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==Early life and career==

==Early life and career==

French was born on January 16, 1829 to Peter French and the former Sally Smith in Riverhead, New York, situated in Suffolk County. His father of Huguenot descent and Canadian, while his mother was the descendant of Dutch immigrants who settled in Orange County.<ref name=nytimesobit>February 4, 1896. [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/02/04/104109649.pdf S.B. FRENCH SELF SLAIN; Former Police Commissioner Found Dying In His Room at Home. POSSIBLY AS ACCIDENT, SOME TIME His Career as a Country Merchant, a Forty-Niner, and a Politician—Active in the Affairs of This City.] ''The New York Times''. Retrieved May 25, 2023.</ref> As a child, the family moved to Sag Harbor, where French received little education and began clerking for John Budd at the age of thirteen. He worked in the office of storekeeper and "typical country merchant" Thomas Brown one and a half years later, though caught a whaling fever then prevalent among teenagers.<ref name=nytimesobit/>

French was born on January 16, 1829 to Peter French and the former Sally Smith in Riverhead, New York, situated in Suffolk County. His father of [[Huguenot]] descent and [[Canadian]], while his mother was the descendant of [[Dutch]] immigrants who settled in Orange County.<ref name=nytimesobit>February 4, 1896. [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/02/04/104109649.pdf S.B. FRENCH SELF SLAIN; Former Police Commissioner Found Dying In His Room at Home. POSSIBLY AS ACCIDENT, SOME TIME His Career as a Country Merchant, a Forty-Niner, and a Politician—Active in the Affairs of This City.] ''The New York Times''. Retrieved May 25, 2023.</ref> As a child, the family moved to Sag Harbor, where French received little education and began clerking for John Budd at the age of thirteen. He worked in the office of storekeeper and "typical country merchant" Thomas Brown one and a half years later, though caught a whaling fever then prevalent among teenagers.<ref name=nytimesobit/>

Due to the fever, his father Peter granted a voyage for the youthful Stephen to embark on a blubber and bone voyage—boarding the Acasta of Sag Harbor, he explored [[Brazil]], [[Chile]], and much of the South Pacific over a span of three years, preparing to devote a life to whaling until news of the senior Peter's death reached him in 1847 upon returning home.<ref name=nytimesobit/> His mother's desolate loneliness, due to an older brother of French likewise running off from the family for sea exploration, led him to promise remaining at home, where he worked as a merchant.

Due to the fever, his father Peter granted a voyage for the youthful Stephen to embark on a blubber and bone voyage—boarding the Acasta of Sag Harbor, he explored [[Brazil]], [[Chile]], and much of the South Pacific over a span of three years, preparing to devote a life to whaling until news of the senior Peter's death reached him in 1847 upon returning home.<ref name=nytimesobit/> His mother's desolate loneliness, due to an older brother of French likewise running off from the family for sea exploration, led him to promise remaining at home, where he worked as a merchant.

===Continued adventurous journey: Gold Rush years===

===Continued adventurous journey: Gold Rush years===

Despite "almost" finding reconciliation with business life at a store, French was enthralled by the sensational California Gold Rush; sailing:<ref name=nytimesobit/>

Despite "almost" finding reconciliation with business life at a store, French was enthralled by the sensational [[California]] Gold Rush; sailing:<ref name=nytimesobit/>

{{cquote|...from Sag Harbor Feb. 8, 1849, in the ship Salina, with ninety adventurous comrades, French reached [[San Francisco]] exactly six months later to acquire and lose half a dozen fortunes in less than five years.

{{cquote|...from Sag Harbor Feb. 8, 1849, in the ship Salina, with ninety adventurous comrades, French reached [[San Francisco]] exactly six months later to acquire and lose half a dozen fortunes in less than five years.