Charley Darkey Parkhurst , born Charlotte Darkey Parkhurst (1812-1879), also known as One Eyed Charley or Six-Horse Charley , is a train driver, a rancher and an American rancher in California. Born and raised as a girl in New England, mostly in an orphanage, Parkhurst escaped as a youth, taking Charley's name and living as a man. He started working as a stable hand and learned to handle horses, including riding a coach drawn by many horses. He works in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, traveling to Georgia for related work.
In his 30s, Parkhurst sailed to California following the Gold Rush in 1849; there he became a well-known postal train director. By 1868, he might have been the first individual female anatomy to vote in a presidential election in California. At his death, it was discovered that he was an anatomical woman, as was the fact that he had given birth at an earlier time.
Video Charley Parkhurst
Life and career
Charley Parkhurst was born Charlotte Darkey Parkhurst in 1812 in Sharon, Vermont, to Mary (Morehouse) Parkhurst and Ebenezer Parkhurst. Parkhurst has two siblings, Charles D. and Maria. Charles D. was born in 1811 and died in 1813. His mother, Mary, died in 1812. Some time after Charles D. died, Charlotte and Mary were taken to an orphanage in Lebanon, New Hampshire. (Some sources say Charlotte was born there.) They grew up under Mr.'s care. Millshark.
Parkhurst escaped from an orphanage at the age of 12. He adopted Charley's name and received a more masculine presentation. According to one account, Parkhurst soon meets Ebenezer Balch, who has a stable livery in Providence, Rhode Island. He took what he thought was an orphan under his care and returned to Rhode Island. Caring for Parkhurst like a son, Balch taught him to work as a stable hand and gradually with the horses. He developed his talent with horses, and Balch taught him to ride a coach, first with one, then four, and finally six horses. Parkhurst worked for Balch for several years. He may know James E. Birch, who is a younger chariot driver in Providence.
In 1848, the 21-year-old Birch and his close friend Frank Stevens went to California during the Gold Rush to seek their fortune. Birch immediately started the postal service, starting as a driver with one cart. He gradually consolidated several small stage lines to the California Stage Company.
Looking for other opportunities in California, Parkhurst, in his 30s, also left Rhode Island, sailing on R.B. Forbes from Boston to Panama; travelers have to cross the isthmus land and take another ship on the west coast. In Panama, Parkhurst meets John Morton, returning to San Francisco where he has a drayage business; Morton hired the driver to work for him. Shortly after reaching California, Parkhurst lost the use of one eye after a kick from the horse, which led to his nickname "One Eyed Charley" or Cockeyed Charley .
Then Parkhurst worked for Birch, where he developed a reputation as one of the best stage coach drivers ("whips") on the West Coast. It inspires another nickname for her, Six-Horse Charley. He was ranked with "Foss, Hank Monk and George Gordon" as one of the top riders at the time. The Stagecoach driver was also nicknamed "Jehus," after a passage in Kings 9:20: "... and driving is like riding on Jehu son of Nimshi, because he rode angrily."
Among the Parkhurst route in northern California is Stockton to Mariposa, the "big stage route" from San Jose to Oakland, and San Juan to Santa Cruz. Stagecoach drivers carry letters and passengers, and have to deal with deferment, bad weather, and dangerous and primitive trails. When historian Charles Outland described the era, "It was a dangerous era in a dangerous country, where dangerous conditions are the norm."
Looking at the railroad tracks cutting off the post-carriage business, Parkhurst retired from driving a few years later to Watsonville, California. For fifteen years he worked on the farm and was slow in winter. He also raises chickens in Aptos.
He then moved to a small hut about six miles from Watsonville and suffered from rheumatism in his final years. Parkhurst died there on December 18, 1879, due to cancer of the tongue.
Maps Charley Parkhurst
Revelation posthumously
After Parkhurst died in 1879, the neighbors came to the cabin to lay the corpse for burial and found that her body appeared to be a woman to them. Rheumatism and tongue cancer are listed as the cause of death. In addition, the examining physician determined that Parkhurst had given birth at one time. The house trunk contains a baby dress. The LA Times reported, "Her true sex discovery became a local sensation," and was soon brought up by a national newspaper.
The obituary of Parkhurst from Call San Francisco was reprinted in The New York Times on January 9, 1880, so his remarkable driving career and the discovery of the corpse Parkhurst commissioned sex received national coverage. The title is: "Thirty Years in Incognito: A California Old Lamp Driver Found Found After Death, Becomes a Woman."
