Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 149

1 9-CM AkUttfc Srlbun Dec. 1 0, 1 972 Ben F. Edwards Nevada Heritage A A A TTICS and basements family homes have more than one occasion i yielded forgotten photographs and notebooks that have been turned into books of intrigue, and thats exactly what happened when Lorena Edwards Meadows and her brothers and sisters cleared the old family home on Ross Circle in Oakland after the death of their father, Benjamin Franklin Edwards. There were boxes and boxes of old pictures, hundred of letters, some dating back to 1893, and his old account books, says Mrs. Meadows in her Foreword to A Sagebrush Heritage, fresh from the Harlan-Young Press at San Jose this past week.

The book should be on the shelves of Oakland book dealers soon at $7.50 per copy. It seemed to me, with this discovery, Mrs. Meadows says, that the record of his life with that of his family could be pieced together and completed. There were so many gaps in my own knowledge that I talked with everyone I could find who might shed light on the subject. As father lived to be 94, there were few of his contemporaries left Our aunts, Bessie Barlow Scott and Nellie Barlow McLaren, and cousin Ben Cowin, as well as my brothers and sisters all contributed their memories, especially Ben F.

Edwards Jr. There is also tribute to others who helped, many how deceased. A daughter Patricia Robertson, interior decorator of Orinda, contributed art work, and another daughter Jean. Nelson helped with the editing. The brothers and sisters include Mrs.

Ruth Jack- Fht fiom A Sbmk Hititaft" Ben F-dwards first home iri Candelaria, Nevada; purchased in 1893 for $100. The large stones by picket fence prevented empty runaway borax wagons from crashing house son, Mrs. Marion Woodward, Tom, Bill and Stewart Edwards. B1 made his last sentimental journey, driving his car back to the sagebrush country that -he loved. Lorena Edwards Meadows describes her father as the son of hard-working Welsh parents.

He led a strenuous childhood, serving as his fathers swamper (teamsters helper). Before he was 10 he could harness and drive their four-animal team. It is apparent there was little time for formal education. His Indian boy companions taught him to hunt, fish, ride horseback and to rope and break mustangs. As a teenager he became a helper EN F.

Edwards grew up in the frontier towns of Empire City in Nevada and Benton in California, spent 20 years in Candelaria, Nevada, and went to Tonopah in its earliest days, achieving success that led to a banking career in Oakland and Berkeley for more than 40 years. He remembered vividly his boyhood days in those mining camps up until the day he died. At age 90 he for the engineers who surveyed the Carson Colorado Railroad through Owens Valley. Later he became a telegrapher for the narrow guage line. His mining knowledge came by hard experience.

Eventually he became Candelarias banker, storekeeper, postmaster and Wells Fargo agent. He dealt in borax production, freighted goods to outlying districts and sometimes acted as deputy sheriff and undertaker. It was during this time that he formed lasting friendships with many of Nevadas outstanding personalities, including F. M. Borax Smith, Chris Zabriskie, William II.

Shockley, Billy Douglass, Jim Butler, Tasker Oddie, and Pat McCarran. When Jim Butler discovered Tonopah 60 miles from Candelaria Ben was one of the first to go there. Besides buying mining claims he began to freight supplies to the new boom town, and he became prosperous. But when Candelaria shut down completely his whole life pattern changed. He moved his family to; Bishop, California, and then to Berkeley in 1905.

ONCE in the East Bay area a whole new career opened for Ben F. Edwards in the field of finance. He served as president of the Berkeley National Bank, the Syndicate Bank in Emmeryville, the Twenty-Third Avenue Bank, the Broadway Bank, and the Pacific Bond and Mortgage Company of OaklarttL Again he developed friendships with tycoons such as F. L. Llpman of Wells Fargo Bank and A- Cannini of the Bank of America (then the Cnotiwuwi on Page 22 1 Alt, A Phot from "A SogtbrvtA Horrtogo Ben F.

Edwards last home at 106 Ross Circle in Oakland built in 1921 on part of old J. Ross Browne estate.