Returning to civilian life, he became a successful lecture manager whose clients included Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, and Henry Morton Stanley.

Pond was born on June 11, 1838, in Cuba, New York,[1] though his official residence was listed as Janesville, Wisconsin.

[2][3] He was a member of the Underground Railroad,[3] helping escaped slaves reach freedom and reportedly riding with John Brown for a time in the mid-1850s.

At the Battle of Baxter Springs, he fought against the notorious Confederate guerrilla leader William Quantrill and his Raiders.

[6] After the war, he was elected as a companion of the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

[2] Other clients included P. T. Barnum,[4] Booker T. Washington,[4] Frederick Douglass,[3] Arthur Conan Doyle,[9] Ellen Terry,[4] and Henry Ward Beecher.