James Henry Powell: Charter Member of Samoset Tribe #22 with Detailed Revolutionary War Soldier Connections. Emily Browne Powell: Literary Titan in Early California and Women's Advocate
James Henry Powell
(1847–1925)
Charter
Member, Samoset Tribe No. 22,
Improved
Order of Red Men, Vallejo, California
Husband
of Emily Browne Powell
Writer
· President, Pacific Coast Women's Press Association
Dr.
Mike Bortner- Historian
for
Samoset
Tribe No. 22
Improved
Order of Red Men
431
Georgia Street, Vallejo, California
July
1, 2026
Fig. 1. James
Henry Powell (1847-1925), studio portrait photograph, date unknown. Powell is
shown in profile, wearing a dark suit with white collar and cravat, with full
grey beard. A photographer's studio imprint is partially visible in the lower
right corner of the original photograph. Source: FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4.[1]
Fig. 2. Emily
Browne Powell (1847–1938), wife of charter member James Henry Powell, in a
portrait engraving published in Ella Sterling Mighels, The Story of the Files
(San Francisco, 1893). Public domain image, Library of Congress / Internet
Archive.
James Henry Powell:
Charter Member of Samoset Tribe No. 22 and
Husband of Emily Browne Powell, California Writer
INTRODUCTION
Emily Browne Powell, the wife of James Henry Powell, was
one of the most accomplished women writers in the Bay Area and a leading voice
in California's literary culture. James Henry Powell was the steady, private
center of that remarkable household — a man whose own footprint in the public
record is modest, but whose life intersects with some of the most compelling
stories in Bay Area history.
FAMILY ORIGINS:
PHILADELPHIA AND THE ROAD TO CALIFORNIA
James Henry Powell was born in 1847, the eldest of seven
children born to Abraham Powell (1828–1895) and his wife Mary Sparks Powell.
Abraham Powell was a ship joiner by trade — a skilled craftsman in the
tradition of Philadelphia's maritime industries, who in 1842 obtained a United
States Seamen's Protection Certificate in Philadelphia.[2]
The Powell family's origins were working-class and
maritime, rooted in the dense neighborhoods of Southwark, Philadelphia, where
Abraham and Mary were recorded living in the 1850 census next door to Abraham's
own parents. Abraham's siblings and children grew up in an environment of
practical trades: joinery, lumber, the crafts that fed a port economy. The
seven Powell children, in order of birth, were James Henry (1847), Mary Louise
(1851), Abraham (1855), Fanny (1858), Priscilla F. (1864), Eva P. (1866), and
Loren B. (1868).
In 1866, Abraham Powell made the decision that thousands
of American tradesmen were making in the years after the Civil War: he went
west. He was registered to pay taxes in Solano County, California, that year,
and the family followed. By 1880, Abraham was employed at a lumber yard in
Vallejo — his ship-joiner's skills translated into the timber economy of a
growing Bay Area city. The family settled in Vallejo at precisely the moment
the city was coming into its own, anchored by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard
just across the water, the expanding commerce of San Francisco Bay, and the
ambitions of a new generation of California residents.[3]
CHARTER MEMBER:
SAMOSET TRIBE NO. 22, JULY 19, 1869
Three years after the Powell family's arrival in
California, James Henry signed the charter of Samoset Tribe No. 22, Improved
Order of Red Men. He was twenty-two years old. The Red Men trace their ancestry
to the Sons of Liberty, the secret patriotic societies of 1765 whose members,
disguised as Mohawk warriors, carried out the Boston Tea Party of December 16,
1773 — and who, during the Revolutionary War itself, took up muskets to fight
in the Continental Army and colonial militias. That lineage passed through the
postwar Society of Red Men to the Improved Order of Red Men, formally chartered
in Baltimore in 1834, and from there to Samoset Tribe No. 22 in Vallejo. The
connection is fitting for the Powell household in particular: the same
generation that formed the Sons of Liberty included men such as Richard Powell,
James Henry's own great-grandfather, who fought as a private in the New Jersey
militia, while Jonas Locker, Benjamin Mills, and John Nutt — the other
Revolutionary patriots documented in Maude Harriet Powell's DAR lineage —
served in Massachusetts and New Hampshire during the same conflict. Samoset
Tribe No. 22 would eventually establish its permanent hall at 431 Georgia
Street in 1925.[4][5]
Among his fellow charter members was Frank Aleamon Leach
(1846–1929), then twenty-two years old and the publisher of the Vallejo Evening
Chronicle. Leach was already one of the most prominent young men in the city.
