According to the Dictionary of American Biography, (Charles Scribner & Sons, New York, 1930, p. 552) and supplemented by my recollection from earlier readings:

Charles Crocker was born Sept 16, 1822 in Troy, NY to Isaac Crocker, a merchant, and Eliza Wright, daughter of a Massachusetts farmer, "both of whom traced their lineage in this country back to the early seventeenth century."

"In 1836, the family moved to Marshall County Indiana," where in 1845 Charles "discovered a bed of iron ore and established a forge under the name Charles Crocker & Company." He sold that business to join the California gold rush along with two younger brothers, Clark & Henry. He found that it was more profitable to provide supplies, and so gave up mining to open a store in Sacramento in 1852. Later that year he briefly returned to Indiana where he married Mary A. Deming.

He soon became one of the wealthiest and most influential men in California. He was part of the group known in California history as the "Big Four." The others were Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins. They were also less favorably known as the "Robber Barrons." Among other things this group led the financing and construction of the Central Pacific Railroad as it pushed eastward to join the Union Pacific and complete the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah.

Charles supervised the actual construction. "A man of tremendous energy, whose strongest point lay in the supervision of large groups, Crocker was well fitted for the task." "It was through his efforts that the road was completed seven years ahead of the time allowed by the United States government." Of course Congress did have to pass a law to force the two railroad companies to join their tracks. They apparently hadn't included such instructions in the original law. Since they were being paid by the mile, they continued to lay track along side each other until ordered by Congress to connect.

Charles was known among the Chinese, who were specifically brought into California to work for the railroad as "Cholly Clocker."

"In addition to railroad interests, Crocker was concerned in real estate, banking and in industrial properties throughout California..." His San Francisco mansion is said to have cost $1.5 million. It was destroyed in the fire that resulted from the 1906 earthquake.

He died in Monterey in 1888, never having fully recovered from an accident in New York two years earlier.

His fortune was estimated at $40,000,000.

I am uncertain of whether he owned the bank, or if one of his brothers or sons did so. It was doubtless his money that provided the capital for the bank(s), although he may have set up brothers or sons to manage them. (I'll have to dig into this further.)

I'm not sure of the names of the bank prior to the 1960's. I recall at that time that it was called Crocker Anglo Bank and was localized in the Central California area. It later merged and became Crocker Citizens and was statewide. Finally it dropped the "Citizens" to become just Crocker Bank. The latter was swallowed up in a buy out (or "merger") with Well Fargo Bank several years ago.