Tuolumne
County
Biographies
CHARLES HOMER SEGERSTROM
Charles
Homer Segerstrom figures prominently in financial circles of the Sacramento
Valley as president of the First National Bank and the Tuolumne County Bank of
Sonora, with which institutions he has been officially identified since
1915. He was born in Jarnberget,
Sweden, January 1, 1880, his parents being Charles John and Britta Christine
(Anderson) Segerstrom, who were also natives of Sweden, the former born June
29, 1856, and the latter March 6, 1858. They
arrived in the United States May 3, 1882.
Charles H. Segerstrom attended school near Prentice, Wisconsin, to the
second grade, then continued the work of the grammar grades at the Longfellow
school in Merriam Park, Minnesota, and also attended school in St. Paul, that
state. In 1897 he entered the University
of Southern California at Los Angeles, being graduated from the law department
of that institution in 1902. He was
admitted to the California bar in 1901 and following his graduation worked as a
law book salesman in Ohio and adjoining states for about one year. On returning to the Golden state he located
in Sonora and purchased the abstract business of Charles G. Bacon, forming the
Sonora Abstract & Title Company, which he conducted until 1907. During the succeeding eight years he operated
the Dutch-Sweeney Mines, which in 1915 he sold to the Pacific Coast Gold Mining
Company. In December, 1915 he was
elected vice president and cashier of the First National Bank of Sonora and the
Tuolumne County Bank, continuing in the dual official capacity until chosen
president of both institutions in 1930.
Mr. Segerstrom is a member of the American Bar Association, being a
lawyer as well as financier, but is not engaged in active practice. He is not only the executive head of the two
financial institutions named above but is the president of the Nevada
Massachusetts Company, president of the Sierra Railroad Company of California,
and president of the Canterbury Company.
He owns the Canterbury Hotel, a hostelry of two hundred and fifty rooms
at 750 Sutter Street in San Francisco, has a large interest in Sonora banks and
owns a half interest in the Nevada Massachusetts Company, producers of tungsten
ore and operators of the largest tungsten mines in America. Moreover, Mr. Segerstrom has various
interests in timber lands, real estate, stocks, bonds, etc., and has long
enjoyed high standing among the most prosperous and prominent citizens of the
Sacramento Valley.
On
the 16th of August, 1905, in Sonora, California, Mr. Segerstrom was
united in marriage to Miss Carrie Inch, who was born here March 27, 1883. Her father, Richard Inch, a native of
England, served a county recorder of Tuolumne County for more than thirty
years, while her grandfather in the paternal line operated many famous mines
along the mother lode of California. The
mother of Mrs. Segerstrom, Mrs. Mattie (Burden) Inch, was born in Sonora, California,
her parents coming here from England via the Panama route in 1854. Mrs. Segerstrom is a member of the Aronas
Club, the Welfare Club and the Parent-Teacher Association being president of
the last named. By her marriage she has
become the mother of five children, namely:
Charles Homer, Jr., born November 11, 1910; Martha Eloise, born October
8, 1914; Richard John, born August 22, 1917; Donald Inch, born September 30,
1919; and William Frederic, born May 29, 1922.
Mr.
Segerstrom has served as chairman of the republic county committee of Tuolumne county since 1910, covering a period of two decades, and was
a delegate to the republican national convention at Cleveland, Ohio, in
1924. He is inheritance tax appraiser
for Tuolumne county and since 1918 has been president
of the board of trustees of the Sonora Union high school. He has appeared before the United States
senate and the American Bankers Association as a sponsor of the McFadden
banking bill, which was passed by the congress. He is the author of papers on independent
banking in the United States and on tungsten deposits in America. Mr. Segerstrom is a director of the Tuolumne County
Chamber of Commerce and represents the California State Chamber of Commerce as
chairman of the road committee in the Central Valley. During the period of the World War he served
as chairman for Tuolumne County in all of the Liberty Loan drives and the War
Savings, Young Men’s Christian Association and Red Cross campaigns, and also
acted as food administrator for Tuolumne County under Herbert Hoover. His name is on the membership rolls of the
Tuolumne County Bar Association; California State Bar Association; American Bar
Association; American Mining Congress; American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical
Engineers; American Bankers Association, which he served on the executive
committee in 1925; California Bankers Association, which he served as a member
of the legislative committee in 1925; Independent League of California Banks,
of which he was president from 1925 to 1929; and Central California Development
Board, which he serves as member of the executive committee.
Fraternally
Mr. Segerstrom is affiliated with the Masonic order, belonging to Tuolumne
Lodge, No. 8, F. & A. M., of which he was master in 1914; Sonora Chapter,
No. 2, R. A. & M; Pacific Commandery, No. 3, K. T., of which he was
commander in 1918; and Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco. He is likewise identified with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a member of Sonora lodge, No. 10, I. O.
O. F., of which he was noble grand in 1912, and Bald Mountain Encampment, No.
4, of which he was chief patriarch in 1920.
He belongs to the Masonic Club of San Francisco and to the Lions Club of
Sonora, which is religious faith is indicated by his membership in St. James
Episcopal Church of Sonora, of which he is senior warden. Mr. Segerstrom is a leader in banking, civic
and fraternal circles, which as a private citizen he has exemplified those
qualities which make for the highest standards of living and conduct.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J.W.Major History of Sacramento Valley
California, Vol. 3 Pages 92-94. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.