History of Santa Clara County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 73

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1928

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His son, George W. Blackford, was born in Ohio in December, 1843, and he became a member of the second class that was graduated from the University of the Pacific in San Jose, where he completed a law course. Going to Marysville, he there opened an office, but at the end of a short time returned to San Jose, where he wedded Miss Lillie G. Hassinger, a native of Philadelphia, Pa., and a representative of an old Maryland family. In 1859 she had come to California with her parents, who settled in Santa Clara County. Following their marriage the young couple went to Dayton, Nevada, where Mr. Blackford practised law for a few years and then returned to San Jose, becoming one of the prominent attorneys of this city. He also devoted considerable attention to fruit raising and took much pride in the develop- ment of his home ranch which he, too, had purchased from the Mexican government, which he irrigated by means of deep wells; also adding many other improvements and converting it into one of the model farm properties in Santa Clara County. On that place he resided until 1885, when he erected a beauti- ful home at 53 South Sixth Street, San Jose, and here his daughter Lillie is now living. He passed away

J. J Parkinson

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

on January 29, 1909, and Mrs. Blackford died April 29, 1914, and in 1917 the ranch was sold.

Mr. and Mrs. Blackford became the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this review is the eldest. The others are May F., now the wife of F. H. Herbert, of San Francisco; Mrs. Alice L. Dinsmore, a resident of Los Gatos; Maude C. Black- ford, who is at home with her sister; Mrs. Florence G. Moody, of San Jose; and Walter G., who is also living in this city. Miss Blackford is a member of the Episcopal Church, while the other members of the family are Presbyterians in religious faith. She gives her political allegiance to the Democratic party, to which her father also adhered, and is interested in all that pertains to the welfare and progress of com- munity, state and nation. By inheritance she bears a name that has ever been an honored one in connec- tion with the pioneer development and later upbuild- ing of the state and in her own career she exemplifies those commendable qualities which have at all times been a distinguishing trait of the family.

J. F. PARKINSON .- A prominent Mason who is so identified with the carly history of the town that he well deserves the title of the Father of Palo Alto, is J. F. Parkinson, of 616 Cowper Street, in which attractive thoroughfare he is a familiar figure-six feet, three inches tall, and weighing 240 pounds. His life-story is intimately the history of Palo Alto, for he built the first residence here, put in the first lum- ber yard, incorporated the first bank, and drove the first spike in the great railway he had promoted. He was born in Marshall County, W. Va., on December 2, 1864, when his father, Dr. Benoni Parkinson was serving in the Civil War with the rank of a major He had just finished his course of study as a physi- cian and surgeon, at the Waynesburg, Pa., Medical College, when the war commenced, and he lost no time in enlisting, registering from West Virginia. He served as army surgeon throughout the great struggle, and had four enlistments and several pro- motions to his credit. He was the son of Jobn Parkinson, a native of Virginia, a contractor on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, when it was built through the Cumberland Mountains. The Parkinson family, dating back to both England and Scotland, settled in Virginia and in time became prominent in both the Old Dominion and the Keystone State, active in business and in the professions, especially as law- vers and doctors. Dr. Benoni Parkinson was mar- ried in Virginia on October 14, 1862, after which he went to the front. He was born on March 3, 1836, and died at Palo Alto on February 7, 1899, after residing in this city for six years. His bride, before her marriage to Dr. Parkinson, was Katherine Mary Gray, and she was born in Greene County, Pa., on November 28, 1840. Her parents were Francis and Sarah (Roseberry) Gray, and the Grays and the Roseberrys were both English settlers in Virginia. She died at Washington, Iowa, in 1880, highly es- teemed by all who knew her.

When J. F. Parkinson, who was the eldest in a family of seven children, was six years old, his par- ents removed with him to Washington County, Iowa, in 1870; and then Dr. Parkinson gave up the practice of medicine and embarked in the lum- ber tradc. He also helped to organize a number of banks in Iowa and the Middle West, and he owned a number of farms in Iowa, and our subject helped

to run them during school vacations, and also helped in his father's lumber yard. He attended the public schools in Washington, Iowa, and he completed the courses at Washington College, having previously taken a business course at Burlington. Then he went to the University of Michigan, where he pursued a classical course; but he was taken with hemor- rhage of the lungs, which led him to quit college and to hurry west to California in the hope of regaining his health. Thirteen relatives of his mother from Pennsylvania and Virginia had crossed the plains to California in 1852, lured by the prospects for gold, and a cousin, Mr. Morris, was still living at Wood- land, in Yolo County, in 1888, and welcomed our subject to the Golden State. This cousin's widow and sons are still living in Yolo County, although Asa Morris, Jr., the well-known cattleman, was killed in an automobile accident in July, 1921.

