The ancestor of the bank was the banking firm of Garrison, Morgan, Fretz & Ralston, established in San Francisco in January 1856 by a group that included Ralston,
Cornelius K. Garrison and R.S. Fretz. Ralston established the Bank of California in 1864 when he sold shares to 22 of the state's leading businessmen for $100 a share. The bank opened on July 4, 1864, with
Darius Ogden Mills as president and Ralston as cashier;
Louis McLane was on the board of directors. A branch was opened in
Gold Hill, Nevada, near
Virginia City, on September 4, 1864.
William Sharon was the bank's longtime
Nevada agent. Built of stone quarried on nearby
Angel Island in
San Francisco Bay, the Bank of California Building at the northwest corner of California and Sansome streets in San Francisco was said to be "one of the handsomest structures on the coast…" The Bank of California financed a number of mining operations of the
Comstock Lode, and
repossessed some mines when their owners
defaulted, and ultimately generated enormous profits as a result. However, Ralston sometimes lent money to mine owners in circumstances that would inevitably lead to default and repossession. At the height of their power, Ralston and his "Ring" (as his associates were known) were able to exert
monopolistic influence over sections of commerce and industry in San Francisco and in Virginia City. In July 1869, Ralston averted a run on the bank by exchanging nearly $1 million worth of gold bars for an equivalent value in gold coin from the United States Sub-Treasury in San Francisco. The transfer was carried out in the middle of the night by two of Ralston's associates, Asbury Harpending and Maurice Dore. When the bank opened in the morning, the sight of tray after tray of gold coin at the tellers' windows quashed any thought by depositors of mounting a run on the bank. Mills retired as president of the Bank of California in October 1873 and was succeeded by Ralston, who kept Mills on the board of directors for the prestige of his name. At a time of volatile trading of Nevada mining stocks, a run on the Bank of California occurred on Thursday, August 26, 1875. The bank failed, and Ralston was ruined. It was Alvord who, in 1887, warned
James C. Flood of signs of irregularities at the Nevada Bank, enabling Flood to avert the collapse of the Nevada Bank following the speculation of its cashier in the wheat market. Alvord was president of the Bank of California until his death in San Francisco on December 21, 1904. In January 1905,
Homer S. King left Wells Fargo & Company to assume the presidency of the Bank of California. In 1910, the Bank of California incorporated the San Francisco National Bank, the successor to the bank founded by
Peder Sather.
Merger with Union Bank On April 1, 1996, the bank merged with Union Bank to form
Union Bank of California, becoming the fourth largest commercial bank in California. In 2008, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, and was renamed
MUFG Union Bank. At the time, Union Bank of California was one of the 25 largest banks in the United States. ==Branch buildings==