The two men were not yet related by blood or marriage in 1869 — that connection
would come one year later, when, in December 1870, Frank Leach married Mary
Louise Powell, James Henry's younger sister. From that day forward, James Henry
Powell and Frank Leach were both charter brothers of Samoset Tribe No. 22 and
brothers-in-law.[6][7]
Frank Leach went on to become Superintendent and then
Director of the United States Mint, a California state legislator, postmaster
of Vallejo, and founder of the Oakland Enquirer. He is among the most
distinguished figures in nineteenth-century California history. The bond
between him and James Powell — sealed by fraternity in 1869 and by family in
1870 — endured for the rest of their lives.[8][9]
MARRIAGE: EMILY
JEANNETTE BROWNE, 1872
On July 23, 1872, James Henry Powell married Emily
Jeannette Browne in Solano County, California, in an Episcopal ceremony
performed by the Reverend Adam A. McAlister. The marriage license was issued by
County Clerk C. A. Kidder of Solano County. Emily was born in 1847 in Waldo
County, Maine, the daughter of Moses M. Brown and Harriet A. (Newell) Brown.
She was a woman of Puritan ancestry and uncommon intellectual gifts, who had
written her first poem at the age of twelve and by sixteen had sent a verse to a
Boston literary journal, receiving in return an invitation to become a regular
contributor — an extraordinary recognition for a young woman of that era in
rural Maine.[10][11]
Emily had come to California in 1868, initially to work
as a teacher, and she continued that work after arriving on the West Coast.
When she and James Henry Powell were married in 1872, she was already an
established writer, publishing poems, stories, essays, and letters on the
events of the day in periodicals that included the Oakland Tribune, the San
Francisco Call, the Overland Monthly, Harper's Magazine, The
Californian, Peterson's Magazine, and New Peterson Magazine.
Her poems were widely reprinted across the American press.[12]
THE LETTER TO HORACE
GREELEY
Among the accolades Emily received during her years as a
writer, one stands apart as a mark of national recognition: a commendatory
notice from Horace Greeley, the legendary editor of the New-York Tribune
and one of the most influential journalists in American history. Emily had
written a letter to the Tribune — the nature of its subject is not
recorded in any surviving source — and Greeley responded with personal praise.[13]
Greeley, who had founded the New-York Tribune in 1841
and built it into the foremost reform newspaper in the nation, was not given to
casual compliments — his paper had published the criticism of Margaret Fuller
and the political analysis of Charles A. Dana, and his editorial standards were
exacting. The text of the letter itself has not been preserved in any digitized
archive, and its subject remains unknown; what Ella Sterling Mighels recorded
in her 1893 survey of California writers was simply the fact of Greeley's
approbation, which she presented as one of Emily's notable distinctions.
Mighels, writing in The Story of the Files: A Review
of Californian Writers and Literature (1893), published under the auspices
of the World's Fair Commission of California for the Columbian Exposition,
included Emily Browne Powell among the most significant California women
writers of the era — distinguished company that included Charlotte Perkins
Stetson Gilman, Frances Fuller Victor, and Kate Douglas Wiggin.[14]
Fig. 3. Some of
the officers of the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association (1892-1893). Emily
Browne Powell (President), Sarah Brown Ingersoll Cooper (1st
Vice-President), and Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman (2nd
Vice-President). Source: Wikimedia Commons / The Californian Illustrated
Magazine. Public domain.
THE PACIFIC COAST
WOMEN'S PRESS ASSOCIATION
In 1890, Emily Browne Powell became a founding
participant in the Pacific Coast Women's Press Association (PCWPA), organized
that year with approximately two hundred members to provide working women
journalists and authors on the Pacific Coast with the professional protection,
benefits, and solidarity that their counterparts in other parts of the country
had enjoyed since 1880.[15]
The Association's membership was a remarkable gathering
of talent. Among its active members were Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman, then
rising to national prominence as a social theorist; Frances Fuller Victor, the
pioneering historian of the Pacific Northwest; Rosa Smith Eigenmann of the San
Francisco Academy of Sciences; Carrie Stevens Walter, associate owner of the
San Josean; and Kate Douglas Wiggin, already celebrated for her work with
kindergartens and fiction. Helena Modjeska, the Polish actress who had made her
home near Santa Ana, was an honorary member. Emily Browne Powell contributed to
the Tribune and the San Francisco Call and was elected the Association's
assistant recording secretary upon its founding.
