San Francisco County
Biographies
CAPT. NATHANIEL DAMON
CAPT. NATHANIEL DAMON. The name of Capt. Nathaniel Damon
is connected with one of the earliest warehouse, storage and freighting
enterprises on San Francisco hay. Before Fitchburg sprang into existence, near
which he erected his first buildings, or the level plain had been relieved of
monotony by improvements, he realized that the region would soon become a
splendid grain and produce center, and that these commodities would have to be
transported to the market in San Francisco. He had a little capital acquired in
the mines along the Fraser river, in British Columbia,
whither he went directly after arriving in San Francisco by way of Panama in
1851, and in addition there remained some of the money which he had carefully
hoarded in his native town of Pembroke, Mass., where he was born
July 27, 1829.
Mr. Damon was not entirely satisfied with his first
selection of a business site, and soon after, in 1861, purchased the forty acres
which now comprise Damon’s Landing, and to which he moved in 1862. In those
far-off days no one was better posted regarding the arrival of settlers, the
extent of their possessions, or the kind of produce which they favored, and as
he had few competitors in the storing and shipping line, and as his facilities
were remarkable, considering the time and place, he gained a large per cent of
the freighting trade. From a small beginning he became the best known shipper
of that side of the bay, and to aid him he built and owned three vessels plying
to and from San Francisco. When success seemed assured and his occupation had
become both congenial and paying, he returned to Massachusetts in 1856, and in
March of the same year married Laura M. Tillson,
a native of Halifax, Mass., who returned to the coast in 1859. Together Mr. and
Mrs. Damon worked for a common good, economized in their expenditures, and
made a comfortable home for themselves and children, and fortunately were
permitted to spend many years of their lives together. The death of
Mr. Damon, January 3, 1899, at the age of seventy, was the first
break in a happy household, but to those he left behind remained the rich
heritage of a noble life, the memory of a man who was integrity itself, and who
went among his fellow men with his heart in the right place, and his purse ever
open to relieve the distress of those who had not improved their opportunities
as well as he had. He had just such rugged simplicity and honesty as his
business and time called for; and in a country where right and wrong were
matters of personal convenience, rather than moral conviction, his word carried
weight and influence, and his whole life furnished an example of courage,
faithfulness and sincerity.
For forty years the wife of Mr. Damon has lived on the
old home place. While doing her work and rearing her children, she has observed
carefully and intelligently, and has been a wise spectator of the many changes
which have swept over San Francisco and vicinity since she arrived here in
1859. Mrs. Damon comes of an old New England family which treasured the
earnestness and loyalty of the Puritans, and in her family she has taught and practiced those valuable lessons which recognize no middle
road in business or social intercourse. Her four sons, George E.,
Herbert E., Joseph T. and Walter K., are all interested in the
business of Nathaniel Damon & Sons, although the two youngest are managers
and assume the responsibility of the warehouses and shipping. Their success and
progressive spirit have resulted in many changes in the affairs at Damon’s
Landing, the warehouses have been enlarged, new methods adopted, and to-day the
business is one of the best representatives of its kind along the Pacific. The
firm owns a sailing vessel of sixty tons, and ships grain, lumber, iron and
various products. The sons inherit their father’s integrity and reliability, as
well as his good name, and also the advantage of a business which has its
foundation in the beginning of civilization on the coast. In politics
Mr. Damon was a Democrat and had served several years as a trustee of
Lockwood district.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard 09 May 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 595-596. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie Hassard.
San Francisco County Biographies