{{Short description|American mine-owner and financier (1821–1904)}} {{Infobox person | name = Alvinza Hayward | image = Alvinza Hayward.jpg | birth_date = 1821 | birth_place = Vermont, U.S. | death_date = February 14, 1904 | death_place = San Francisco, California, U.S. | resting_place = Cypress Lawn Memorial Park | occupation = Mine-owner, capitalist, businessman, financier | known_for = Gold mining, silver mining, investing | spouse = Charity Hathaway | children = 8 }} '''Alvinza Hayward''' (1821 – February 14, 1904) was an American mine-owner, capitalist, businessman, and financier. He was a well-known gold mining millionaire who made his fortune during the California Gold Rush.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=1904-02-15 |title=Obituary for Alvinza Hayward |pages=7 |work=The Berkeley Gazette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111572987/obituary-for-alvinza-hayward/ |access-date=2022-10-19}}</ref> He lived in the San Francisco Bay Area.
==Early life== Born in Vermont in 1821,<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=15 February 1904 |title=Death's Hand is Laid Upon Alvinza Hayward |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19040215.2.20&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |access-date=2022-10-19 |website=California Digital Newspaper Collection |publisher=San Francisco Call}}</ref> Hayward moved to Canton, New York, early in his life.<ref name=":4" /> He studied law in New York State, but also pursued lumber and lead mining interests in Michigan.
==California== His experience in Michigan vein mining proved invaluable after his move to California during the Gold Rush. He moved to Amador County, California in 1851 with his wife and eldest son.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Hayward, Alvinza |url=https://historysmc.pastperfectonline.com/byperson?keyword=Hayward%2C%20Alvinza |website=The San Mateo County Historical Association Online Collections Database |publisher=San Mateo County Historical Association}}</ref>
After buying an interest in the Eureka Mine (also known as the Old Eureka Mine) in Amador County, Hayward made new investments and successfully extracted gold where others had failed.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last1=Wooten |first1=Kimberly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N1cR2Fpi8YcC |title=Sutter Creek |last2=Baxter |first2=R. Scott |date=2006 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-4686-5 |pages=25 |language=en}}</ref> He later bought the neighboring operation, Badger Mine and consolidated the companies into Hayward Mine (also known as Amador Mining Company).<ref name=":5" /> He is estimated to have mined more than US$12 million worth of gold from his mine, which ran as deep as 1,700 ft.<ref name=":5" /> The Old Eureka Mine portion changed hands many times, before its last owner Hetty Green who closed it in 1881.<ref name=":5" />
He also owned the Utica/Selkirk mine near Angels Camp where he mined quartz and gold.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Shields |first=Jeff |title=Hayward, Alvinza |url=https://silverhalloffame.com/bios/hayward-alvinza/ |access-date=2022-10-19 |website=Silver Hall of Fame |language=en}}</ref> In 1901, the near-vertical Utica quartz deposit; twice abandoned, and once believed so unworkable traded hands for just US$50;<ref name=":6" /> was said to have yielded the single richest gold deposit in California. After heavy investment, more than $7,000,000 in gold was removed from Utica, and up to $900,000 in gold bullion was extracted in a single month.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Millard |first=Bailey |date=November 1901 |title=The Extraordinary Story of the Utica Mine |work=Everybody's Magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b8VZAAAAYAAJ |via=Compiled in Tales of Old California, Castle Books, 1989}}</ref> In later life he mined silver.<ref name=":6" /> Hayward was a director and major stockholder of the Bank of California by 1865,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shoup |first=Laurence H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VCe2CFvu--cC |title=Rulers and Rebels: A People's History of Early California, 1769-1901 |publisher= iUniverse|year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4502-5590-5 |pages=211, 230 |language=en}}</ref> and in 1870 he was one of the original investors in the San Francisco City Gas Company, which would eventually become the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}
In 1867, the Union Mill and Mining Company was incorporated after the company had foreclosed, in order to relieve the Bank of California.<ref name=":2" /> The charter members of the incorporated mining company included Hayward, as well as, Darius Ogden Mills, William Sharon, William Chapman Ralston, Thomas Bell, Thomas Sunderland, Charles Bonner, and William Eustace Barron.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |url=http://www.nevadaobserver.com/The%20Comstock%20Milling%20Monopoly%20(1912).htm |title=From The History of Nevada |editor-last=Davis |editor-first=Sam P. |chapter=Comstock Milling Monopoly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061116071149/http://www.nevadaobserver.com/The%20Comstock%20Milling%20Monopoly%20(1912).htm |archive-date=2006-11-16}}</ref>