J. F. Parkinson, who was then twenty-three years old, had fallen in love in Iowa, and he had come out to the Coast not merely to regain his health, but to look for employment and secure a prospective home. His betrothed, Miss Helen M. Scofield, was born in Washington County, Iowa, and was a daugh- ter of William Scofield, the Washington, Iowa, attorney, and a cousin of General Scofield of New York, and Sarah ( Maze) Scofield, a native of Ohio. Miss Scofield, it happened, had preceded our sub- ject to California, and had been spending the winter of 1884-85 with her folks at San Jose, while she also put in a ycar at school in San Jose, and hence young Parkinson went to San Jose for employment, believing that his intended wife would like to live there. He found something worth while in the service of J. P. Pierce, president of the Pacific Manufacturing Company, at Santa Clara, commencing work at the modest salary of sixty-five dollars per month; but he rose to a commanding position, with the largest salary granted anyone in that county. He worked for the Pa- cific Manufacturing Company in charge of their lum- ber yard at Santa Clara from 1888 to 1892; and dur- ing this time he had not only met with Gov. Leland Stanford, but he had become acquainted with the plans for the building of the Leland Stanford, Jr. University.

He could easily foresee that there was plenty of room for a good-sized town in front of the proposed Uni- versity site, and he resigned his position with the Pacific Manufacturing Company, and resolved to open up a lumber yard at Palo Alto which was then called University Park. He had saved considerable money, and so was able to commence in a small way, hauling his first load of lumber from Santa Clara on March 1, 1892. By the first of January, 1893, he had transacted $70,000 worth of business. He then started a hardware store in connection with his lumber yard, and then a plumbing and tinning establishment, and later still he built the first planing mill in Palo Alto. After that he started another lum- ber yard and hardware store at Mountain View, and still later he opened a hardware store and lumber yard at Sunnyvale, when that now thriving town was known as Encinal.

His business expanded so rapidly and steadily during those years that he prospered exceedingly, and with C. C. Spalding. W. E. Crossman and Mr. Richards of San Jose, Mr. Parkinson organized the first bank at Sunnyvale. He also organized, in 1892,

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

the Bank of Palo Alto, on a wire from Iowa, from his father, who was the main stockholder. The bank was capitalized at $100,000, and Judge J. R. Welch of San Jose drew up the articles of incorporation and became the bank's first vice-president. Stock to the amount of $80,000 was taken by Dr. Parkinson and an uncle. George R. Parkinson, both of whom became well-known residents of Palo Alto, where they died. At that time, Mayfield was the nearest trading center, and had the only school and the only post office; it opposed every energetic forward move- ment proposed at University Park, and insisted on the people having children at the latter place sending them to the Mayfield school. Mr. Parkinson resolved that University Park must organize its own school district, and he set resolutely about to accomplish the task. In 1892 he gave, free of charge, all the lumber needed for the first school house in Palo Alto, which was built at the corner of University and Bryant streets, and in the fall of that year, the school house was opened for the twenty-five or more pupils. Mr. Parkinson also donated $250 for the building of the First Presby- terian Church in Palo Alto, the first church edifice in town, and he donated liberally toward the build- ing of all the succeeding churches in Palo Alto. He became a good friend of Governor Stanford, and he was thus enabled to do much toward carrying out his laudable enterprises.

Timothy Hopkins owned and laid out the townsite of what was at first called University Park, and when ambitious folks petitioned to have the name changed to Palo Alto, they were influenced by the Spanish name of Governor Stanford's extensive stock farm of 8,600 acres, included in the present site of the University, meaning "high tree," and referring to the large sequoia on the San Francisquito Creek at the extreme northerly point in Santa Clara County. It seems that the Cornell, Fitzhugh, Hopkins Com- pany of San Francisco owned sixty acres southwest of the old town of Mayfield and they plotted it and called it Palo Alto, and began to sell lots. Governor Stanford lost no time in enjoining them from the use of Palo Alto as a name. and this led to much litigation and hard feeling. The matter was finally compromised when Senator Stanford renamed the sixty-acre plot College Terrace, and this is now an addition to the town of Mayfeld. Thereupon, Mr. Hopkins, by and with the consent of those who had bought lots in University Park about 1894, petitioned the board of county supervisors to call University Park Palo Alto; and the first post office was established in Palo Alto with Mr. Parkinson as postmaster. He was elected a member of the Palo Alto School Board and he served for eight years.

