Ever wonder how the towns of Newhall and Saugus got their names? Or about the man for whom our main local hospital is named? A great opportunity to learn about the life of town founder Henry Mayo Newhall will be coming up Saturday, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. when Newhall's great-great grandson Tony Newhall will be delivering a talk on his famous ancestor for the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society at the Saugus Train Station at Heritage Junction in (where else!!) Newhall, California.

The town of Saugus, California is named after Henry Mayo's birthplace in Saugus, Massachusetts, where he was born on May 23, 1825. Henry was an adventurous soul, and at the age of 13, in 1838, he left Saugus to become a cabin boy on a ship headed for the Far East. Adventure turned to danger while on the high seas of the Pacific when he fell off the high rigging of the vessel and broke both of his legs.

Newhall returned to Saugus, Mass. to heal up, but eventually the travel bug hit again and he wound up in the City of Brotherly Love -- Philadelphia. It was here that he learned the trade that would make him a wealthy man when he was hired by the auction house of Myers, Claghorn, and Company. Henry became a talented auctioneer, and after a mere two years in the business he was offered a partnership and job as an auctioneer in Nashville, Tennessee. The partnership offer failed to materialize so he started his own auction house in Pulaski, Georgia and moved that firm (Newhall and Baker) back to Nashville, where he became a smashing success at age 24. He met his future first wife Sarah Ann White while in Nashville.

Newhall got married to Sarah Ann in 1849, but a few weeks later he was swept up by the California Gold Rush and boarded a ship to Panama, crossed through the Panamanian jungle, and took another ship to San Francisco to seek his fortune along with thousands of other 49ers. As was the fate of many other gold seekers, Newhall was not successful in the gold diggings. He arrived back in Stockton, California almost penniless but fell back on his previous profession and auctioned off all his remaining clothes. Newhall eventually joined the auction house of Hall and Martin in San Francisco, where his auction skills made him enormously successful. By the end of 1851, Newhall took over the company, which he renamed H.M. Newhall & Company.

With the wealth garnered from the auction business, Newhall turned to real estate and bought up lucrative land parcels in San Francisco and surrounding Bay Area towns. His timing couldn't be better as San Francisco became a boom town in the 1860's and made him a very rich man. Not one to rest on his laurels, Newhall next became a railroad entrepreneur. He helped finance and became the President of the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad, which was completed in 1863.

Newhall had big plans for his railroad. In fact he had wanted to secure a contract from the government to build part of the planned transcontinental railroad. But he could not compete against the shrewd managers of the Central Pacific Railroad. Called the Big Four, Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, and Mark Hopkinsoutmaneuvered Newhall and gained the rights to build the western half of the transcontinental railroad, which they completed in 1869 when they joined with the tracks of the Union Pacific at Promontory Point in Utah. The Big Four then turned their sights on California. They started buying up small railroads in the state and consolidating them into one company. Newhall's railroad was a potential threat to their interests so they decided on a hostile takeover by buying up stock in his company. Newhall eventually had to give up the fight and wisely sold out to the Big Four's Southern Pacific Railroad in 1870. As a consolation, Newhall was permitted to sit on the Board of Directors of the Southern Pacific.

Now our story gets closer to the Santa Clarita Valley. After his struggles with the Southern Pacific ended, Newhall turned his attention again to real estate. He began buying up old Spanish ranchos in Central and Southern California. Most significant was the Rancho San Francisco which he purchased for $90,000 in 1875. This was the future SCV!! He knew that the Southern Pacific had plans to extend their railroad through this valley. That same year he granted a right-of-way through the valley to the Southern Pacific for $1. He also deeded additional land to the railroad to establish the town of Newhall. In 1876, the town of Newhal l saw it's first inhabitants and the Southern Pacific Railroad was completed at Lang Station in Soledad Canyon with Charles Crocker presiding over a golden spike ceremony.

Newhall's new town was started around the present day intersection of San Fernando Road and Magic Mountain Parkwa y. (This same area later became Saugus in 1887). Two years later they figured out that the location did not have enough water, so the whole town was uprooted and moved down to its present location around Market Street and Railroad Avenue. While Henry Mayo still kept his primary residence in San Francisco, he did spend significant time in his town and built the elegant Southern Hotelin 1878. The hotel burned down 10 years later. Unfortunately, Newhall did not get to enjoy his town for very long. In March, 1882, he decided to take a ride on his horse through his Rancho San Francisco.....bad decision. The horse stumbled and threw him to the ground causing severe injuries. He was taken back to San Francisco and died a few days later at the age of 56. The next year his widow and sons started the Newhall Land and Farming Company.....but that's a whole other story!!!