Albert Adams Pennoyer (1848-1908)

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, where his father was a partner in the firm of J.Q. Adams & Co., dealers in household-furnishings. He was educated in local public schools and at the polytechnic before starting his mercantile career in New York City. In 1877, he visited his cousin in Oakland, California, where he remained and shortly after became a partner in the Taft & Pennoyer Department Store, the largest dry-goods store in Oakland. In 1883, he married Virginia Edmunds and they were the parents of three sons. One son, Richard, married the Dowager Countess of Shrewsbury bought St. Donat's Castle; and, another, Paul, married a daughter of J.P. Morgan Jr.