Sam Brannan, founder of Yuba City, was a California pioneer and original ’49er, born in Saco, Maine, on March 2, 1819, and died in Escondido, California, on May 14, 1889. He led 238 Mormons in the ship Brooklyn around Cape Horn to Yerba Buena Cove, now San Francisco, arriving on July 31, 1846. On July 27, 1849, he purchased 2500 acres on the west bank of the Feather River from Capt. John Sutter, and on Sept. 16, 1849, surveyed and laid out the townsite of Yuba City. Brannan became California’s first millionaire, was one of the chief financiers of the Central Pacific Railroad, and founded California’s first successful commercial bank.