San Francisco County
Biographies
EBEN GARLAND CRAM
EBEN GARLAND CRAM, of the
real-estate firm of Beardsley & Cram, of Oakland, was born in Bradley, on
the Penobscot river, Maine, April 23, 1849, a son of
Thomas A. and Caroline Hall (Garland) Cram, both of New England descent for
many generations. The Cram family is believed to be of the early immigration
represented by two brothers who settled in New Hampshire. Thomas Ashman Cram, a
farmer was born in 1812 and died in 1889, at his home in Maine. His wife is
still living, in Bradley, that State, born in 1814. The grandfather, Ashman
Cram, was a school teacher in that section and lived to be eighty years of age,
dying in 1859. The grandmother Garland, by birth Brackett, was also of a Maine
family, and died in middle life. Mr. T. A. Cram had nine children, of whom
eight grew up to maturity. One daughter died at the age of fourteen years;
another died in 1886, and Elizabeth, by marriage Mrs. Hugh Munns,
of Bradley, died at the age of fifty-two years. One son, Ashman Batchelder Cram, is a lumberman at Snowhornish,
Washington, and has one son. Two other brothers, in Bradley, have about eight
children.
The
subject of this sketch began work in a sawmill at the
age of thirteen years. After he was sixteen years old he went to school at Oak
Hill Seminary, Bucksport, Maine, four terms, paying his own way be working in
the lumber mills during the intervals of school. At the age of twenty years he
taught school one winter in Bradley, and another in Carmel, Maine. In 1871 he
went to the foot of the White mountains, in New
Hampshire, and engaged in lumbering one year. In 1873 he became cashier and
bookkeeper in the clothing store of F. H. Blackman & Co., a well-known
house in Bay City, Michigan, and remained with them about three years. In 1875
he entered, in the same capacity, the office of the lumber firm of Ford, Smith
& Co., of Bangor, Michigan, near Bay City.
While
in the latter city he enlisted in the Peninsular Company, Third Regiment of
Michigan State Troops, and while in that company he was Captain of the Rifle
Team. He was a distinguished marksman in a company of distinguished marksmen,
and remained with them until he left for California in 1877, arriving here May
6.
Since
his location here he has been chiefly engaged in real estate. In 1884 he was
for a time the deputy in the Recorder’s office. In politics he has been the
Republican Committeeman for the Third Ward several terms. In 1877 he was a
member of the firm of W. P. Haines & Co., about a year or more. Then he
withdrew and operated alone for four or five years, and then, in 1887, he
formed a partnership with J. S. Beardsley, establishing the firm of Beardsley
& Cram. Mr. Beardsley has been in the business several years. He was
formerly of the firm of Beardsley & Lloyd.
Mr.
Cram was married in Oakland, in 1886, to Miss Adeline Dolly Jones, an
elocutionist, who was born in California, graduated at the Oakland high school,
in elocution, as a pupil of Edna Snell Folsom. She is a daughter of Thomas
Jones, a miner of Calaveras. They have one child, Zoe
Xariffa Cram, who was born September 18, 1890; they
lost their first child January 6, 1889, named Zana Xariffa.
Transcribed
by Elaine Sturdevant.
Source: "The
© 2006 Elaine Sturdevant.