William Sturgis (1782-1863)

He was born at Barnstable, Massachusetts, and started life as a sailor boy, employed for many years in, "that perilous enterprise, the North West Coast trade". While still a young man he was entrusted with the command of a ship and in 1810 went into business with John Bryant. From then until 1850, more than half of the trade carried on between the Pacific Northwest coast and China was operated by Bryant & Sturgis, and also substantial parts of the California hide trade too. They also acted  as investment managers for John Perkins Cushing when Cushing was in the railroad business in New York and Pennsylvania. By 1848, his fortune was estimated to stand at $1-million, making him one of the few millionaires in Massachusetts prior to the Civil War. In later life, he developed an in interest in political, literary and scientific subjects, and while on the North West coast he mastered several of the native languages. In the Massachusetts Legislature, he once replied using a native tongue, "to a pedant who was notorious for quoting Latin". In 1810, he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Davis, Judge and State Senator for Massachusetts, and they were the parents of five children.