Edwin J. Pond was born around 1838 in Franklin, Massachusetts, to Goldsbury and Julia Pond. His father was a farmer who owned $3,000 of real estate by 1850. He grew up and attended school in Franklin, and he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in the mid-1850s. He earned a living as a music teacher there. He married Emily F. Potter on May 17, 1859, and their son Fred was born in March 1861. Fred died in November 1862.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on September 8, 1862, and he mustered in as a musician in the 11^th Rhode Island Infantry on October 1. He fell ill soon afterwards. As he explained in November 1862, “my lungs have troubled me some, so that at times it troubles me to perform my part in the band, as I enlisted as a fifer.” He mustered out on July 13, 1863.

 

He settled in Medway, Massachusetts, after the war, and he earned a living as a painter. His wife probably died sometime in the 1860s, and he married Harriet E. Whiting on July 20, 1867. By 1880, he was working as a music teacher again. His wife died on March 8, 1887, and he married Mahala Greenup on January 4, 1888. He applied for a federal pension in January 1892 but apparently never received one. He died in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 25, 1900.

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