And even admitting all that his traducers charge, after death had silenced his voice forever, I would still say that he deserved a statue in Golden Gate Park as the most effective friend the State of California ever had. But before I close this story I hope to make it plain that a cruel wrong was done his memory and let the truth come out at last. CHAPTER XVII. SHARON, TOO, BECOMES ASSOCIATE OF FAMOUS PIONEER; THIS CHAPTER TELLS HOW GREAT PANIC WAS AVERTED. _Ralston Lays Foundation for Huge Fortune of D. O. Mills by Making Him a Bank President_ Ralston had two business associates--I might almost call them familiars--William Sharon and D. O. Mills. D. O. Mills was a man of some fortune, worth perhaps half a million dollars. He was about to leave for the East to settle down somewhere under his own vine and fig tree, when Ralston took him up. The latter was just organizing the Bank of California, had no ambition for titular dignities, and offered Mills the place of president. He promised that the job would be a sinecure--that he would do all the work. Mills accepted. That was the foundation of his huge fortune. But he was a mighty cautious speculator in those days. He tried his hand at a number of ventures, sometime invested large sums, but always required a guaranty against loss. Strangely enough, this used to be given him often, because of the conservatism associated with his name. That, however, did not last long. He became a bold, ambitious, original operator on his own account. He had fine personal habits, but was just the opposite of Ralston--unemotional, cool-headed and austere. [Illustration: D. O. MILLS First President Bank of California, a financier of national repute] Sharon was quite a different character. He was from the same part of the Northwest as J. D. Fry, an uncle of Mrs. Ralston, and so received a favorable introduction to the famous financier. Ralston sent Sharon to Virginia City during the early flush times as an agent for his mining interests, and when the Bank of California was organized and a branch located on the Comstock Lode, Sharon became manager, a position of great prominence and power. He was a daring, spectacular plunger, though a very shrewd one, made big money from the outset and with his general foreknowledge of conditions really took no chance at all on great stock market deals. With unexampled rapidity, he accumulated a fortune of millions. Having no pet hobbies to interfere with accumulating money, before the ’60s were over both Mills and Sharon probably possessed larger fortunes than their chief.