Christmas Day in the year 1836, witnessed the birth of this distinguished citizen, in the city of Schleswig, in the German province of the same name. The family's ancestral history has been traced back over four hundred years, constituting a lineage of which he may be justifiably proud. His father Salomon M. Salomon was maried to Caroline Samuels, who also was the representative of a fine old family of Schleswig-Holstein. He died in 1869, at the age of fifty-eight years, leaving a family of five sons and six daughters, all of whom but one of the former, now deceased, being now residents and citizens of the United States. Edward S. Salomon was educated in the public school and later in the college at Schleswig. At the age of seventeen years he came to America, stopping in NewYork for about six months, and then removing to Chicago, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits for about three years. He then took up the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. He immediately engaged in practice, and was very successful, so that after a year his recognized ability caused his election to the city council in 1860, when he was only twenty-four years of age. He was the youngest member of the council.

In 1861, the outbreak of the great Civil War changed the whole trend of his life, and Lincoln's call for troops found a willing patriot in him. It has been said that our citizens of German birth are more deeply patriotic than any others of foreign birth or lineage, and whether this be true or not, it is certain that the race displayed that characteristic to a remarkable degree by the manner in which its representatives took part in the war to preserve the Union. Edward S. Salomon enlisted on May 6, 1861, in Company H, Twenty-Fourth Illinois Infantry. For gallantry and military ability -- the latter due in large measure perhaps, to the blood of centuries of soldiers that flowed in his veins -- he was rapidly promoted, being successively second lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain and major. In the fall of 1862, Captain Salomon and nineteen other officers organized the Eighty-second Illinois, or the "Second Hecker regiment," which became one of the most famous in the army. In this regiment, Captain Salomon became Lieutenant Colonel, and early in 1864, on the resignation of Colonel Hecker, he succeeded him in command. General Hecker being wounded, General Salomon took command at the battle of Gettysburg, and remained in command until the close of the War, when he was brevetted brigadier general for "distinguished gallantry and meritorious service."

The war over, General Salomon retired to Chicago and was elected county clerk, serving in that position for four years. In 1869 he was appointed governor of Washington territory by President Grant, and on his departure was presented with a costly silver table service in recognition of his fine record of service and high qualities as a citizen and as a friend. At the head of this delegation which thus bade him a god-speed was General Phil Sheridan, the hero of Winchester. General Salomon served as governor of Washington for four years and then resigned and came to San Francisco, where he engaged in the practice of law in the year 1875. In this he was uniformly and continuously successful, and had an active part in the upbuilding of the great city. In 1898 he was appointed assistant district attorney for the city and county. General Salomon has had a conspicuous part in public life, both in service to the state and in military affairs. In 1887 he was elected commander for the department of California and Nevada of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was one of the organizers and for eight years served as commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy Republican League of San Francisco. He was favored by a large number of prominent veterans for the post of brigadier-general of volunteers in the Philippine campaign in 1898, which was given to General Harrison Grey Otis of Los Angeles. He is president of the Volunteer Officers' Retired List, an organization of retired army officers. He was elected to the state assembly in 1888 and distinguished himself as a lawmaker and as an orator, being recognized as a leader in the legislature and the ablest speaker in the lower house. For the past thiry years he has taken an active part in the presidential campaigns and is counted a strong and effective political speaker. He is prominent in the Masonic order, in which he has attained the thirty-second degree.

General Salomon was married at Peoria, Illinois, on February 20, 1860, to Sophia Greenhut, a daughter of Benedict and Minnie (Pollock) Greenhut of Peoria. To them were born three sons and three daughters; Emil, who died at the age of three years in Chicago; Minnie, who passed away at the age of twenty-two years in San Francisco; Ben I., who is deputy tax collector and president of the Civil Service League; Max, a distinguished physician and graduate of Cooper Medical College and Heidelberg University, for nine years city physician and for over ten years cheif surgeon of the German Hospital and physician for the Benevolent Society of San Francisco; Carrie, who married M.M. Stern, general passenger agent of the Central Pacific Railroad Company at San Francisco; and Annie. Mrs. Salomon died in the year 1893.