Santa
Clara County
Biographies
EDGAR POMEROY
Civic,
military and business credit are reflected upon the city of San Jose by Edgar
Pomeroy, for fifty years a resident within these borders and during all that
time a promoter of her substantial progress.
Upon his breast gleams the emblem of the Legion of Honor,
and it has never been more worthily conferred.
He gained his rank as a courageous and fearless Indian fighter in
Arizona and New Mexico during the Civil war, his political prominence as deputy
in the county clerk’s office for fourteen years, and his business standing as
an abstract agent, and one of the incorporators, and at present
a director of the San Jose Abstract company.
He is one of the best posted abstracters in the state of
California. Withal he is modest,
unassuming and courteous, and the processor of old-time grace of expression,
drawing around him through the years noble friendships
and increasing honor.
When
William the Conqueror, claiming to have received a promise of the throne of
England from his childless kinsman, Edward the confessor, left Normandy,
France, and arrived on English shores September 28, 1060, his train of soldiers
included a remote progenitor of the Pomeroy family. This sire supposedly participated in the
battle of Hastings, fought the following October 14, and which resulted in Williams’s
assumption of the throne around which surged the seething happenings of his
mature life. A later ancestor, tiring of
the religious and other limitations of England, crossed the sea in the
seventeenth century, and allied his forces with the Pilgrims of New
England. His children scattered to
different parts of the east, and Charles Pomeroy, the grandfather of Edgar, was
born in New York state, where he pursued a commendable agricultural career,
eventually settling in Montgomery county, where his
son, Charles Watrous, the father of Edgar, was born April 8, 1808. Finding farming an uncongenial occupation,
Charles Watrous turned his attention to merchandising and manufacturing, in
time locating in Indiana, where he operated different manufacturing concerns,
and where he ran an iron foundry in La Porte for many years. He married
Permelia Valentine, a native of Michigan, who was of Holland extraction. Unquestionably Edgar Pomeroy inherits his
martial tendencies from the maternal side, for his grandfather, John Valentine,
fed the flame of patriotism by service in the war of 1812, in which he attained
the rank of captain while his maternal great-grandfather stacked his musket on
the battlefields of the Revolution.
Capt. John Valentine survived the danger of shot ad shell, and the
rigors of a long agricultural career, in time locating in the beautiful city of
San Jose, where he passed to his reward in his ninety-fourth year. He married Sallie McNeil.
While his
father was engaged in manufacturing enterprises in Mishawaka, St Joseph county, Ind., Edgar Pomeroy was born October 21 1841. Of a family of eight children, he is the
second of three surviving sons, his oldest and youngest brothers, AE. And
George, being at present engaged in the real estate business in Los
Angeles. When Edgar
was a lad of eight, in 1849, his prosperous father, listening with willing ears
to the tales of good fortune on the western coast, closed up his business and
immigrated to California by way of the Isthmus. After a fairly successful mining experience
on the Feather river he engaged in ranching
in Tehama county, and in other occupations in Shasta, Sacramento and other
counties in the state. He became interested in railroading, and with Crocker,
Stanford and other financial giants on the coast, assisted in the construction
of the first railroad out of Sacrament. About 1854 he located in San Jose, purchased the San Jose foundry
on the corner of First and San Antonio streets, and ran the same for several
years. He possessed energy and
resource was broad-minded and progressive, and naturally became identified with
affairs in general in Santa Clara county. He was one of the organizers of the Bank of
San Jose, served as county treasurer a couple of terms, was councilman for
several years, and a member of the board of education. His last business association was a secretary
of the Bank of San Jose, which office he filled until failing eyesight
compelled his resignation from active business in 1892, at the age of
eighty-four. For several years he has
made his home with his sons in San Jose and Los Angeles, where he is highly
esteemed for the breadth and usefulness of his life, and for the integrity and
ability which have characterized his many undertakings. Since the early ‘40s he has been a member of
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has been active and has
attained to past noble grand. In
politics he is a Republican.
Edgar
Pomeroy owes his early education to the public schools. His father having become established in the
west, he followed him by way of Nicaragua in the winter of 1852, being
accompanies by his mother, and his maternal grandfather, Capt. John Valentine,
arriving in San Francisco January 3, 1853.
After the family removal to San Jose in 1854 he attended the public
schools, the University of the Pacific and the Santa Clara College, the latter
for about three years. When the Civil
war broke out in 1861 he was a strong, energetic youth of twenty, eager for an
opportunity to prove his worth, both physical and mental, and glad of the
chance to serve his country in any capacity, however humble or great. Enlisting in Company D, First California
Volunteer Infantry, he was mustered in at San Francisco September 24, 1861, as
sergeant, and proceeded at once to the Presidio, where
the regiment embarked in a steamer for San Pedro. Marching from there to El Paso, Texas, he
participated in the war against the Apaches and Navajos, becoming first
lieutenant and rendering efficient service until his discharge at Fort Whipple,
Ariz., September 24, 1864. Returning on
foot to San Pedro, he soon afterward reached San Jose, where he spent some
weeks in recuperating from his long and strenuous war service.
In 1866
Mr. Pomeroy was given a position in the county clerk’s office in San Jose, and
thereafter served as deputy for fourteen years.
In the meantime he became interested in abstracting and since 1880 has
been actively employed in this line of work.
In 1887 he started a set of abstract books, and in 1891 he helped to
incorporate the San Jose Abstract Company, with which he has since been
actively connected, both as director and secretary. Various lines of activity in the town have
elicited his interest, and he is often heard of in connection with movements
for the benefit of the city or county.
He is popular in the Observatory Lodge, I.O.O.F., and in Phil Sheridan
Post No.7, G.A.R., of which he is past commander. For a number of years he has been a member of
the California Commandery, Loyal Legion, of San Francisco. He is also identified with the Santa Clara
County Pioneers.
In San
Jose Mr. Pomeroy married Miss Lizzie O. Putney, who was a native of the east
and died in San Jose. Four children were
born of this marriage: Charles E., in San Francisco; and Sheldon P., Francis
W.., and Lottie Cl, who died in San Jose.
By his second marriage, which was celebrated in San Jose and united him
with Miss Belle Cunningham, a native of Calfironia,
one child, Earl Spencer, has been born.
As a soldier, politician, business man, and enterprising citizen. Mr. Pomeroy commands the esteem due all
strong and fearless natures who press persistently forward to their goal. The passing years have unfolded hidden depths
of mind and heart, and furnished additional assurances of his superiority and
substantiality. He gained his start in
small things, and flinds his greatest success in the
midst of the large things of a cosmopolitan and representative community. He is worthy of the traditions of the state
from which he hails, the distinction of the name he bears, and the high place
he fills so nobly and well.
Transcribed by
Louise E. Shoemaker, June 8, 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 638-641. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Louise E. Shoemaker.