Poniatowski was a French nobleman who was related to Napoleon and the last King of Poland. He married the sister (Sperry family) of W.H. Crocker, which was where Crocker got his "the Prince of Bankers and the Banker of Princes" label.

Poniatowski plays a key roll in bringing royal investments to California's Pacfic Gang. The prince was only in California for 10 years between 1892 and 1903.

Poniatowski's first deal was setup using financing from Crocker and the London branch of the Schiff family to buy mines in 1893. (note pge 164) He then put together a deal to build the Sierra Railroad into the Motherlode area where he had his mines in 1897.

He made contact with W.F. Pierce in 1895 who got Poniatowski interested in the electric business. Poniatowski used his financial connections to construct the Blue Lakes Powerhouse for Blue Lakes Water Company. Blue Lakes had taken over the Stockon Water Company in 1894, with Pierce as the president. Blue Lakes was in the business of sending Sierra water to Oakland.

Poniatowski then came up with his plan of building powerlines into S.F. Crocker went to Charles Coffin, president of General Electric, to work out the technical details of the project. This project, according to the PG&E bio, claims not to have been financed with Schiff or other European money... Interesting note that the bio specifically made this claim!!!

Crocker and Poniatowski formed a new company called Standard Electric Co (of W. Virginia) in 1897 to build the Electra hydro powerhouse. The project was completed in 1902 and was delivering power to the mines, Oakland and San Jose.

The Oakland power was sold to DeSalba and Martin's Oakland Gas Light and Heat Company, while the San Jose deal went to Crocker's San Jose Electric Improvement Company.

To take control of all the local power companies on the Peninsula, Crocker and Poniatowski formed the Consolidated Power and Light Company in 1902. This company merged San Mateo Electric Company, San Mateo Gas Light Company, Redwood City Electric Company and the Peninsula Lighting Company.

Just months later, Consolidated Power and Light was merged with San Jose Light and Power Company and Electric Improvement Company to formed United Gas & Electric Company. This new entity controlled power from San Jose to San Bruno.

The above properties were then again merged into the California Gas & Electric Company in 1904.

During this period, Poniatoski visited Elberon N.J., where he setup financial connections with the Schiff's and Kuhn and Loeb. At this time, Kuhn and Loeb was the investment bank for Europe's Royal families that was spending more than $1 billion a year in the U.S.

Kuhn and Loeb also just happened to be the financial backers of Ed Harriman, who had just bought control of Southern Pacific in 1901. The SP purchase included control of SP's Wells Fargo bank.

Poniatoski withdrew from active participation with Crocker in 1903 and went back to Europe.