Edgar James Ferrell, one of San Bernardino County’s most enterprising and successful business men, was born in Iowa in 1858, and passed the first sixteen years of his life in the Hawkeye State.
In June, 1874, he came to California, and the first six years after his arrival worked at the printer’s trade in San Bernardino. Deciding to change his vocation, he entered the employ of W. R. Wiggins as a salesman in his grocery. At the close of two years Mr. Ferrell purchased the business in 1884, and for four years did an exceptionally thriving and prosperous business. He made a specialty of handling none but first class goods and built up a trade which probably ranked the largest in the county at that time. In the fall of 1888 he sold out and remained out of business for about six months, then opened his present fine store at 108 and 110 D Street. Pursuing his former excellent business methods Mr. Ferrell is rapidly regaining his very large patronage so worthily won at the old store. His store is a model of neatness and order, and with none but the best grades of goods, both staple and fancy, in stock, and, gentlemanly treatment always assured to his patrons, his is one of the most attractive business houses in the city. His goods are sold for cash or thirty days’ time, and he commands a large share of the most desirable trade of the city and county. Mr. Ferrell has a fondness for rural life and is an admirer of fine stock, which taste he gratifies in the ownership of a beautiful ranch of thirty-five acres a short distance south of San Bernardino, and which is admirably adapted to grazing and deciduous fruits and berries, for which he has been offered $17,500. Three fine artesian wells furnish an abundant water supply for the place.
Mr. Ferrell and his amiable wife reside out on their rancho, enjoying the rare luxury of country life in the beautiful San Bernardino valley. Mrs. Ferrell is a native of California and the daughter of the late Richard Varley, from Lancashire, England, and a prominent contractor and builder in San Bernardino.