22 Facts About Phineas Banning

Phineas Banning was an American businessman, financier and entrepreneur.

Phineas Banning's drive and ambition laid the foundations for what would become one of the busiest ports in the world.

Besides operating a freighting business, Banning operated a stage coach line between San Pedro and Wilmington, and later between Banning, California, which was named in his honor, and Yuma, Arizona.

Phineas Banning was appointed a brigadier general of the First Brigade of the militia, and used the title of general for the rest of his life.

Phineas Banning was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the seventh of 11 children to John Alford Phineas Banning and Elizabeth Lowber.

Phineas Banning arrived in San Pedro, California, in 1851, after a long land and sea journey that included crossing the isthmus of Panama before taking another ship to California.

Phineas Banning was elected to a one-year term on the Los Angeles Common Council, the governing body of that city, beginning May 10,1858, and ending May 9,1859.

Phineas Banning was not content to consolidate business interests in staging.

Phineas Banning began expanding the harbor and docks at San Pedro from their beginnings as illegal exchange sites for mission contraband during the Spanish and Mexican eras, and made them efficient enterprises.

Phineas Banning invested the profits from his trade networks into the development of a more sophisticated port complex and for the creation of roads, telegraphs, and other connections to Los Angeles.

In 1856, Phineas Banning married Rebecca Sanford, the younger sister of his first California employer.

Family life was relatively stable in the Banning household, and Phineas was a doting, if distant father to his three boys, who grew up around the expanding docks in San Pedro.

Rebecca Phineas Banning died in childbirth in 1868, and the infant, Vincent Phineas Banning, died as well.

In 1870, Phineas Banning married Mary Hollister, a wealthy heiress whose family lent their name to the city of Hollister, California.

Phineas Banning was an avowed Unionist and was friends with Winfield Scott Hancock when Hancock was stationed in Los Angeles.

The title was purely honorary, with no basis in military service, yet Phineas Banning insisted on being referred to as "General Phineas Banning" for the remainder of his life.

The first breakwater was built for the nascent port in 1873, and Phineas Banning began to work for the Southern Pacific as a railroad agent.

Phineas Banning was in poor health for two years prior to his death, suffering from liver and kidney problems.

Phineas Banning's disease was aggravated by an accident in San Francisco, where he was knocked down and run over by an express wagon.

Phineas Banning died at age 54 at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco.

Phineas Banning is interred in the Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles.

Phineas Banning's legacies lived on, and his dreams were realized with the federal approval of the Port of Los Angeles in the early 20th century, and the completion of a full breakwater in 1914, creating one of the world's busiest harbors.