San Francisco County
Biographies
EDWIN HAYDEN
EDWIN HAYDEN was born in Boston,
May 10, 1844.His parents, William and Susan
(Kimble) Hayden, were both natives
of Watertown, Massachusetts,
and the mother is still living, having reached the advanced age of ninety-two
years. She traces her ancestry back to the Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock.
The father` s ancestors were also early settlers in America. This worthy
couple had ten children, of whom six are now living. Edwin is the youngest of
the family, and was reared and educated in Boston.
Under
President Lincoln `s first call for 100,000 men to put down the rebellion,
young Hayden enlisted in Company H, Forty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer
Infantry. He was in his seventeenth year and measured but five feet and one and
a half inches, and because of his size could go only as a drummer boy. He was
in eighteen battles, mostly in North Carolina,
his regiment serving successively under Generals Burnside, Foster and
Stephenson. Of the thirty drummers and fifers who enlisted in his regiment,
only nine returned to be mustered out of the service at the close of the war,
Mr. Hayden being one of that number.
After
the war he came direct to San Francisco
and engaged in the fruit trade, in which he has continued up to the present
time. In 1865 he started a small fruit store on Fourth
street, and after
conducting it a year accepted a position as a salesman for Littlefield, Webb
& Co., then the largest commission house on the coast. Ten years later the
firm became Spear, Mead & Co., and for six years longer he retained his
connection with the house. During this time he handled a large proportion of
the dried fruit product of the State. In 1881 Mr. Hayden left them in order to
start the California Fruit Evaporating Company, in his enterprise being in partnership
with Mr. S. Kohlman. They began business at their
present location, 818 Battery street.
Theirs is the first and only establishment of the kind in the city. They have a
capacity of 2,500 pounds of green fruit per day, and during the season employ
from thirty to fifty hands. They grade and handle as high as a car-load of
French prunes per day, and ship 100 car-loads of dried fruit annually. Their
factory is two-stories and basement --30x 137 feet. The factory contains all
needed appliances for the evaporation of fruit by steam and hot air, the best
methods being employed. The quality of their fruits being unsurpassed, it finds
a ready market all over the United States.
Both Mr. Hayden and Kohlman are gentlemen of
integrity and ability, and are managing their establishment in a way that
reflects credit on their judgment and their enterprise.
Mr.
Hayden was married, in 1872 to Miss Hortense Taylor.
Their union was blessed with two children, Charles and Selma,
born in San Francisco. Mrs. Hayden
died in 1881. In 1887 he wedded Miss Josephine Loller,
and by her has one child, Edwin, also born in San
Francisco. Politically Mr. Hayden is a Democrat.
Transcribed by Kim Buck.
Source: "The Bay of San
Francisco," Vol. 2, Pages
495-496, Lewis Publishing
Co, 1892.
© 2006 Kim Buck.
California Biography Project
San Francisco County
California Statewide
Golden Nugget Library