Collection: Claudette Meier Papers | University Libraries Archival Guides

Scope and Contents

BSQAP 0174 1998

Documentation and biographical material about Jean Pon, the grandfather of Claudette Meier.

The main part of this collection are copies of letters that he sent to his niece Claudette Meier living in Bloomfield. It contains 40 pages of writings from 1969 to 1976 and some poetry.

Dates

1998s

Restrictions

Collection is open for research. Materials must be used on-site.

Biographical / Historical

Jean (John) Urrire Pon was a Basque immigrant from the French Pyrenees to California. He worked as a sheepherder in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada near Susanville, California for fifteen years. During his years as a shepherd, he became friends with Dominique Laxalt. In 1913, he married Anna Domecq in San Francisco. Anna was also from the Pyrenees region of France.

They and their business partners built the Oakland Lake Merritt Hotel. In 1929, he went broke due to the Great Depression. He borrowed money to raise sheep in the Los Gatos area. He then bought a bigger ranch in Cupertino for sheep and sowing fruit. After his retirement at age 80, he wrote his memoirs until his death in 1976. He had a son, Joseph Pon, who married Julia, a woman with Basque roots.