Mr. Parkinson organized the Palo Alto Mutual Building and Loan Association, and became its first president. He also helped actively to establish the first newspaper in Palo Alto, the "Times," and after- wards himself owned the Palo Alto "Citizen," which in time was consolidated with the "Times." He owned the first water-works, supplied by two artesian wells, and before the town was incorporated, he laid four- inch water mains. He built the city line of street railway in Palo Alto, and also got the franchises for the Santa Clara County Interurban Electric Line. He then obtained franchises for a road extending from Palo Alto through Mayfield, Mountain View, Sunny- vale, Santa Clara and San Jose, and afterwards

bought out the J. H. Henry lines from Santa Clara to Alum Rock. In this project, he was bitterly fought by the Southern Pacific Railway, which bought these lines and renamed them, calling the now popular line the Peninsular Railway. When this was built, Mr. Parkinson drove the first spike in its construc- tion, on January 4, 1906.

More personal experiences of Mr. Parkinson are full of interest even for the stranger. In 1906 he was elected mayor of Palo Alto, and soon afterward his automobile turned turtle, and he was so severely injured that he was in bed for four years. A week after he was injured, the earthquake shook every- thing topsy-turvy in Palo Alto, and when some of the groceries and meat markets commenced to profiteer and to charge two and three times the regular price for what they had, fear made the public panicky lest starvation might confront the town. Thereupon Mr. Parkinson, although an invalid, drove around in his buggy and saw the extortioners, and through his prompt and firm measures, he stopped the profit- eering, and the result was that Palo Alto got its provisions at prices prevailing before the great dis- aster. This act was generally applauded and the mayor of Palo Alto was exalted not only in his own city, but newspapers West, East, North and South. and even in editorials in English papers. Owing to the accident referred to, and its serious consequences, Mr. Parkinson sold his business and remained mayor only until the adoption of the new special charter; and then he sought to regain his health. Later, he endeavored to promote new ventures.

Parkinson's Addition to Palo Alto comprises Alba Park and Ravenswood, and his object in boosting the latter place was to promote a harbor for Palo Alto at the same time that he made it a manufac- turing center. He was on the point of realizing his dream, and had sold his holdings at Ravenswood to a New York man, J. W. Eisenhuth, the first builder of gas-engine automobiles in the United States, when the World War came on, and through a combination of unfortunate circumstances, which grew out of the war, what otherwise would have been his crowning achievement, and what would have made him a wealthy man, his bondsmen foreclosed on him, and he lost $500,000. He has regained his health, how- ever, and he is bravely making a second start. He is the president of the American Lumber Company, of Sonoma County, a corporation having a capital of $150,000 and a sawmill at Cazadero; and they bid fair to expand as rapidly as did some of the earlier enterprises with which Mr. Parkinson has been associated in his long business carcer.

If anyone in Palo Alto is entitled to the whole- souled esteem and good will for which mortals sen- sibly crave, it would seem to be Mr. Parkinson and his good wife, to whom he was married at Wash- ington, Iowa, in 1888, for together they have done much to help build up Palo Alto. Mrs. Parkinson was one of the ladies who organized the Palo Alto Woman's Club, and she gave the first book towards establishing the Palo Alto Public Library; and she worked as hard as any of the organizers when the ladies of Palo Alto took turns in serving as Librarian. It was Mr. Parkinson who conceived the idea of en- listing Andrew Carnegie's magnificent cooperation in the providing of a library building; and when com- mittees were appointed and correspondence con-

