After Judah's untimely demise, the Associates took control of the Central Pacific operation and began the tedious process of laying track over the Sierra Nevada. Crocker, the operations man, bossed the project while his partners continued fundraising, scheming, and politicking. Stanford, who had proposed using Chinese immigrants as cheap laborers—and for whom Stanford University is named—was elected governor of California in 1862 while also serving as de facto president of the Central Pacific.
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