Eldridge, Oliver, 1818-1902.

Oliver Eldridge (1818-1902) hailed from one of the most prominent seafaring families of Cape Cod. A native of Yarmouth, Mass., be started his maritime career as a mate to his brother, Capt. John Eldridge who was in command of the packet Liverpool, of the Swallow Tail Line. Oliver Eldridge then commanded the famous clippers Coquette (1844), Memnon (in 1848), and Daniel Bacon's clipper Titan (1855). He then took command of the mail steamship Atlantic that belonged to E.K. Collins's line of Liverpool packets. Upon receiving the news from Fort Sumter, he decided to "go in for my Country," although, by his own admission, he had "taken sides with the Southerners." In April 1861, Eldridge transported the 4th Regiment of Mass. Militia to Fortress Monroe, on board of the steamer the State of Maine. In October, he assumed the command of his old ship, the Atlantic, that had been chartered by the U.S. Government. He remained on this job until May 1862. In the summer 1862, Eldridge was hired by the Pacific Mail Company to deliver its ship, the Constitution, to San Francisco. He returned to Panama onboard of the Pacific Mail Company's ship the Golden Age, and then onboard the North Star to New York. In the summer of 1863, he accepted another job for the Pacific Mail Co. to bring its steamer the Golden City to San Francisco, by way of Rio-de-Janeiro. This voyage lasted from Aug. 13, 1863 to the end of October when Eldridge returned to New York onboard the Champion. In January 1864, he was back with the Atlantic, for a short stint, until the end of February. Early in 1865, he was hired by Pacific Mail Company and moved to San Francisco. Eldridge remained with the company until 1873 and was associated with R.W. Irwin. In 1874, Ulysses S. Grant appointed him to the board of visitors for the examination of cadets at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. In the 1870-1890s, Eldridge was the president of the California Dry Dock Company, Capital Gas Company, Stockton Gas Company, the Sunset Telephone Company, vice-president and founder of the California Title and Trust Company, director of Wells Fargo Company and the Spring Valley Water Works. He was also member of the Geographical Society of the Pacific, California Board of Pilot commissioners, a commissioner of California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble-Minded Children in Glenn Ellen, and a member of the Associated Charities of San Francisco.