Caius Tacitus Ryland

Named in honor of a noted Roman historian and senator, Caius Tacitus Ryland was born in Missouri on June 30, 1826. His father, a noted Missouri jurist named John F. Ryland (1797-1873) married twice and fathered 18 children! He also had an aptitude for giving his offspring odd names from history, including Erasmus, Xenophon, Manville and last but not least, Caius Tacitus. As an adolescent, C.T. Ryland was educated in the local schools of Lexington County, Missouri.

  In 1849, gold was discovered in California, and Ryland (like so many other young men of the time) threw caution to the wind and journeyed to California to seek his fortune. He settled in San Jose, and shortly thereafter set up his own law practice.

 During the early 1850s Ryland became involved in railroad interests in California and served as the director of the first railroad line in the state (it ran from San Jose to San Francisco) until its eventual sale to the Central Pacific Company. 

 Aside from his business pursuits, Ryland also began to dabble in politics around this time, and was elected to a seat in the California State Assembly in 1855. He was elected to the assembly for a second time in 1867 and served as its Speaker from 1868-1869. While continuing with his earlier law practice, Ryland continued to be active in political affairs during his later years, serving as the Chairman of the Democratic State Convention of 1876.

 One of Ryland's last forays into the political arena was in 1888, when he served as the vice president of the National Democratic Convention which re-nominated Grover Cleveland for President. 

 C.T. Ryland died in San Jose on December 5, 1897. The sketch of him above appeared in his obituary published in the San Francisco Call a day after his death. A portion of that obituary is shown below. If you read closely, you'll notice the paper misstates his age, mentioning that Ryland died in his sixty-third year, when in actuality he was age 71.

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