In September 1892, Emily Browne Powell succeeded Nellie
Blessing Eyster to become the PCWPA's second president. The executive board she
led that year included Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman as Second
Vice-President — a pairing that places Emily in the company of one of the era's
most consequential American writers. The Association took up causes including
road and park improvement, library development, the suppression of criminal
advertising, and school development. It issued printed monographs and remained
active until 1941.[16]
REVOLUTIONARY WAR
ROOTS: THE DAR LINEAGE OF MAUDE HARRIET POWELL
James Henry and Emily Browne Powell had two daughters:
Maude Harriet Powell of Alameda, who carried forward the family's deep American
roots through her membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, and a
second daughter who married a Mr. J. W. Paul and resided in Santa Clara at the
time of her father's death.[17]
Maude Harriet Powell was recorded in the DAR Lineage
Book as member No. 73837, an entry published in 1924. The DAR Genealogical
Research System confirms that her application documented descent from four
distinct Revolutionary War patriots, spanning the Powell line of New Jersey and
the Browne/Newell line of New England. Together, these four men represent a
remarkable cross-section of the American Revolution — a New Jersey militiaman
who fought under arms through several engagements in his home colony and was
James Henry Powell’s own great-grandfather, a soldier who fell at Bunker Hill
whose daughter married the next man on this list, a Massachusetts corporal who
served alongside the fallen man and later married his daughter, and a New
Hampshire Continental Line private who settled in coastal Maine.
Richard Powell (DAR Ancestor No. A092115) — Born
in 1749 in Gloucester County, New Jersey, Richard Powell served as a private in
the New Jersey militia under Captain John Stokes and Colonel Joseph Ellis. He
died December 28, 1818, in Gloucester Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey.
The service source is the New Jersey Revolutionary War Slips (New Jersey
Department of Defense Materials, FHL Roll #571315, Certificates #308 and #512).
Richard Powell was one of twenty sons of Richard Powell II and Charity (Chew)
Powell, of whom sixteen have been documented as having served in the
Revolution. He was known as an outstanding soldier and marksman, and took part
in engagements including the Battle of Red Bank at Gloucester and actions at
Egg Harbor, New Jersey. His son Abraham Powell married Mary Sparks, and their
son James Henry Powell — the subject of this article — was born in 1847.
Richard Powell is thus the direct paternal great-grandfather of James Henry
Powell, and the first Revolutionary War patriot ancestor documented in Maude
Harriet Powell's DAR application.
Fig. 4. The
Chew-Powell House, Gloucester Township, New Jersey, c. 1725 (photographed c.
2009). This National Register of Historic Places property was the home of
Richard Powell (1749-1818) and his parents Richard Powell II and Charity (Chew)
Powell. Richard, a private in the New Jersey militia under Capt. John Stokes
and Col. Joseph Ellis, is the direct paternal great-grandfather of charter
member James Henry Powell. A cemetery on the property contains the graves of
Richard, Charity, and some of their sons. Source: Wikimedia Commons, "Chew
Powell House NJ.jpg." CC BY-SA 3.0.
Fig. 5. Fort
Mercer / Red Bank Battlefield, National Park, Gloucester County, New Jersey.
Richard Powell, private in the Gloucester County militia, participated in the
engagement at Red Bank during the Revolutionary War alongside his neighbors and
brothers. The battlefield is now a National Park Service site and is listed on
the National Register of Historic Places. Source: National Park Service /
Gloucester County Historical Society.
Jonas Locker (DAR Ancestor No. A071010) — Born
December 3, 1730, in Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Jonas Locker
served as a private in the Massachusetts forces in 1775, under Captains Isaac
Locker and Samuel Patch, and Colonels James Brett and William Prescott. He was
killed in action on June 17, 1775, at Charlestown, Middlesex County,
Massachusetts — the date of the Battle of Bunker Hill. The DAR record cites
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors, Vol. 9, pp. 908 and 934, as its service
source. Jonas Locker is honored by having his name placed on the Bunker Hill
Memorial, which commemorates the Patriot dead of June 17, 1775. His daughter
Sarah married Benjamin Mills (see below), carrying the Locker patriot line into
the next generation.
Benjamin Mills (DAR Ancestor No. A079848) — Born
June 19, 1752, in Dedham, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Benjamin Mills served
as a corporal in the Massachusetts forces under Captains Aaron Smith and
Timothy Stow. He died April 15, 1824, in Vinalhaven, Hancock County, Maine. The
service source is Widow's Pension No. W23971, filed by his widow Sarah (Locker)
Mills — daughter of Jonas Locker above — after Benjamin's death. The pension
was approved in 1837. Benjamin Mills married Sarah Locker in Needham,
Massachusetts, in 1778, directly linking the two patriot lines. After the
Revolution he settled in Vinalhaven, Maine, where he served the community as
Fence Viewer, Surveyor of Roads, and Church Tithingman. The connection between
these two ancestors — Jonas Locker who died at Bunker Hill, and his son-in-law
Benjamin Mills who served alongside him — adds unusual depth to Maude Harriet
Powell's patriot lineage.