Sarah E. Lester

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

ducted without any results, he went to New York and saw Mr. Carnegie personally, and was instru- mental in getting the $10,000 with which the present library building at the corner of Bryant and Hamil- ton streets was built in 1904. The influence of Mr. Parkinson's forceful character and clear-minded fore- sight has in a way permeated the very spirit of Palo Alto, which is known far and wide for its progres- sive ideas and its municipal utilities. Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson are living in the house at 616 Cowper Street which he built in early days, sold and then bought back again. They have had five children, and all have reflected creditably upon the family name. Katherine M. is the wife of S. E. Weaver, a newspaper man in New York City. Robert Rose- berry is vice-president of the local American Legion and a manufacturer of Safety First step-ladders at Palo Alto. He was in the Engineer Corps and served nineteen months in France. Benoni S. Parkinson is with the Tynan Lumber Company, at Salinas as the superintendent of their yard; and John F. Parkin- son, Jr., is a student at Stanford University. Kath- erine, Robert and Benoni are already Stanford grad- mates. Sarah Gray, in her fifteenth year, is a stu- dent in the Palo Alto high School. Mr. Parkinson is well up in Masonry and, as might be expected, en- joys the popularity and esteem due him.

MRS. SARAH ELIZABETH LESTER .- Among the real builders of the community, mention must be made of Mrs. Sarah E. Lester, who has borne her part in home-making and rearing an honorable and highly respected family. Born in that old colonial town of Ledyard, New London County, Conn., August 3. 1847, she is the daughter of Judge Edmund and Bethiah Williams (Avery) Spicer, and a grand- daughter of John Spicer, all natives of Connecticut. Her father followed the occupation of school teach- ing, farming and merchandising, besides holding many positions of trust and honor. For years he was a member of the school board of his district, from 1867 until his death held the office of postmaster at Ledyard; from 1836 to 1851 held the office of county clerk, from 1853 until 1865 was county treasurer, in 1849 was elected to represent his district in the state legislature, in 1862 was a candidate for the state sen- ate, and for twelve years, beginning in 1855, served as judge of the probate court. During early life he served as captain of a rifle company, and ever afterward was known as Captain Spicer. On the organization of the Ledyard Library association he became one of its charter members, and served as its secretary for eighteen consecutive years, retiring in 1885. In 1867 he was elected treasurer and librarian and continued to serve until his death in 1890. He was active as a member of the Congregational Church. On No- vember 16, 1836, he was united in marriage with Miss Bethiah W. Avery, and they were the parents of sev- en children: Mary Abby, Mrs. George Fanning of Hartford, Conn .; John Sands died at Norwich, Conn .; in 1906; Sarah E., the subject of this sketch; Carry G., Mrs. Amos Lester of San Jose; Celia W., Mrs. Jonathan F. Lester of Norwich, Conn .; Edward E. of Groton, and George W. of Deep River, Conn.

Sarah E. Spicer attended the public schools of Led- yard and lived with her parents until her marriage at Ledyard, May 24, 1871, to Nathan L. Lester, also

a native of Ledyard, who was born January 1, 1843, a son of Isaac and Mary J. (Chapman) Lester, farmers at Ledyard, Conn., and representatives of some of the oldest New England families. Nathan L was the third oldest of ten children, namely, Ainos Lester of San Jose; Mary Jane, Nathan L., Jonathan and Frank, deceased; William and Samuel of San Jose: Sarah Emma, Walter and Henry, the last three passing away in youth.

