Charles Pond II & Mary Pond Culbertson

Biography

Inez Henderson Pond was the granddaughter of R.W. Henderson who came to Stockton (Calif.) in 1860. Henderson practised dentistry there until his death in 1911. Her father, Walter R. Henderson, also practised dentistry in Stockton. He died in 1918. Her mother, Elizabeth Drown, was a descendant of Shem Drowne, the coppersmith who created the brass grasshopper atop Faneuil Hall in Boston. One of her cousins, W. Moran Drown, a well-known academic painter of the late 19th c., exhibited works at the Paris Exposition of 1900.

Mrs. Pond was born in Calaveras County (1891) but spent her early years in Stockton. Following graduation from Stanford University in 1914, Pond worked as a librarian with the Stockton Unified School District (1914-1920 and 1934-1955), as a publicist for the Stockton Chamber of Commerce and as a freelance journalist with the Stockton Daily Independent and Stockton Record (1930-1935).

In 1919 Inez Henderson married aviator, Charles McHenry Pond (b. 1882), son of Rear Admiral Charles F. Pond (1856-1929)---who had gained fame in 1897 as commander of the U.S. Marines that took Kapiolani Palace upon the deposition of Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii---and Emma McHenry. Charles McHenry Pond was the first pilot (1920) for the original air service connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles. At the time of their marriage, the Ponds lived in Stockton, where Mr. Pond operated a flying school. In 1921 Inez Pond moved with her husband to Berkeley where their two children, Charles "Chad" and Mary Virginia, were born. In 1930 Mr. and Mrs. Pond separated and the latter returned to Stockton with the two children. There she researched and published most of the articles upon which her reputation as a local historian rests. After 1935 the demands of her librarian's job obliged Inez Pond to set her career in journalism aside. Inez Pond retired in 1955 with the intention of resuming her career as an historian. During her final years she wrote both history and fiction but died of cancer (1962) before publishing anything substantial.

The Pond/McHenry family were prominent in many venues. Admiral Pond's mother-in-law, Ellen Metcalf McHenry (1827-1922), published considerable poetry in Bay Area newspapers during the late 19th century and was a friend of Ina Coolbrith. Her husband, attorney John McHenry (1809-1880), had been a friend of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren and a municipal court judge in New Orleans before coming to California (1850). He was active in San Francisco Democratic politics and an associate of David Broderick, but, as a Southerner, was obliged to retire from public life during the Civil War.

The Pond family were related to the renowned California landscape painter, William Keith (1838-1911)---a close friend of John Muir---through the marriage of Judge and Mrs. McHenry's other daughter, Mary, to the artist. Mary McHenry Keith (1852-1943), an active suffragette, was the first woman to graduate from Hastings Law School (1882). She gave a susbstantial collection of Keith's paintings to St. Mary's College, Moraga (Calif.), where art professor, Brother Cornelius, was the chief biographer of the artist (1938).

One of Admiral Pond's daughters, Elizabeth Keith Pond, was particularly close to Mary McHenry Keith, cared for her during her final years, and was her principal heir. Miss Pond established both the William Keith Memorial Sketch Club of Berkeley (1928), and, following Mrs. Keith's death, the Keith Art Association (1946). Elizabeth Keith Pond gave Judge McHenry's papers, her father's papers, and William Keith's papers to the Bancroft Library (1956). Miss Pond was also close to her sister-in-law, Inez Henderson Pond. The latter lived for awhile with Elizabeth Pond at the former Keith home in Berkeley. Miss Pond gave Inez Henderson Pond those family papers and Keith paintings which had not been formerly disposed of elsewhere (1957).

From the guide to the Inez Henderson Pond Collection, 1827-1962, (University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections)