In 1837 Brannan had travelled the country as a journeyman printer, during which time he visited most of the States in the Union.
In 1842, he connected with the Mormons, and for several years published the New York Messenger for them. In 1846, then an elder in the Church of the Latter-day Saints, he organized a group of 220 Mormons to sail for and settle in San Francisco with the goal of establishing the Mormon Church in California. He didn't establish the church in California, but he added greatly to the growth and development of Northern California. On the ship, Brooklyn, which he chartered for $1200 per month, he brought a printing press, which was used to establish the California Star, the first newspaper in California.
Brannan started a store at Sutter's Fort in the fall of 1847 and benefitted greatly from the discovery of gold. During 1848 and 1849, sales at the store averaged $150,000 per month.
He is credited for spreading the news of the Gold Rush when, it is said, he ran through the streets of San Francisco waving a bottle of gold dust, yelling, "Gold! Gold!"). He also invested in real estate, which he then sold to those seeking to make their fortune in California. He is reputed to have been California's first millionaire. From the Daily Alta California:
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Valuable Improved Real FOR SALE, WITH A HANDSOME INCOME BY S. B R A N N A N, 422 Montgomery street. The 50 VARA LOT AND BUILDING on the southwest corner of Market and Fremont streets. The Lot 100 feet square, with eight brick stores, on the southeast corner of Second and Mission streets. The 50-vara Lot, less 22 feet by 67, with all the improvements, on the northeast cor. of Bush and Sansome street, 45 feet by 137-1/2 feet. WATER LOT--Pier No. 8, on Steuart, between MIssion and Howard. Lot on the east side of Frist street, eighty feet north of the corner of Folsom, 25 by 87 feet. Lot on the north side of Folsom, 87 feet East of the corner of Frist street |
In 1851 he visited Hawaii and bought extensive properties in Honolulu.
In 1853 he was elected State senator in California, and he was one of the founders of the first school in San Francisco. Also in 1853 -- in July --Brannan was elected President of the "California Pioneers".
Many of the most elegant structures in the city were built by him and there was scarcely an institution of public usefulness in which he was not associated. In 1868 he purchased from Abel Stearn extensive land tracts (one hundred and sixty thousand acres of land) in Los Angeles county, which resulted in the opening of extensive tracts of land to settlement by small farmers.
Later he became owner of valuable property in Nevada and several places in California. In Napa Valley, California, he became the proprietor of the Calistoga Hot Springs and a valuable estate of three thousand acres of land surrounding these springs.
Samuel Brannan lost most of his property and died a poor man in or near San Diego, Southern California.
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