Santa
Clara County
Biographies
GEORGE
A. EDES
GEORGE A. EDES. In February, 1892, Morgan Hill noted the
advent of an energetic newspaper man in its midst, who, the following April,
supplemented his already extensive journalistic experience by starting the
Morgan Hill Sun. The Sun
grew apace, both as to volume and usefulness, and in the hands of so
progressive an editor as George A. Edes, became
a molding factor in the community. The
pressure of other business, including the duties of postmaster of Morgan Hill,
necessitated the sale of the Sun in
January, 1901, since which time Mr. Edes has
devoted his time uninterruptedly to the affairs of Uncle Sam.
Born in Foxcroft,
Piscataquis county, Me., August 18, 1840,
Mr. Edes comes honestly by his newspaper
ability, for his family have been thus employed ever since a remote ancestor
set the example through his connection with Benjamin Franklin, editor and
proprietor of the Philadelphia Gazette
from 1729 until 1742. Subsequent bearers
of the name have added their quota to the advancement of printing and
journalism, one of the most prominent being George V. Edes,
the father of George A. At the time
of his death in 1873, at the age of seventy-nine, the older Edes
was the oldest editor and printer in the United States, having been active in
business until a week before he died. He
was of Scotch extraction, and was born in Boston, Mass. In early life he was united in marriage with
Susan Wetherell, born in Norridgewock, Me., and who
survived him until 1886, at the age of eighty-five. Besides George A., who is the second of
the eight children born to his parents, those living are: Charles E., of Spokane, Wash., and who
was with Commodore Perry in the Japan expedition; Carrie F., of Foxcroft, Me., Henry of Spokane, Wash.; and Samuel D.,
of Foxcroft, Me.
Following upon his graduation at the old
Foxcroft Academy, George A. Edes
learned the printer’s trade, and while still young in years and experience
started out to see the world. After
various adventures in Wisconsin he started a newspaper business in Whitehall in
1875, and in 1877 located in Watertown, S. Dak.,
where he published a Republican paper for about eight years. It was while active with the Morgan Hill Sun that he was appointed postmaster of
Morgan Hill by President McKinley in May, 1897, which office he is filling with
a high degree of efficiency
During the present administration the local postoffice
department has witnessed many improvements, and nearly fifteen hundred people
profit by the addition of two rural delivery routes in the surrounding
country. Mr. Edes
is a prominent fraternalist, and is a member of the Kampeska Lodge No. 12, F. & A. M., of Watertown,
S. Dak., and a charter member of the Watertown
Chapter No. 13. He comes from
a Republican family, and is himself a lifelong member of that party. In January, 1875, Mr. Edes married Nettie M. Englesby,
who was born in Wisconsin in December, 1858.
Of this union there are two children, Vertie M.
and Clyde O. Both as a newspaper
man and postmaster, the work of Mr. Edes appeals
to the intelligent appreciation of his fellow townsmen, and in addition he is
known to be the possessor of high civic ideals, and of calm judgment in
political and other emergencies. Through
the exercise of tact and consideration he has escaped many of the opportunities
for making enemies in which both occupations bound, and his popularity and
influence may be said to rest rather upon fine personal traits, than upon his
espousal of any particular party.
[Inserted by D.
Toole.]
George A. Edes
Veteran
Newspaper Man Dies at Home in Oakland
Great
Uncle of Aged Editor Was an Associate of Benjamin Franklin at Boston
Oakland,
Oct. 14 – George A. Edes, a veteran newspaper
publisher and editor, died at his home here last night of cancer of the
throat. He was 69 years old. Mr. Edes came of a
family of editors. His great uncle was
associated with Benjamin Franklin in the publication of the Boston News
Letter. A first copy of that periodical,
together with the printer’s stick used by Franklin, forms one of the Edes family relics.
Mr. Edes came to California is 1860. He was associated at different times with
Horace Greeley, Mark Twain and other men of note in the journalistic
world. For nine years he was postmaster
at Morgan Hill, Santa Clara county, where he owned his
last paper, the Morgan Hill Sun.
Transcribed by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1333. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Donna Toole.