Hayward was part of a group of men that helped San Francisco's Lone Mountain Cemetery became the Laurel Hill Cemetery around 1867 with the filing of the articles of incorporation, others in the group including William Chapman Ralston, John Parrott, Henry Huntly Haight, Nicholas Luning, James Otis, Henry Mayo Newhall, and C. C. Butler.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dana |first=Julian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9J0dAAAAMAAJ |title=The Man who Built San Francisco: A Study of Ralston's Journey with Banners |date=1936 |publisher=Macmillan |pages=224 |language=en}}</ref>
Hayward was often called California's "first millionaire,"<ref>{{Cite news |date=1901-04-21 |title=Millionaire Seeks Advice of Mediums |pages=14 |work=The Kansas City Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111574183/millionaire-seeks-advice-of-mediums/ |access-date=2022-10-19}}</ref> and in his lifetime was frequently referred to as “the richest man in California.” Grandiose and eccentric by turns, Hayward turned even more strongly to Spiritualism and the occult in his later years, using mediums to predict business investments (with poor results).<ref>{{Cite news |date=1905-06-16 |title=Legal Fight for Spook Millions |pages=5 |work=The Star Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/44247289/legal-fight-for-spook-millions/ |access-date=2022-10-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1905-06-21 |title=Spooks and Mediums |pages=5 |work=Evening Sentinel (Santa Cruz, California) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/92509135/evening-sentinel/ |access-date=2022-10-19}}</ref>
== Death and legacy == He died on February 14, 1904, in San Francisco, California.<ref name=":0" /> Hayward is buried in Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.
After Hayward's death, the Hayward Park residence in San Mateo was converted into the Peninsula Hotel.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Zompolis |first=Gregory N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Y4A9uWMrAYC |title=San Mateo |date=2004 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-2956-1 |pages=2, 90, 118 |language=en}}</ref> The hotel had burned down in a 1920 fire.<ref name=":3" /> In c. 1912, the land was subdivided to create the a neighborhood named "Hayward Park;<ref name=":3" /> which also has a Caltrain station stop with the same name. The Hayward Building (also known as Kohl Building, or Alvinza Hayward Building; 1901), designed by architects George Percy and Willis Polk of Percy and Polk, is located at 400 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, and is still standing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=San Francisco Landmark #161: Alvinza Hayward Building |url=https://noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf161.asp |access-date=2022-10-19 |website=noehill.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Miller |first=Christine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNDhgEluBJEC |title=San Francisco's Financial District |date=2005 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-0-7385-2999-8 |pages=54 |language=en}}</ref>
The US Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System states the city of Hayward, California was named after him.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names/e91903d9-85b4-523d-969c-e481f2479e44/summary |title=Geographic Names Information System |publisher=U.S. Board on Geographic Names, U.S. Geological Survey |access-date=December 25, 2021}}</ref> This has been disputed by historians.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gudde |first=Erwin G. |title=California Place Names |edition=4th |year=1998}}</ref>
==Family life== Hayward married Charity Hathaway (1826–1905) in Wisconsin in the 1840s. They had a difficult relationship; their first son, James, was born in 1846, and would die of consumption at age 27. They divorced in 1878, the couple remarried again later that year only to separate again, living the rest of their lives apart.<ref name=":1" /> Only two of the couple's eight children survived to adulthood; six others died of mysterious respiratory ailments early in life, prompting recent speculation that Charity Hayward may have had a role in their demise.<ref>[http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=65610 San Mateo Daily Journal Could the poor woman have been a murderer?] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120912114127/http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=65610|date=2012-09-12}} at San Mateo Daily Journal</ref>
In 1860s, the Hayward family moved to San Mateo, California.<ref name=":1" /> He built Hayward Park (1880), his {{convert|800|acre|km2|adj=on}} Arts and Crafts-style estate, in San Mateo,<ref name=":3" /> which included a lake, race track, and deer park.<ref name=":1" />
== See also ==
* List of people associated with the California Gold Rush
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayward, Alvinza}} Category:1821 births Category:1904 deaths Category:19th-century American business executives in rail transportation Category:American businesspeople in mining Category:Burials at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park Category:People from San Mateo County, California Category:Businesspeople from San Francisco Category:People of the California Gold Rush