Alameda County Biographies

CHARLES PALMER

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

	A pioneer in California was Charles Palmer, who died in Berkeley in 1897. He 
practiced law in San Francisco and Oakland for many years and from this field his interests 
extended to many others touching closely public and business development. Mr. Palmer was 
born in Connecticut and after completing his preliminary education was graduated from Yale 
University, where he studied law. In 1850 he came to California by way of the Strait of Magellan 
and afterward mined in Nevada and Eldorado counties for some time. Later he removed to 
Folsom, Sacramento county, and engaged in banking there until 1877, in which year he came to 
Alameda county, where he remained a resident until his death. Ha practiced law in San Francisco 
and Oakland, having been connected through a large patronage with much important litigation in 
the courts of the state. He founded the Oakland Paving Company and was its attorney for many 
years, the weight of his influence being felt in the direction of its policy and as a force in its 
continued growth and progress.
	Mr. Palmer married Miss Harriet Day, who came to California with her parents in 1855. 
Her father, Sherman Day, was a surveyor and mining engineer and surveyed the wagon road over 
the Sierras before the advent of the railroad. In the early days he engaged in mining and for a 
number of years he held the office of United States surveyor, located at San Francisco. He was one 
of the trustees and founders of the College of California, now the University of California.
	Mr. Palmer was a member of the Masonic fraternity and gave his political allegiance to the 
republican party. He was a man of ability, of unquestioned integrity and in the field of his profession 
he attained a position of distinction and honor. His death, which occurred in Berkeley in 1897, was 
sincerely mourned by a wide circle of friends.

Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914, p. 482