Alameda County Biographies

BENJAMIN H. PENDLETON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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


 
        Following a period of progressive and able service as president of the 
city council of Oakland Benjamin H. Pendleton was made civil service 
commissioner and this important position he held for a number of years, 
discharging its duties in a prompt, capable and reliable manner. In addition to 
this he has held various other positions of public trust and responsibility, and 
he is besides connected with business interests of the city as proprietor of the 
wholesale cigar house operated under the name of Horn & Company.
        Mr. Pendleton was born in Shanghai, China, October 20, 1862, and numbers 
among his ancestors several who occupied important places in the early history 
of the United States. Captain Ben Pendleton, from whom he is a direct 
descendant, fought in the cause of American independence and as a naval officer 
succeeded in capturing a British warship. Although born in China Mr. Pendleton 
has spent most of his life in America. After completing his preparatory 
education he entered Yale University, where he took an academic course, 
graduating with high honors in 1884, at the age of twenty-two. Soon afterward he 
became associated with Horn & Company, who conducted a wholesale cigar house at 
40 Drumm street, San Francisco. He has been identified with this enterprise 
since 1885 and is now its sole owner. He has developed this into one of the 
largest concerns of its kind in the city and is recognized as a man of unusual 
business ability and progressiveness.
        Since taking up his residence in Oakland Mr. Pendleton has always taken 
an active interest in public affairs and has done effective and lasting work in 
various positions of public trust and responsibility. In 1898 he was appointed 
on the board of free public library trustees, and he served for four years. In 
1903 he was elected councilman on the republican ticket and was for two years 
president of the council, being the last to hold this office under the old form 
of government. Mr. Pendleton's record is an excellent one. He was the dominant 
figure in arranging the details of the Southern Pacific franchise on Seventh 
street and it was largely on account of his study and his untiring efforts that 
the matter was finally settled by the payment by the railroad company of a 
yearly rental for the use of the street, which is greater than is paid for a 
similar privilege by any other railroad in the United States. Mr. Pendleton was 
also a strong factor in securing for the city a reduction in the water rates, 
after a great deal of argument and litigation of long standing. A graduated 
scale of reduction was brought about, which has meant a saving during a period 
of four years to the city of Oakland of about nine hundred thousand dollars. He 
was also very active in bringing about a settlement of the Western water front 
matter and it was he who suggested that the wharfing�out rights be recognized by 
the Western Pacific Railway Company by the payment of a yearly rental, which 
principle, having been established, was later followed out to the great 
advantage of the city, which exacted a like rental from the Southern Pacific 
Company and the Key Route. It was Mr.. Pendleton's suggestion also that the 
Oakland Mole and water front rights of the Southern Pacific Company revert to 
the city of Oakland at the expiration of its franchise. After the commission 
form of government was established in Oakland Mr. Pendleton was made civil 
service commissioner and he is now chairman of the municipal water commission, 
which has for its purpose the acquisition of the water company's plant.
        Mr. Pendleton is president of the Associated Charities Association of 
Oakland, which is affiliated with the city government, and he is a member of 
several clubs and organizations, among which are the Nile Club, the University 
Club of San Francisco and the Sons of the American Revolution. He stands for 
progress at all times and seeks his own success and the city's advancement along 
lines of activity which will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny.
 
Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 
1914, p. 342