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Herman and Meave Sharman


By Jenny Belle Bowman

 Herbert Sharman was born in Toronto Canada. He came to San Diego as a young man and started the San Diego Tile Company in the early 1900's. He was very proud that his company won the bids to tile the domes on the California Building in Balboa Park. San Diego Tile Company tiled the interior and exterior of the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego and tiled the first saltwater community plunge in Pacific Beach.

Meave Wright Sharman was born in 1881 in Charles City Iowa. Her father Benjamin Franklin Wright founded of a newspaper named the "Press" and later became editor of the AdsoCate newspaper for twenty-five years. Ulysses Grant, then President of the United States, commissioned Benjamin Wright to be the first postmaster of Charles City.

Meave Sharman's mother Samantha Mason was born the thirteenth child of the D. B. Mason family. The Masons arrived in northern Iowa in a covered wagon and were among the first to homestead there. Mason City Iowa was named after Meave's grandfather D. B. Mason.

Meave Wright Sharman became one of a very few women at that time to graduate from college. Soon after her graduation her mother, Samantha, became very ill.  The doctor sent Meave and her mother to a well known health resort named The Hotel Del in Coronado California. Samantha recovered from her illness and both of them remained in San Diego. Within six months, Meave's father Benjamin, two aunts and one uncle moved from Iowa to San Diego.
Herbert and Meave met at Church in San Diego and married in the early 1900's. Their honeymoon of two weeks consisted of traveling by horse and buggy, first to the Chase Ranch at the end of Chase St. in El Cajon. Next they stopped in Alpine and then spent a couple of days at the Ellis Ranch in Descanso. Cuyamaca became their third stop and then on to Julian, Ramona, Lakeside and returning to San Diego. Their honeymoon trip was the beginning of their love for the mountains. They lived in Point Loma and raised two daughter Frances and Genevieve. Meave taught Latin at San Diego High for many years. 

Marshal Palmer, who had married one of Ebenezer Hulburd’s daughters from Hulburd Grove, had built the Hulburd Grove Bridge that crossed the river between Hulburd Grove Estates Subdivision and River Road.  In 1927, a flood washed out half of the northern end of River Road. To stop the road from flooding again, Palmer continued the road by making a sharp uphill turn from River Road. At that bend Tanglewood Lane begins. The south end of River Road at that time ended at the corner of Melody Lane.

The Sharman family spent many summers vacationing in Hulburd Grove. In 1929 Herbert and Meave bought two adjoining lots in what was then the new subdivision. Marshal Palmer often made errors with the property lines in his subdivisions; therefore, to be safe the Sharman's built a small summer log cabin in the middle of the lots. In 1930 they added a large post and beam log living room, bedroom and bathroom. Frances Sharman married John Sinclair and they honeymooned in 1932 at the Sharman house in Descanso. 

At the beginning of WWII a huge cannon was installed next to their home in Point Loma. They quickly sold that house and added on to the cabin in Descanso.   The local mason, Victor Mc Coy built the rock room in front of the house, adding another bedroom and bathroom. They spent their time between Descanso and an apartment in San Diego until they both retired. 

The Sharman house on Tanglewood Lane became known as Bermegefran, short for the four Sharman's, Bert-Meave-Gen-Fran. It wasn't until the fifties that River road was continued to connect to Viejas Blvd. at the corner of the Descanso Elementary School.

Herbert and Meave Sharman wanted to keep the property in the family, and so it has happened. Bermegefran has been passed down through the family. Jenny Belle Bowman, one of the Sharman's granddaughters, married Ronald Bowman. They bought Bermegefran  from the family in 1965 and raised three children there. Their trust is passing the home on to their son Rex Bowman. His only child, Rexanne, will inherit Bermegefran. One hundred years will have passed by the time Rexanne Bowman Anderson will pass Bermegefran down to the next generation.

Author: Jenny Belle Bowman

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