Samuel Benford Steele was a real person, actually -- not actually as pompous as Rosa made him out to be here, but he was definitely one of the major forces behind civilizing the gold rush. Never a governor, but he was a military commander in the Boer War and WWI, and was eventually knighted.
And Scrooge is indeed awesome in his own way. Perhaps I should dig out some Carl Barks comics to illustrate the foundation of the Duck universe a little better...