Fig. 6. John
Trumbull, The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17,
1775 (oil on canvas, 1786). Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven,
Connecticut. Jonas Locker of Sudbury, Massachusetts — great-great-grandfather
of James Henry Powell's wife Emily, through the Mills line — was killed in this
battle. Trumbull witnessed the engagement through field glasses. Source: Yale
University Art Gallery / Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
Fig. 7. The
Bunker Hill Monument, Charlestown, Massachusetts, c. 1902. The 221-foot granite
obelisk, designed by Solomon Willard and completed in 1843, stands on the
summit of Breed's Hill where the battle of June 17, 1775, was fought. Jonas
Locker is among the Patriot dead commemorated here. Source: Detroit Publishing
Co. / Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,
LC-DIG-det-4a10676. No known restrictions on publication. Public domain.
Fig. 8.
Gravestone of Corporal Benjamin Mills (1752–1824), Mills Cemetery,
Vinalhaven, Knox County, Maine. The stone reads: “BEN’J. MILLS / DIED / April
15, 1826 / Aged 72 Years / [Soldier of the Revolution].” Mills served as a
corporal in the Massachusetts forces, married Sarah Locker (daughter of Jonas
Locker, killed at Bunker Hill) in 1778, and settled in Vinalhaven after the
war. His widow filed Pension No. W23971 after his death. Source: Find a Grave
Memorial #162437659. Public domain.
John Nutt (DAR Ancestor No. A085230) — Born
before 1763 in Londonderry, New Hampshire, John Nutt served as a private in the
New Hampshire Continental Line under Captain McConnell. He died after 1786 in
Camden, in the District of Massachusetts (present-day Maine). His daughter
Elizabeth married Ebenezer Newell, carrying his line into the Newell family —
and thence to Harriet A. (Newell) Brown, Emily Browne Powell's mother. John
Nutt thus represents the third patriot line flowing into Maude Harriet Powell's
application, through Emily's maternal New England ancestry.
Taken together, these four patriots — one from a storied
New Jersey militia family who was James Henry Powell’s own great-grandfather,
one killed at Bunker Hill whose daughter married the next man on this list, one
who served under the same Middlesex County colors and later married the fallen
man’s daughter, and one from the New Hampshire Continental Line who settled in
coastal Maine — illuminate the deep and authentic American roots of the
household that James Henry and Emily Browne Powell established, first in
Vallejo, and later in Alameda, California, and that their daughter Maude
carried proudly into the twentieth century.
ALAMEDA: LATER LIFE
AND DEATH
By 1889, James Henry and Emily Browne Powell had settled
in Alameda, California, across the estuary from Oakland. They made their home
at 1521 Broadway, Alameda, the address from which James Henry would be buried
in 1925. They remained there for the rest of their lives. The career of James
Henry Powell, while never fully recoverable from the surviving record, can be
traced across three distinct occupations over some fifty years. A FamilySearch
contributor has identified his occupation as Clerk, almost certainly derived
from a census or city directory record of his Vallejo or early Alameda years —
a fitting role for an educated man in a port city shaped by the naval
bureaucracy of Mare Island. By 1892, the Great Register of Alameda County,
Precinct No. 3, lists him as a resident of the corner of Broadway and Lincoln
in Alameda, with the occupation of Printer — a trade well suited to a man whose
brother-in-law was one of the most prominent newspaper publishers in Northern
California, and whose circle of acquaintance in the Bay Area was shaped by the
journalism and literary world that Emily inhabited. By the time of the 1920
United States Census, Powell had transitioned to the lumber trade. The census
records him at age seventy-three, still working as a lumberman and salesman on
his own account — self-employed, in the same industry his father Abraham had
worked in the Vallejo lumber yards forty years earlier. His daughter Maude,
then forty-four years old, was living with her parents and working as a high
school teacher. Emily, age seventy-two, is recorded simply as wife.[18][19][20][21]
Alameda in those years was a prosperous bedroom
community for the Bay Area's professional and middle classes — a city of
tree-lined streets, Victorian houses, and civic ambition, connected to San
Francisco by ferry and to Oakland by bridge. The Powell household, by virtue of
Emily's writing and her presidency of the PCWPA, was a recognized address in
the Bay Area's literary world.
In March 1938, the Alameda Times Star marked Emily's
ninety-first birthday with a notice of local celebration — an indication of the
esteem in which she was still held in the community after nearly fifty years of
residence.[22]
Fig. 9. Family
crypt marker of James Henry Powell, Emily Browne Powell, and their daughter
Maude Harriet Powell. The inscription as currently readable shows: JAMES HENRY
POWELL / 1847 1925 / EMIL BROWNE POWELL / 1847 1938. The name "EMIL"
almost certainly originally read "EMILY" -- the terminal letter Y
appears to have broken away from the panel, a common occurrence with inlaid
letter markers where the final character of a line is most vulnerable to loss.
