"An Illustrated history of Baker, Grant, Malheur and Harney Counties : with a
brief outline of the early history of the state of Oregon." Chicago?: Western
Historical Pub. Co., 1902.  Page 313.  Baker County.

WILLIAM POLLMAN

     Among the successful business men who have come to Baker county and have
found here the "tide which taken at the flood leads on to fortune," must be
counted the man whose career we must here essay to outline.  Coming to this
community with but very little money in his pocket, he has by dint of diligence,
thrift and business ability wrought his way to at least moderate fortune and a
very enviable position of power in the commercial world.  We shall now attempt
to present the specific history of his life.
     Mr. Pollman was born in Quincy, Illinois, on the 24th of August, 1867, his
parents being F. W. and Amelia Pollman, natives of Germany.  When but two and a
half years old he was taken to Lacygne, Kansas, where his father was engaged in
the meat market and stock business.  There our subject received his public
school training, which was supplemented by a course in the Gem City Business
College, of Quincy, Illinois, from which he received his diploma when twenty
years of age.  He had also attended previously the normal school at Fort Scott.
     His experience in the meat business began while he was still a child.  In
1889 he determined to try his fortune in the west, so came to Portland, Oregon,
but apparently not finding the conditions obtaining there exactly to his liking,
he returned that same fall to Baker City, where he was employed by Geddes and
John Kraft for a short time, when he formed a partnership with Mr. Geddes, Mr.
Kraft having sold his interest in the business, and together they continued in
the meat business.  Fortune has favored them, and at present they have large
herds of stock in different parts of the county and ranches aggregating about
twelve hundred acres.  Mr. Pollman has valuable business and residence property
in Baker City and is also interested in the Gas and Electric Company, of Baker
City, of which he is president, and he owns a beautiful residence at No. 1615
Washington street.  He is a public-spirited man and takes the interest every
good citizen should in the general welfare of his town and state, though he is
not personally ambitious for political preferment.
     Fraternally our subject is affiliated with the K. of P., the I.O.O.F. and
the B.P.O.E.  His marriage was solemnized on February 5, 1896, when Miss Emma
Geiser, daughter of John and Eliza Geiser, became his wife.  They have two
children, Louisa E. and Edna G.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in September 2005 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.