Nevada County Mining and Business Directory, 1895, published in Oakland in 1895, is the first directory to declare in its title its objective of promoting the county's mining interests and businesses. At the same time, it includes the usual information one expects of a comprehensive guide to local governments and religious and secular organizations.
The directory's historical sketches of Nevada County, Nevada City, and Grass Valley weigh only a few pages so do not compare with those of earlier county directories like Edwin F. Bean's 1867 History and Directory of Nevada County. Its directories of residents for Nevada City, Grass Valley, and Truckee, while not short, include fewer people than some earlier directories. But its briefer sketches and shorter directories for 25 other Nevada County communities, from Boca to You Bet, make it the most comprehensive 19th century county directory. It even includes a sketch and directory for Colfax in Placer County, to acknowledge Nevada County's umbilical railway link with the outside world before the automotive age.
The compiler, John Edmund Poingdestre, with roots in England and San Francisco. was the manager of the Grass Valley office of Nevada County Gas and Electric Company. Samuel Butler, the attributed author of the sketches of Nevada County, Nevada City, and Grass Valley, was a local miner turned journalist. Both were avid boosterists at a time when the county needed capital investment in its quartz mines to make up for the economic setbacks brought about by the demise of hydraulic mining after its outlawing in the late 1880s.
J. E. Poingdestre is also the compiler of a thinner "souvenir" titled Grass Valley and Vicinity, which was published around the same time by the same Oakland printer. And Samuel Butler was the by-line author of its feature article, "A Historical Sketch of Grass Valley".
Unlike most directories, which generally show the street addresses of listed residents and businesses, and possibly an occupation, or acreage if a landowner, Poingdestre's directory shows only the names of the residents and business firms, and the occupations of the residents. This makes the directory useless for researchers interested in the locations of homes, offices, stores, shops, hotels, black smiths and livery stables within a town.
The listings were nonetheless invaluable for advertisers, for streets and numbers were useless in mailing addresses. Not until 1905, a decade later, were building numbers mandated for mailing purposes in Grass Valley and Nevada City. But Grass Valley wouldn't qualify for mail delivery until 1913, and Nevada City had to wait until 1940. Until then, "You Get, Grass Valley, Cal." -- if he didn't rent a mail box -- stood in line at the post office to pick up his business, personal, and junk mail.
Butler's 3-page sketch of Nevada City wanes low-key (p35).


Nevada City is the county seat of Nevada County. Emigrants first invaded her borders in the autumn of 1849. Shortly after this, rich placers were discovered, resulting in the acquisition of a large number of earnest and enthusiastic prospectors. . . . It is one of the original townships of the county, and has a superficial area of about seventy-two[square] miles.


While his 3-page sketch of Grass Valley waxes superlative (p65).


Grass Valley is the metropolis of Nevada County. Her claim to this position is undisputed. In point of population, production of gold, and the area on which she stands, she is far superior to any town in the county or mining town in the State. . . . [The township] contains about one hundred and ten square miles.


Family ties
John Edmond Poingdestre (1854-1931), born in England, migrated to the the United States in 1879, and had naturalized by the 1900 census, which shows him in Grass Valley married to Anna, his Missouri-born wife of 6 years. Though enumerated as a book keeper, he was then the manager of Nevada County Gas and Electric Company's office in Grass Valley, where he worked out of the Thomas Building on Mill Street. He was also involved in mining operations partly funded by London interests through his connections there.
Also known as John E. and J. E., Poingdestre worked in San Francisco from 1879 to around 1893, when he became the manager of the Grass Valley office. San Francisco directories show him working at the California Cigar Box Company in 1879, and as an agent for the company in 1882. By 1889, he was a salesman for Curtis, Dixon & Co, a cigar manufacturer.
Poingdestre appears to have come to Grass Valley around 1893 as the Grass Valley manager of the Nevada County Gas and Electric Company, which during his 12-year stay it became a branch of the California Gas and Electric Company, which became the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. In 1905, he was reported to have left Grass Valley for Redwood City, to become the manager of the district covering San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. But he was soon put in charge of PG&E's Marysville office, from which he retired in 1917. He lived for a while in Berkeley, then settled for the remainder of his life in Carmel (1920 census) and then Monterey.
Poingdestre and his wife frequently visited Grass Valley after leaving in 1905. They appear to have been close to Dr. John T. Jones and his daughter Miss Frances Jones. Several times between 1912 and 1930, they motored up from their succession of homes in Marysville, Carmel, and Monterey, to stay a few days with John and/or Frances Jones at their residence on Auburn street.
In his last will and testament, witnessed on 13 October 1907, James Poingdestre, of Tower House Bassett in the Parish of North Stoneham in the County of Southhampton, bequeathed his son, John Edmund Poingdestre, of Redwood City in California, 2,000 pounds and his gold watch and chain. A codicil dated 2 April 1908 left him an additional 1,000 pounds. James Poingdestre died on 11 June 1908 and was buried at Tower House Bassett on 16 June 1908. He was 89.
How often did father and son see each other after John Poingdestre's migration to San Fancisco in 1879? A passenger manifest shows Anna Louisa Poingdestre, 37 (born circa 1871), returning to New York from Liverpool aboard the Celtic departing 14 August 1908 two months after her father-in-law's death. John Edmund and Anna Louise Poingdestre visited England again in 1913, and are shown returning to New York aboard the Majestic, a White Star steamship line vessel, departing from Southhampton on 30 July 1913. The 1st-class passenger manifest states that he was 58 (born circa 1855) while she was 36 (born circa 1877). The 1900 census, enumerated as of 1 June, gives their birth dates as May 1854 and Feb 1870, and their ages as 46 and 30, which appear to be correct.
The 1900 census states that John Edmund Poingdestre was born in England in May 1854. John E. Poingdestre died in Monterey on 14 September 1931 according to a California death index, which says he was 83 (born circa 1848). The 1900, 1910, and 1920 federal censuses give his (and Anna's) ages as 46 (30), 56 (36), and 65 (45) -- which suggest he was 77 at the time of his death.
Anna Poingdestre was born Anna Louise Cox on 5 February 1970 in Missouri. She is shown with her family in the 1870 and 1880 censuses. The 1890 census was mostly lost in a warehouse fire. The 1900 census states that she and Poingdestre had been married for 6 years and that she had had no children. She died in Monterey on 1 November 1947 at age 77.

Catalog #: 650.025.POI
Author: John Edmund Poingdestre
Publisher: Pacific Press Publishing Co. (Oakland, printer)
Published: 1895
Subjects: Nevada County, Nevada City, Grass Valley, Truckee, Colfax, Boca, You Bet, Businesses, Mines, Residents, Directory
Related Items:

• Pamphlets > Grass Valley and Vicinity (PH 1-4)(Circa 1895)
• Directories > Bean's History and Directory of Nevada County California (650.025.BEA)(1867)
• Directories > Nevada County Mining Review (622.342.NEV)(1895)

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