A second photograph of the marker confirms that Maude Harriet Powell's name
appears above those of her parents, identifying this as a family crypt panel
consistent with mausoleum wall interment, most likely the Chapel of the Chimes,
Oakland. Source: FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4.[23]
James Henry Powell died on February 14, 1925, at his
residence at 1521 Broadway, Alameda, at the age of seventy-seven years, three
months, and twelve days. His obituary, published in the Alameda newspaper the
following day and noting that “Vallejo papers please copy,” identifies him as
the beloved husband of Emily Browne Powell; the loving father of Mrs. J. W.
Paul of Santa Clara and Miss Maude Harriet Powell of Alameda; and the brother
of Mrs. Andrew Thorne, Miss P. Florence Powell, and the late Mrs. Frank A.
Leach — Mary Louise Powell Leach, who had predeceased him. His funeral was held
on Monday, February 16, 1925, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, from his late
residence; interment was private. His wife survived him by thirteen years. Emily
Browne Powell died on September 25, 1938, in Alameda, at the age of ninety-one.
Her obituary appeared in the Alameda Times Star on September 26, 1938.[24]
Through his sister Mary Louise's marriage to Frank
Leach, James Henry Powell remained connected to one of the most distinguished
careers in California history. The bond was acknowledged in the most direct
terms at the end of his life: his 1925 obituary explicitly names “the late Mrs.
Frank A. Leach” among his nearest survivors, placing the Leach connection at
the very center of his family identity even in death. The Leach and Powell
families were buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland — Frank Aleamon Leach
and Mary Louise Powell Leach in plot 14B — and the bonds forged in Vallejo in
1869 held across more than half a century of California life.[25]
CONCLUSION
James Henry Powell was not a man who left a large public
record behind him. He held no office, published no writings, and appears in no
business directory or county history that has been digitized and made
accessible to online researchers. What he left instead was a life lived at the
center of a remarkable circle: a charter brother of Samoset Tribe No. 22
alongside the future Director of the United States Mint; a brother to the woman
who became Frank Leach's wife; a husband to one of the most accomplished women
writers on the Pacific Coast; and the father of a daughter who would carry a
documented Revolutionary War lineage into the twentieth century.
For Samoset Tribe No. 22, his name on the charter of
July 19, 1869, is a thread that connects the Tribe not only to its national and
local history but to the broader fabric of California's post-Civil War
generation — the men and women who built the Bay Area's cities, newspapers,
literary associations, and civic institutions in the decades after the Gold
Rush. James Henry Powell stood quietly at the center of that world.
Notes
Footnotes
appear at the bottom of each page in accordance with Chicago style. Numbered
consecutively throughout the text. Full citations appear in the Bibliography
below.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Daughters
of the American Revolution. Lineage Book. Washington, D.C.: National Society,
Daughters of the American Revolution, 1924. Entry for Miss Maude Harriet
Powell, No. 73837, p. 303. Four verified patriot ancestors confirmed via the
DAR Genealogical Research System (services.dar.org): (1) Powell, Richard
(Ancestor No. A092115), Private, New Jersey militia, Capt. John Stokes, Col.
Joseph Ellis. (2) Locker, Jonas (Ancestor No. A071010), Private, Massachusetts,
killed at Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775; (3) Mills, Benjamin (Ancestor No.
A079848), Corporal, Massachusetts, Widow's Pension No. W23971; (4) Nutt, John
(Ancestor No. A085230), Private, New Hampshire Continental Line.
Mighels,
Ella Sterling. The Story of the Files: A Review of Californian Writers and
Literature. San Francisco: Cooperative Printing Co., 1893. Entry for Emily
Browne Powell, p. 391. Issued under the auspices of the World's Fair Commission
of California, Columbian Exposition, 1893. Digitized and available at Internet
Archive and the Library of Congress.
"Mrs.
Emily Browne Powell." The Republican Journal (Belfast, Maine). 5 January
1899, p. 1. Archived via Newspapers.com. Public domain.
"Birthday
Marked." Alameda Times Star. 11 March 1938, p. 5. Archived via
Newspapers.com. Public domain.
"Obituary
for Emily Browne Powell." Alameda Times Star. 26 September 1938, p. 2.
Archived via Newspapers.com. Public domain.
United
States Census, 1880. Solano County, California. Abraham Powell household.
Ancestry.com. Available via FamilySearch.
"Abraham
Powell (1828–1895)." Find a Grave Memorial #185801195. Mountain View
Cemetery, Oakland, Alameda County, California. Maintained by FrankA.
(contributor 47057719).
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/185801195/abraham-powell.
Marriage
License and Certificate, State of California, County of Solano. J. H. Powell
and E. J. Browne, July 23, 1872. Officiated by Adam A. McAlister, Episcopal
Clergyman. County Clerk C. A. Kidder; recorded by G. B. Shirley, County
Recorder. Solano County Recorder's Office. Digitized via FamilySearch.org,
KCGR-SD4, accessed June 2026.
