born Australian businessman, spiritualist and philanthropist, most notably toward Stanford University, which was founded by his older brother Leland Stanford. Although living most of his adult life in Australia, he kept his American citizenship and served intermittently as honorary American vice consul-general in Melbourne.

Thomas Welton Stanford was born in 1832 in Albany, New York, the youngest of six sons of Josiah Stanford, a public works contractor, and his wife Elizabeth, née Phillips. He was educated at Troy Conference Academy in Vermont. In 1852, he left for California, attracted by the California Gold Rush as were all of his brothers. They ran a store in the gold fields for a few years; by 1858 the brothers were running the largest oil company in the West. In December 1859, Thomas and his brother DeWitt Stanford moved to Melbourne.

In Australia, he became a distributor for Singer sewing machines and rang up record sales, using innovative sales techniques such as time payment. By the time Singer stopped using independent distributors in the 1880s, Stanford was a wealthy man.