Glendale, California Biographies

Edward Ulysses Emery

Edward Ulysses Emery has been a resident of Glendale since 1906. He soon became a thorough Glendalian and has take active and leading part in the development of the City. He furnished the name “Jewel City” which has been adopted as the popular name of Glendale. He was born September 9, 1865, at LeGrand, Marshall County, Iowa; a son of Jacob B. and Olive Maria (Dobson) Emery. His grandfather, John Emery, was a native of New York State. His father was born in Newark, New Jersey. The Emerys were pioneers in Ohio before going to Iowa, where his father was a pioneer farmer and wagon maker. The Dobsons are an old Virginia family and pioneered in Indiana before going to Tama County, Iowa, where they took up land, later known as Dobson Settlement. Mr. Emery’s parents were married at Tama County, Iowa.

The subject of this sketch was the third of a family of six children. He received a common school education, and began his business career at the age of thirteen, by clerking in a general store in his home city. Later he accepted a similar position in a shoe shore at Marshalltown. He was a manager of a general mercantile store at LeGrand, before becoming a traveling sales man for Hammond and Benedict, owners and proprietors of the LeGrand Flour Mills. He remained with them two years, then for five years held a like position of similar capacity with a wholesale grocery house, followed by a position of similar capacity with a wholesale tea and coffee house of Des Moines. In 1903 he moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where he took charge of the city business, and was assistant buyer for a large wholesale grocery business for three years.

In 1906 he came to Glendale where he has since resided and been active in the growth and development of the City. He was one of the incorporators of the City, and has been asked to serve as City trustee many times, but has always declined the honor. He was a charter member of the first Chamber of Commerce of Glendale, of which organization he has been president, first to fill an unexpired term, and then for two succeeding terms. He was chairman of the water commission that fought for the municipal ownership of water works. He was a stockholder and director of the First National Bank for ten years, one of the organizers of the Glendale Savings Bank and of the First Savings Bank of which he has been a director and vice-president and was also one of the organizers and is president of the Citizens Building Company. Fraternally, he is a Scottish Rite Mason, and Elk and a Past Patron of the Eastern Star. Politically, he is an old line Republican.

Soon after coming to California he secured a position as sales manager with Newmark Brothers, coffee and tea importers and wholesalers, of Los Angeles, and has been in their employ ever since. In 1920 the business was reorganized and he was made general manager. He is a member of the Commercial Board of Los Angeles.

At LeGrande, Iowa, on March 13, 1809, Mr. Emery married Mary Martha Ferguson, a native of Ogle County, Illinois, a daughter of Phineas J. and Arabella (Richardson) Ferguson. Her grandmother Ferguson was the first white child born in Ogle County, where her parents also first saw light of day.

Mr. and Mrs. Emery are the parents of five children: Owen C., an attorney at law and Justice of the Peace for Burbank township, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work; Waunita May, now Mrs. John O. Eaton, supplemented her high school education by taking a course in music at the college of music, University of Southern California. She is a member of Chapter L. of the P.E. O.; Edward Gilbert is a high school graduate and is now a student at the University of Southern California, and a member of the fraternity Sigma Tau; Josephine Latatia graduated from Glendale Union High School with the class of 1922; Olive Bell is a senior in the Glendale Union High School. Mrs. Emery is a past matron of Glen Eyrie Chapter Order of the Eastern Star, a trustee of the Ladies Auxiliary of the American Legion, a member of the Tuesday Afternoon Club, Chapter L. of the P.E.O., and is active in the Ladies Aid of the First Methodist Church. Mr. and Mrs. Emery served faithfully on all war auxiliary work during the World War. The family residence at 329 North Kenwood Street was built by Mr. Emory in 1910, at that time the farthest out of any residence on the street.

From “History of Glendale and Vicinity” by John Calvin Sherer. The Glendale Publishing Company, c. 1922 F. M. Broadbooks and J. C. Sherer. P. 330-331.