James de Fremery True '49er
Family Contributed to Oakland's Place in Sun
By EILEEN DELMORE MURPHY
When James de Fremery was born on his family's estate at Ouwendyck, near The Hague, in February, 1826, the California which he was to help develop had not been imagined in his native Netherlands.
As soon as the young man came of age, however, he headed for the United States, and in 1847 was engaged in the import and export business in New York City with the father of his future bride. Word of gold in California came two years later, and the diary of James de Fremery's voyage to Panama, trip across the Isthmus and arrival in San Francisco on December 15, 1849, is still in the possession of his grandson, James' de Fremery of Yorkshire Drive.
The man who in later years was to build the home which still stands in de Fremery Park in West Oakland decided that his future in California lay not in the gold fields but in banking and trade. With a fellow countryman, Gildemeesder, he went into business, and their very first sale was an ax handle.
It was in 1853 that he returned to Holland to marry Virginie Herckenrath, whose given name has been given to several members of the family since. The newlyweds returned to California to find de Fremery's business firm bankrupt, but the young bridegroom was able not only to repay his creditors in the years to come, but went on to found the first savings bank in San Francisco, to serve as consul there for both Mecklenberg-Schwerin and for the Netherlands, and to be created a knight of the Netherlands Lion.
Oakland attracted James de Fremery in the 1850s when he bought property in "the grove" on which he built his house in the 1860s. Adeline Street, which the de Fremery house now faces, is believed to have been named for his second child, Adele, and Poplar Street acquired its name when de Fremery planted that kind of tree back of his home. The mansion was surrounded by hundreds of trees of all varieties.
James Leon de Fremery was the only surviving son of James and Virginie de Fremery. Brought up in the house on Adeline Street, he was graduated from the University of California with the class of 1882, and went on to Heidelberg for his doctor's degree in chemistry. While on the Continent, he met and married Wilhelmine Henriette Suermondt in The Netherlands, and with her returned to New York, where all their children were born.
The eldest, James de Fremery of Oakland, was first married to Louise Haas of Kentucky, and they had four children. James de Fremery Jr. married Eileen Genevieve Hanson of a pioneer Contra Costa family and with their three children now lives in Brentwood. Carolee, James III and John Hanson de Fremery are the youngsters.
William Haas de Fremery,
whose home is in San Leandro, is the second son of James and Louise de
Fremery. His wife is Clairnelle Lehman, and they are parents of Diane and
Julie. Clairnelle's brother, James Lehman, married
Katherine de Fremery, and with their daughter, Mary Louise, and son, Edward James, now lives in
nearby Albany.
Robert de Fremery
of Mill Valley, father of Philip, Katherine and Mary, is the husband of the
former
Susan Atkins.
Susan, by the way, is a granddaughter of
Willem Casparis Bastiaan de Fremery, brother of the first James de Fremery. Her parents are
Mr. and Mrs.
David Atkins (Mary de Fremery).
James de Fremery's second marriage was to Ruth Dorothy Ruddock, and their son and daughter are Donald and Jeanne. Donald married Neysa Dugan several years ago and they now live in Montclair, while Jeanne, who has been Mrs. David Peugh for some time, makes her home in Berkeley.
(A record of other children of James Leon de Fremery, of his sister's
children, and of the families of W. C. B. de Fremery and Herman de Fremery,
brothers of the first James de Fremery, will be printed next Sunday).
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