Nathan Lester's boyhood was spent in farm work during the summer and in the schoolroom during the winter months. In 1861 he came for the first time to California via the Isthmus of Panama and settled first in Napa County, and in company with his brother Amos engaged in wheat raising for seven years; he then returned to Connecticut where he married and settled on a farm, and while there he served as selectman of Ledyard. Here he remained until 1883, when he came again with his wife and four children to the Pacific Coast, this time settling in Santa Clara County, where he bought the old homestead on South Lincoln Avenue, in The Wil- lows. Mr. Lester made a practical study of horti- culture, and found both pleasure and profit from this interesting side of country life. Thirty-one acres were planted to prunes, and the venture was a success. This was added to until he had sixty-seven acres in orchard. He gave close attention to the management of his ranch, and aside from voting the Republican ticket and assisting in the maintenance of the Congre- gational Church, he had no interests outside of his home. In June, 1900, while building a dryer, he fell from a ladder and received injuries that resulted in death, three days later, on June 27, at the age of fifty-seven years. Mr. Lester was a prominent mem- ber of San Jose Grange. He was a man of honorable and upright life, and deeply religious, taking a strong stand for high morals and the preservation of the sanctity of the home. No one in the county was held in higher esteem, and his passing away was a great loss, not only to his family, but to the whole com- munity, by whom he was deeply mourned. Mr. and Mrs. Lester were the parents of seven children and there are thirteen grandchildren; Alice is now Mrs. C. L. Snyder, residing in San Jose and they have two children-Philip Lester and Rixford Kinney; Nathan L. married Miss Sylvia Hughes and they have two children-Katherine and Nathan L., Jr .; William W. married Miss Ethel V. Gerrans and they have two children-William Walter, Jr., and Elizabeth; Sarah Emma and George are deceased; Fred E. mar- ried Miss June Van Dorsten and they have three children-Edith Annette, Fred Raymond and Marjorie Alice; Hazel B. is now Mrs. William H. Cilker, they have four children-Beatrice Ann. Marion Sarah, William Hamilton, Jr., and George Edward. Mrs. Lester is a prominent member of the Congregational Church and is president of the Will- ing Workers Society. She owns and maintains the old home on South Lincoln Avenue. but spends most of her time with her sons and daughters. A cul- tured and refined woman, she has gathered about her many friends who appreciate her for her many fine qualities and the spirit of hospitality which takes in all who visit her.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

MASSEY THOMAS .- Much goes to make up the history of any nation or communities-group, but whenever the story of Santa Clara County, its an- rivalled resources and its phenomenal growth shall be written, the historian will be sure to include a record of development such as that of the late Mas- sey Thomas, the well-known '49er, who with much to choose from turned to agricultural pursuits in this highly-favored region, and selected historie Gilroy as his abiding place. Along the banks of Green River, in Ohio County, Ky., on January 27, 1813, he entered the family of James Thomas and his good wife, who had been Miss Elizabeth Miller before her marriage; and he was christened Massey. after his Grandfather Thomas, who in the stirring days of the American Revolution, made an illustrious name for himself in many of the battles waged for our independence. Growing up, the grandfather removed from Virginia to Tennessee, nothing daunted by the fact that he had only rough pack trails instead of even country roads to travel over: and with the responsibility of caring for their infant child James, the intrepid pioneer and his wife settled in Danville, Ky., where they became neighbors, albeit at what today would be considered handsomely distant, to the renowned Dan- iel Boone. the hero of the Battle of Blue Licks, who had doubly earned his title after the elever expedi- ent by which he escaped from four armed Indians through having thrown tobacco into their eyes and blinded the redskins. Developed, like Boone and his doughty sons, to hardihood and extreme self-depend- ence, Massey Thomas after a while sought hetter prospects on a farm in Ohio County; and there he at last found a peaceful conclusion to his strenu- ous earthly progress.

The grandson who had the honor of bearing the brave old Massey's honored name, the subject of this review, continued in Kentucky until the middle of his teens, when he removed to Marion County, Mo., and for three years worked hard to get a foothold. Then he selected Lewis County for a farm investment, and he developed the rough land into something more indicative of civilization. When the news of the dis- covery of gold in California, however, was received in Missouri and the neighboring region, Massey Thom- as, like thousands of others, became restive and eager to dare in the hope of sharing; and he was not long in crossing the plains and going to the mines. He was also not long in discovering that far more cer- tain wealth might be casily acquired by catering to those who were seeking the gold; hence he turned his attention to teaming, and often earned as much as thirty dollars a day.

A year and a half under the trying pioneer con- ditions of California at this period of over-influx and seanty provision was enough for the common- sense of this practical, progressive man, and Mr. Thomas, in the early spring of 1851, returned East, reaching his old home in Missouri on February 15. In April he again came to the Coast, but this time he brought with him a herd of 300 cattle, which he knew would be worth more, in a way, than the much sought for gold in the mountains. By the mid- dle of October he had located upon the 500 acres which he was to make his celebrated home-place, and there. with three-fifths of his acreage in the fer-

tile valley, he embarked in extensive farming to wheat and barley. He also took up stock-raising an enltivation of fruit, improving his stock to the high- est standard, and introducing from abroad, and cul- tivating originally himself, some of the best and choicest and newest varieties of fruits. In this way, by the most scientific methods then known, he made his farm one of the most valuable ranches in this part of the county.

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History of Santa Clara County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 73

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846- Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1928

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1928