Obituary,
"Powell — In Alameda, Feb. 14." [Alameda newspaper, February 14 or
15, 1925.] Names survivors: Emily Browne Powell (wife); Mrs. J. W. Paul of
Santa Clara and Miss Maude Harriet Powell of Alameda (daughters); Mrs. Andrew
Thorne, the late Mrs. Frank A. Leach, and Miss P. Florence Powell (siblings).
Residence at death: 1521 Broadway, Alameda. Digitized via FamilySearch.org,
KCGR-SD4, accessed June 2026.
United
States Federal Census, 1920. Alameda County, California. James H. Powell, Head,
age 73, Lumberman/Salesman, own account; Emily B. Powell, Wife, age 72; Maude
H. Powell, Daughter, age 44, High School Teacher. Digitized via
FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4, accessed June 2026.
Great
Register of Alameda County, Alameda, Precinct No. 3, 1892. Entry No. 482:
Powell, James Henry; occupation Printer; residence SE corner Broadway and
Lincoln, Alameda. Digitized via FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4, accessed June 2026.
Photograph,
James Henry Powell, studio portrait, date unknown. Photographer's studio
imprint partially visible in lower right corner; studio name not confirmed at
available resolution. Digitized via FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4, accessed June
2026.
Grave
marker (family crypt panel), James Henry Powell (1847–1925), Emily Browne
Powell (1847–1938), and Maude Harriet Powell. Inscription as currently
readable: "JAMES HENRY POWELL / 1847 1925 / EMIL BROWNE POWELL / 1847
1938." The name "EMIL" is almost certainly "EMILY"
with terminal Y broken away from the panel. Mausoleum wall niche, likely Chapel
of the Chimes, Oakland. Digitized via FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4, accessed June
2026.
FamilySearch.org.
"James Henry Powell (1847–1925)," KCGR-SD4. Occupation field: Clerk
(added July 19, 2025, by contributor "Cleanealogist").
https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KCGR-SD4/james-henry-powell-1847-1925.
Accessed June 2026.
"Richard
Powell III (1749–1818)." Find a Grave Memorial #5108681. Wallings-Chew
Cemetery, Blackwood, Camden County, New Jersey.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5108681/richard-powell. Records Richard
Powell as private in the New Jersey militia; notes participation in battles
including Red Bank and Egg Harbor; identifies him as one of sixteen sons of
Richard and Charity (Chew) Powell documented as Revolutionary War soldiers.
"CPL
Benjamin Mills (1752–1824)." Find a Grave Memorial #162437659. Mills
Cemetery, Vinalhaven, Knox County, Maine. Maintained by Barb Beverage R
(contributor 48220899).
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/162437659/benjamin-mills. Confirms Mills
married Sarah Locker (daughter of Jonas Locker, killed at Bunker Hill) in 1778;
records his purchase of Jonas Locker's former farm in East Sudbury; documents
his community service in Vinalhaven.
"Mary
Louise Powell Leach (1851–1913)." Find a Grave Memorial #62962658.
Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/62962658/.
"Frank
Aleamon Leach Sr. (1846–1929)." Find a Grave Memorial #62959765. Mountain
View Cemetery, Oakland, California. Obituary transcribed from Oakland Tribune,
June 20, 1929.
Leonard,
John William, and Albert Nelson Marquis. Who's Who in America. Vol. 5. Chicago:
A. N. Marquis, 1908. Entry for Frank Aleamon Leach, p. 1111.
Secondary Sources
"Alameda,
California." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alameda,_California.
Accessed June 2026. Lists Emily Browne Powell among notable Alameda residents.
"Emily
Browne Powell." Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Browne_Powell. Last edited 2025.
"Pacific
Coast Women's Press Association." Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Coast_Women%27s_Press_Association. Covers
the organization's history, 1890–1941.
Improved
Order of Red Men. Official History and Origin. redmen.org. "The Improved
Order of Red Men traces its origin to certain secret patriotic societies
founded before the American Revolution... Among the early groups were: The Sons
of Liberty, the Sons of St. Tammany, and later the Society of Red Men."
http://www.redmen.org/redmen/info/.
National
Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. "The Old Man and the
Tea." americanhistory.si.edu. Confirms the IORM "claimed a direct
descent from the Sons of Liberty and held up the Boston Tea Party as its moment
of creation."
https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/old-man-and-tea.
"Sons
of Liberty." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_Liberty.
Notes that "The Improved Order of Red Men, established in 1834, claimed to
be descended from the original Sons of Liberty."
