Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Pond, Percy Martyn February 2, 1870 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr jessicanorr@gmail.com November 29, 2011, 5:34 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd. Territory of Hawaii, 1925
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

PERCY MARTYN POND, Civic Builder. Percy M. Pond, real estate operator, 
merchant and rancher, was born on Feb. 2, 1870, in Medina, Medina County, 
Ohio, the son of Chauncey N. and Harriet Perkins Pond. He attended school in 
Berea and Wauseon, Ohio; Chicago, Ill., and Oberlin, Ohio, from which latter 
college he was graduated in 1892 with the degree of A.B.
  Coming to Hawaii in 1896, Mr. Pond was a luna at Ewa plantation until 1897, 
when he joined Castle & Cooke, Ltd., as merchandise cashier. He was bookkeeper 
and clerk for the S. N. Castle Estate in 1899 and 1900, and in the latter year 
entered the real estate business, when the firm of McClellon & Pond was 
formed. In conjunction with Castle & Lansdale this firm opened up the College 
Hills tract, lower Manoa Valley. From 1903 to 1904 Mr. Pond was affiliated 
with the Waterhouse Trust Co., Ltd., leaving there to start the Pond Dairy, 
which he conducted until 1914, when the retail business was disposed of and 
the enterprise was combined with the Honolulu Dairymen’s Association. As a 
dairyman, Mr. Pond led in the campaign for pure milk, voluntarily testing his 
cattle for tuberculosis and clearing his herds of diseased animals, and he was 
the first dairyman in the Territory to furnish certified baby milk with a low 
bacterial count.
  Mr. Pond was one of the first men in Honolulu to engage in real estate 
promotions on a big scale. He realized years ago that the city was to have a 
future then foreseen by few residents, and that room for expansion was a vital 
necessity. Acting on this conviction, in 1911 he purchased the unattractive 
swamp, now known as Beach Walk, Waikiki, at the same time acquiring an 
elevated tract at Diamond Head. Earth from this property was removed to fill 
in the beach swamp, and Beach Walk holdings today are valued at from 75 cents 
to $1 a square foot, against an original price of from 12 to 15 cents.
  Mr. Pond later purchased and developed the Royal Grove tract, in the Waikiki 
district, where values have also greatly increased. The Clark tract at 
Wahiawa, Dewey Court tract, and Ainahau tract were also promoted by Mr. Pond. 
In 1923 he financed Prospect Terrace, and in 1924 he opened the Castle tract 
in Honolulu.
  In 1914 Mr. Pond started the Kemoo Farm for the conservation of table refuse 
from Schofield Barracks by the production of pork and eggs, producing more 
than a million pounds of pork during the war. He also served on the 
Territorial district draft board during the war period.
  Real estate development, however, is only one of a number of business 
ventures financed and promoted by Mr. Pond. In 1918 he founded the firm of 
Smoot & Steinhauser, which later became the Pond Co., Ltd., an automobile 
sales agency. A fine, modern plant was erected by the company on Beretania 
street in 1921, and in 1924 Mr. Pond organized the Hawaiian Finance Co., Ltd., 
a corporation dealing in installment automobile paper, of which he is 
president.
  He is now chairman of the committee of the Honolulu Ad Club upon the 
preservation and marking of the historic landmarks in Hawaii, and he recently 
published for that committee a booklet, “The Kamehameha Highway,” which gives 
sources of interesting legends and stories on various points of interest 
around the islands.
  Mr. Pond married Edith O. Eldredge, Nov. 26, 1900, in Chicago. They have two 
sons, Eldredge B. and Richard C. Pond. He is an Elk, Mason, and a member of 
the Honolulu Ad, Rotary, Pan-Pacific, Commercial and Pacific clubs.


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