Biography
Henry Austin Palmer was born in 1842, a native of Stonington, Connecticut; worked there as an express agent, then a clerk in the U.S. custom house; came to California in 1862 and was employed in a banking and assay office in Folsom until 1864, and then spent a year in assaying in Michigan Bluff; worked as cashier in U.S. Mint at San Francisco, 1865-67; cashier at banking house of Banks & Company until 1869 when he organized and was appointed cashier of the Union Savings Bank of Oakland; became the first cashier of the Union National bank, established in 1877, serving as president from 1882-86, while also serving as vice president and treasurer of the Union Savings Bank; in 1867, he married Jane O. Day; their children were Theodore S., Elizabeth Day, and Harold King Palmer; in 1882, along with C.T. Mills and M.L. Wicks, Palmer incorporated the Pomona Land and Water Company; in 1884 served as vice president, and then president until 1887; also became the owner and incorporator of the Pomona Bank in 1883.
From the guide to the Palmer Family Papers, 1800-1960, (University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.)
