Santa
Clara County
Biographies
WALTER J. EDMANS
Many generations of the Edmans family lived and labored in County Kent, England.
There John Edmans, Sr., engaged in the manufacture of
chairs until his death. Under his oversight his son and namesake, who was also
a native of Kent, learned the trade of a chairmaker
and cabinetmaker, which he followed after coming to the United States in 1866.
Of recent years he has been retired from business pursuits, making his home in
Troy, N. Y. By his marriage to Sarah, daughter of John Gurney, he was united
with another old family of Kent, where Mrs. Edmans
was born and reared; her death occurred in Troy, N. Y. Of her six sons and two
daughters all are living but one son and one daughter, Walter J., who was sixth
in order of birth, being the only one in California. Born at Deal, County Kent,
England, July 18, 1843, he received a public school education in his native
town and there learned the trade of a cabinet-maker. During the fall of 1860 he
sought a home in the United States, and immediately after his arrival in Troy,
N. Y., was fortunate in securing employment in a planning mill. That position
he held until he entered the service of the Union as a soldier, volunteering in
December, 1863, in Company D, Tenth New York Artillery, assigned to the Army of
the Potomac. With his regiment he participated in all the engagements of the
army from the battle of Cold Harbor through the siege of Petersburg and until
the close of the war, his honorable discharge being granted at Philadelphia in
June of 1865. On leaving the government service he spent a year in Cathage, Jefferson county, N. Y.,
and then returned to Troy, where in 1867 he started a planning mill, where,
under the title of the Troy Novelty Works, he manufactured all kinds of
woodwork and built up a large trade.
For many years Mr. Edmans continued at the head of this business, but in 1890
he sold out and came to California, where for a year he followed carpentering
in San Francisco. On his removal to San Jose, in 1891, he took up contracting
and building, in which he has since engaged. In 1902 his son, Frank R., became
his partner and the business is now conducted under the name of Edmans & Son. Among the residences for which he has had
the contract may be mentioned those of Messrs Hatcher, Maynard, Harrenstein, Ginty and Bercovich. As a contractor he is efficient and reliable,
taking the greatest pains with every job, whether large or small. On the
organization of the San Jose Builders’ Exchange he became one of its charter
members and his son, Frank T., is now its secretary. In addition to his
business interests he owns a cattle ranch of six hundred acres near Mount
Hamilton and there carries on a stock business. Ever since attaining his
majority he has voted with the Republican party.
Fraternally he is connected with the Masonic Order, retaining membership in the
blue lodge (sic) at Troy, N. Y. His days of army service are borne in memory
through his membership in the John A. Dix Post, G. A. R. His son, F. T. Edmans, is a member of the Friendship Lodge No. 210, F.
& A. M., of San Jose, Cal.
The family residence of Mr. Edmans is situated at No. 227 S. Fourth street.
During his residence in Troy, N. Y., he was united in marriage with Miss Julia
A. Palmer, a native of New York and a member of the Baptist Church. They became
the parents of six children, of whom four sons are living, Oscar and Lulu
having died in San Jose in 1903 and 1898, respectively. The oldest son, George,
is employed in a planning mill; the second son is his father’s partner; Watson
is also living in San Jose, and the youngest son Walter, Jr., is engaged in
ranching.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1415. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.