Alameda County Biographies

JOHN R. PALMER

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler, July 2004

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

 

	John R. Palmer, an attorney at Pleasanton, is one of the prominent citizens of Amador 
Valley.  He dates his birth March 15, 1836, at Bedford County, Pennsylvania, where he was reared 
and educated.  He learned the trade of tanner and currier, following it from the age of fourteen 
to twenty years; and from 1856 to 1861 he was engaged in several callings, - teaching school a 
few years, photographing, etc., and drifted into the study of law, reading Blackstone and other 
great legal authorities.  He was admitted to the bar in his native State; in 1861, he was elected 
District Attorney for three years, and in 1864 re-elected.  After the expiration of his last term, 
in May, 1867, he bade farewell to friends and associates, and came by steamer by way of Panama to 
San Francisco.  In a short time he went to Black Rock, Nevada, where he followed mining and 
prospecting for a time; then, returning to San Francisco, he was engaged in handling various 
publications for a few months, and in 1868 he located in Pleasanton, where he has since been 
engaged in the practice of his chosen profession, having had many noted lawsuits in regard to 
land claims.  He has also been Notary Public since 1870.  He is a gentleman of literary ability, 
having been on the local staff of several prominent journals; was local editor of the Bedford 
�Gazette�, in his native State, from 1861 to 1867.  He is still unmarried.

SOURCE:  Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1891. pg. 298.