A man of increasingly important affairs, who has found time in a life of exceptional activity to devote some of his best energies for the benefit of others, and who therefore may reasonably claim to have made his career one of double fruitfulness, is Francis Clark Eells, the well-known grower of citrus fruits and alfalfa, and a director in the Mountain View Fruit Association. He was born at Virginia City, Nev., on January 20, 1879, and is the son of George Nelson Eells, born at Delhi, N. Y., who came to California around Cape Horn in 1852. He engaged in mining in this state and in Nevada; and in Virginia City, in 1863, married Miss Mary Clark, who had reached California in the early fifties. Both father and mother became prominent in the musical circles of Virginia City and had much to do with the development of that live municipality. In 1884 George Eells came to Pomona, his family joining him in 1887. The parents are now both deceased.
Francis Clark Eells was educated, therefore, in the public schools of Pomona and grew up in the fields of agriculture, water development and banking. At the age of eighteen he entered the employ of the Consolidated Water Company, and when twenty-two he was made a director and office manager of the company, a position he filled ably and well for about one year, when he was elected cashier of the Savings Bank and Trust Company of Pomona. After five years he sold his interest in the bank and became an investment broker, being a partner in the firm of Bradley & Eells. In twelve years this firm has sold more than $9,000,000 of Pomona Valley property, and he has thus been instrumental in the agricultural development of the Valley as well as in the improvement of residential subdivisions and the advancement of realty values. He has taken a very active interest in civic affairs, including the preparing of the present city charter, has participated in the different war activities and assisted in the erection of the splendid Congregational Church edifice and the new Y. M. C. A. building.
A stanch Republican of very broad, non-partisan views as to local matters, Mr. Eells has always worked for good government and an enlightened, free America for progressive Americans. This energetic endeavor in behalf of social and political uplift is rather natural, considering that the Eells family dates back to the seventeenth century, when certain forbears settled in the central part of New York state. George Nelson Eells came to California by way of Cape Horn, and had a very eventful voyage, for smallpox raged on the ship, and he was one of the volunteer nurses to help care for the stricken. The Clark family, that of the mother, dates from the second trip of the Mayflower, and they are known in history as influential in the development of New England colonial life, the mother having been born and educated in Boston.
At Pomona, on March 6, 1907, Mr. Eells was married to Miss Ethel May Howard, who was born in Pomona, and grew up and was educated here, and is active in all things pertaining to the best welfare of the city. Two children have blessed this union: Howard Clark Eells and Edith Frances Eells.
A Sunday school teacher in the Pilgrim Congregational Church of Pomona for the past nineteen years, Mr. Eells has been in charge for twelve years of the important boys' work known as the Boys' Brigade, and to him is due the chief credit for the brigade's remarkable success. In this important post he has proven a wonderfully efficient officer, but his work has not stopped there, for he has made every member of the brigade his personal friend, and in such an exceptional relationship has sought to promote the highest welfare of the members.
History of Pomona Valley, California, with Biographical Sketches
of The Leading Men and Women of the Valley Who Have Been
Identified With Its Growth and Development from the Early Days
to the Present
Published in Los Angeles, Cal., by the Historic Record Company
1920
Transcribed by Linda Jackson 10/26/08, Pages 622-623
Los Angeles County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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