Krebs,
Abbie E., ed. La Copa de Oro (The Cup of Gold): A Collection of California
Poems, Sketches and Stories by the Members of the Pacific Coast Women's Press
Association. 1905. Includes contributions by Emily Browne Powell.
Leach,
Frank Aleamon. Recollections of a Newspaperman: A Record of Life and Events in
California. San Francisco: S. Levinson, 1917. 416 pp. OCLC 5168858. The Vallejo
chapters (1867–1886) provide background on the civic and fraternal culture in
which James Henry Powell and Frank Leach co-founded Samoset Tribe No. 22.
Freely available at archive.org.
—
End —
James Henry Powell (1847–1925)
Footnotes
Footnotes
are numbered to correspond with superscript reference numbers in the article
text.
1. Studio portrait photograph of James Henry
Powell, date unknown, digitized via FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4. A
photographer's studio imprint is partially visible in the lower right corner of
the original photograph; the full studio name could not be confirmed at
available resolution.
2. "Abraham Powell (1828–1895),"
Find a Grave Memorial #185801195, Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, Alameda
County, California, maintained by FrankA. (contributor 47057719),
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/185801195/abraham-powell.
3. Find a Grave Memorial #185801195 (Abraham
Powell). The 1866 Solano County tax registration and 1880 census entries are
cited in this memorial.
4. Improved Order of Red Men, official
history, redmen.org: "The Improved Order of Red Men traces its origin to
certain secret patriotic societies founded before the American Revolution. They
were established to promote Liberty and to defy the tyranny of the English
Crown. Among the early groups were: The Sons of Liberty, the Sons of St.
Tammany, and later the Society of Red Men. On December 16, 1773 a group of men,
all members of the Sons of Liberty, met in Boston to protest the tax on tea
imposed by England. When their protest went unheeded, they disguised themselves
as Mohawk Indians, proceeded to Boston harbor, and dumped overboard 342 chests
of English tea. During the Revolutionary War, members of secret societies
quenched their council fires and took up muskets to join with the Continental
Army." http://www.redmen.org/redmen/info/. See also: Improved Order of Red
Men, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improved_Order_of_Red_Men.
5. Sons of Liberty, Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sons_of_Liberty: "The Improved Order of Red
Men, established in 1834, claimed to be descended from the original Sons of
Liberty, noting that the Sons participated in the Boston Tea Party dressed as
their idea of 'Indians.'" See also: National Museum of American History,
Smithsonian Institution, "The Old Man and the Tea,"
https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/old-man-and-tea, which confirms
the IORM "claimed a direct descent from the Sons of Liberty and held up
the Boston Tea Party as its moment of creation."
6. "Mary Louise Powell Leach
(1851–1913)," Find a Grave Memorial #62962658, Mountain View Cemetery,
Oakland, California,
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/62962658/mary-louise-powell-leach.
7. "Frank Aleamon Leach Sr.
(1846–1929)," Find a Grave Memorial #62959765, Mountain View Cemetery,
Oakland, California. Obituary transcribed from Oakland Tribune, June 20, 1929.
8. John William Leonard and Albert Nelson
Marquis, Who’s Who in America, vol. 5 (Chicago: A. N. Marquis, 1908), 1111,
entry for Frank Aleamon Leach.
9. Find a Grave Memorial #62962658, Mary
Louise Powell Leach, obituary noting a brother, J. H. Powell, residing in
Alameda. Also: "Frank Aleamon Leach Sr.," Find a Grave Memorial
#62959765, Oakland Tribune obituary, June 20, 1929.
10. Marriage License and Certificate, State
of California, County of Solano, J. H. Powell and E. J. Browne, July 23, 1872.
License issued by County Clerk C. A. Kidder; ceremony performed by Adam A.
McAlister, Episcopal Clergyman. Recorded July 23, 1872, at 31 minutes past 2
o’clock P.M. Solano County Recorder, G. B. Shirley, County Recorder; E. H.
Gillespie, Deputy Recorder. Digitized image courtesy FamilySearch.org,
KCGR-SD4, accessed June 2026.
11. Emily Browne Powell, Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Browne_Powell, last edited 2025. The
Wikipedia article cites: Moses M. Brown and Harriet A. (Newell) Brown as
Emily’s parents. The text incorporates material from Mighels, Story of the Files,
p. 391, which is in the public domain.
12. Mighels, Story of the Files, 391.
13. Mighels, Story of the Files, 391. The
notice from Horace Greeley is recorded by Mighels as a commendatory response to
a letter Emily sent to the New-York Tribune; the text of that letter has not
been located in any digitized archive.
14. Ella Sterling Mighels, The Story of the
Files: A Review of Californian Writers and Literature (San Francisco:
Cooperative Printing Co., 1893), 391. Issued under the auspices of the World’s
Fair Commission of California, Columbian Exposition, 1893.
