James Ben Ali Haggin

James Ben Ali Haggin
James Ben Ali Haggin
Born	Template:Birth date; Harrodsburg, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	September 12, 1914 (aged 91); Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Lawyer, rancher, investor, art enthusiast, Thoroughbred horse breeder and racer
Known for	Leading figure in Thoroughbred horse breeding and racing; co-founder of Hearst, Haggin, Tevis and Co.

James Ben Ali Haggin (December 9, 1822 – September 12, 1914) was a distinguished American lawyer, rancher, investor, art enthusiast, and a leading figure in Thoroughbred horse breeding and racing. He accumulated considerable fortune following the California Gold Rush and had become a multi-millionaire by the year 1880.

Life

Hailing from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Haggin was a descendant of one of Kentucky’s early settler families and traced his lineage to Ibrahim Ben Ali, an early Turkish-American pioneer. He completed his education at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, before embarking on a career in law.

In October 1850, Haggin teamed up with fellow Kentuckian Lloyd Tevis to establish a legal practice in Sacramento; they later moved their operations to San Francisco in 1853. Haggin constructed an elegant mansion in Nob Hill that became the initial repository for his family’s art collection, which eventually formed the foundation of the Haggin Museum located in Stockton, California.

Both Haggin and Tevis married sisters from the family of Colonel Lewis Sanders, a Kentuckian who had settled in California. Together, they acquired the Rancho Del Paso land grant near Sacramento and made substantial investments in mining ventures alongside partner George Hearst. Their firm, Hearst, Haggin, Tevis and Co., evolved into one of the largest mining corporations in the United States, managing prominent operations such as the Ontario silver mine in Utah, the Homestake Mine in South Dakota, and collaborating with Marcus Daly on the Anaconda Copper Company in Montana.

The James Ben Ali Haggin Papers (1887–1914) are preserved at the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

Thoroughbred racing

In 1859, Haggin acquired the Rancho Del Paso horse farm near Sacramento, California, transforming it into a premier facility for horse breeding and Thoroughbred racing, with horses competing across the nation. By 1905, he discontinued breeding activities there to concentrate on his Elmendorf Farm estate in Lexington, Kentucky, which he had purchased in 1897 and expanded into the largest horse breeding operation in the U.S. during his lifetime until his death in 1914.

Major racing successes

Haggin's colt Tyrant secured victories in both the esteemed Withers and the Belmont Stakes in 1885, part of America’s Triple Crown series. The subsequent year saw his colt Ben Ali win the prestigious 1886 Kentucky Derby. At Rancho Del Paso, he bred notable Belmont Stakes winners including Comanche in 1893 and Africander in 1903.

Legacy

The Ben Ali Stakes at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington commemorates his Kentucky Derby-winning horse.^[1]
Montana’s Anaconda Range features Mount Haggin (10,607 ft / 3,233 m), named in honor of James Ben Ali Haggin.

Personal life

As the oldest child of Terah Temple and Adeline (Ben Ali) Haggin—herself a descendant of Turkish army officer Ibrahim Ben Ali—Haggin was part of a family of eight siblings.

On December 28, 1846, he wed Eliza Jane Sanders from Natchez, Mississippi; together they had five children before her death in 1894. Later, on December 30, 1897, at age seventy-five, he married twenty-eight-year-old Margaret Voorhies, who was a niece of his first wife.

Haggin passed away on September 12, 1914, at his residence in Newport, Rhode Island and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in New York.

His grandson James Ben Ali Haggin III became known as a portrait artist and stage designer. Another grandson, Richard Lounsbery, was a businessman and amateur painter who founded the Richard Lounsbery Foundation. Descendants involved in Thoroughbred breeding and racing include Louis Lee Haggin II from Kentucky and William Haggin Perry from Virginia.

External links

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