15. Pacific Coast Women’s Press Association,
Wikipedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Coast_Women%27s_Press_Association. The
organization was active 1890–1941.
16. Mighels, Story of the Files, 391; Pacific
Coast Women’s Press Association, Wikipedia.
17. DAR Genealogical Research System (GRS),
National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, services.dar.org. Entry
for Powell, Maude Harriet, National Number 73837, Chapter 8025CA. Four verified
patriot ancestors: (1) LOCKER, JONAS, DAR Ancestor No. A071010, Private,
Massachusetts, killed at Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775; (2) MILLS, BENJAMIN, DAR
Ancestor No. A079848, Corporal, Massachusetts, Widow’s Pension No. W23971; (3)
NUTT, JOHN, DAR Ancestor No. A085230, Private, New Hampshire Continental Line, Capt.
McConnell; (4) POWELL, RICHARD, DAR Ancestor No. A092115, Private, New Jersey,
Capt. John Stokes, Col. Joseph Ellis. Service sources: (1) MA Soldiers &
Sailors, Vol. 9, pp. 908, 934; (2) Pension *W23971; (3) Capt. McConnell,
Continental Line; (4) NJ Rev. War Slips, FHL Roll #571315, Certs. #308, #512.
Note: the DAR has recorded a problem notice for Ancestor Locker, Jonas
(A071010) indicating problems with at least one previously verified paper.
18. FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4, James Henry
Powell (1847–1925), Occupation field: "Clerk," entry added July 19,
2025, by contributor "Cleanealogist." The source document underlying
this entry has not been independently verified; it likely derives from a
Vallejo or Alameda city directory or census record of the 1870s–1880s.
https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/KCGR-SD4/james-henry-powell-1847-1925.
19. Great Register of Alameda County,
Alameda, Precinct No. 3, 1892. Entry No. 482: Powell, James Henry; complexion
light; eyes blue; hair brown; occupation Printer; residence SE corner Broadway
and Lincoln, Alameda. Digitized via FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4, accessed June
2026.
20. United States Federal Census, 1920.
Alameda County, California, Alameda City, Enumeration District 5. James H.
Powell, Head, Male, White, age 73, married, born Pennsylvania; occupation:
Lumberman, Salesman, own account. Emily B. Powell, Wife, Female, White, age 72,
married, born Maine. Maude H. Powell, Daughter, Female, White, age 44, single,
born California; occupation: Teacher, High School. Digitized via
FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4.
21. "Obituary for Emily Browne
Powell," Alameda Times Star, 26 September 1938, p. 2. Archived via
Newspapers.com. Cited in Emily Browne Powell, Wikipedia.
22. "Birthday Marked," Alameda
Times Star, 11 March 1938, p. 5. Archived via Newspapers.com. Cited in Emily
Browne Powell, Wikipedia.
23. Family crypt panel, James Henry Powell,
Emily Browne Powell, and Maude Harriet Powell, photographed and digitized via
FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4. Inscription as currently readable: "JAMES
HENRY POWELL / 1847 1925 / EMIL BROWNE POWELL / 1847 1938." The name
"EMIL" almost certainly originally read "EMILY" — the
terminal letter Y appears to have broken away from the inlaid panel, a common
occurrence where the final character of a line bears reduced fixing support. A
second photograph of the marker shows Maude Harriet Powell’s name above those
of her parents, confirming this is a family crypt. Mausoleum location likely
Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland.
24. Obituary, James Henry Powell, Alameda
newspaper, February 14 or 15, 1925. Transcription: "POWELL—In Alameda,
Feb. 14. James Henry Powell, beloved husband of Emily Browne Powell, loving
father of Mrs. J. W. Paul of Santa Clara and Miss Maude Harriet Powell of
Alameda; brother of Mrs. Andrew Thorne and the late Mrs. Frank A. Leach, Miss
P. Florence Powell; a native of Philadelphia, Pa., aged 77 years, 3 months, 12
days. Friends are invited to attend the funeral Monday, Feb. 16, at 2 o’clock
p.m., from his late residence, 1521 Broadway, Alameda. Interment private.
Vallejo papers please copy." Digitized via FamilySearch.org, KCGR-SD4,
accessed June 2026.
25. Through his sister Mary Louise’s marriage
to Frank Leach, James Henry Powell remained connected to one of the most
distinguished careers in California history. The bond was acknowledged in the
most direct terms at the end of his life: his 1925 obituary explicitly names
“the late Mrs. Frank A. Leach” among his nearest survivors, placing the Leach
connection at the very center of his family identity even in death. — Find a
Grave Memorial #62962658, Mary Louise Powell Leach; Find a Grave Memorial
#62959765, Frank Aleamon Leach Sr.