He was in his day one of the most deft and famous of the famous racers of California with Foss, Hank Monk, and George Gordon, and it was an honor to struggle to occupy the driver's seat end when Charley's fearless Parkhurst took control of four or six at hand...
Last week [December 28, 1879], in a small cottage on Moss Ranch, about six miles from Watsonville, Charley Parkhurst, renowned coach, fearless warrior, industrious farmer and woodman expert died of cancer on his tongue. He knew that death was imminent, but he did not relax his reluctance many years later other than to express some desire for certain things to be done on his death. Then, when the hands of the good friends who had served the dying desire came to expel the adventurous Argonauts, a discovery was made that was truly astonishing. Charley Parkhurst is a woman.
The article notes how unusually Parkhurst can live for so long without anyone discovering his assigned gender, and to "reach a difference in a job above all professions that call for the best physical qualities of nerves, courage, coolness and resilience, and that's it should add almost romantic personal courage that allows one to fight someone through an enemy ambush... "looks almost unbelievable, but there is plenty of evidence to prove his case.
1868 votes
The Santa Cruz Sentinel October 17, 1868, lists Charles Darkey Parkurst on the official polling list for the election of 1868. There is no record that Parkhurst actually voted. If he has chosen, Parkhust may be the first female anatomy individual to vote in a presidential election in California. Local legend and Parkhurst tombstone claimed that Parkhurst was "the first woman to vote in the US"
Inheritance and honor
- The fire station in Soquel, California, has a plaque reading:
The first vote by a woman in the US presidential election was held on this site November 3, 1868, by Charlotte (Charley) Parkhurst disguised as a man for most of his life. He was a chariot driver in the mother country lode during the days of gold rush and shot and killed at least one bandit. In his last years he was riding a postcart in this area. He died in 1879. It was not until then that he found women. She is buried in Watsonville at a pioneer cemetery.
- In 1955, the Pajaro Valley History Association established a monument in Parkhurst's grave, which reads:
Charley Darkey Parkhurst (1812-1879) Remembering the whip of the gold rush days drove over Mt. Madonna in the early Valley. Last run San Juan to Santa Cruz. Death in the cabin near the house 7 miles. Uncovering 'one eye Charley' a woman. The first woman to vote in the US 3 November 1868.
- In 2007, the Santa Cruz County Rescue Agent oversaw the completion of the Parkhurst Terrace Apartment, named for postal supervisors and located one mile along the old stage route from where he died.
Representation in popular culture
- The National Center for Autry Los Angeles has a series of programs and events, titled Out West, from 2009-2010, which includes exhibitions, lectures, films and other material about homosexuals, bisexual and transgender people to the Old West. Charley/Charlotte Parkhurst is one of the individuals featured in this series.
- Pam MuÃÆ' Â ± oz Ryan wrote a fictional biography about Charley Parkhurst's life for children, titled Riding Freedom (1999). This is illustrated by Brian Selznick.
- Fern J. Hill writes a fictitious memoir based on Parkhurst's life, Charley's Choice: The Life and Times of Charley Parkhurst (2008).
- Karen Kondazian wrote the historical fiction novel, The Whip (2012), based loosely on Charley Parkhurst's life.
- On March 13, 1958, during the sixth season of the Death Valley Days television series, the episode "Cockeyed Charlie Parkhurst" aired. It's loose based on his life, and Frank Gerstle plays Charlie's role. Janice Holt Giles owns Charlie Parkhurst as a character in the novel Six Horse Hitch, a historical fiction novel on stage coaching covering the period from 1859-1869. It was published in June 1969 by the Houghton Mifflin company.
References
Further reading
- Harris, Gloria G. and Hannah S. Cohen. Women Trailblazers of California: Pioneers to Date, The History Press, 2012 (no source or footnote)
- Outland, Charles F. Stagecoaching at El Camino Real , American Trails Series, Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clarke Company, 1973
- Pryor, Alton. Attracting Women in California History , Roseville, California: Stagecoach Publishing, 2003, ISBNÃ, 0-9660053-9-2, self-published (no source or footnote)
- Southwick, Albert B. (published 1970 in Train Journal), reissued in Quoted Quotes Volume II (2014) ISBN: 9781501015557 , self-published (no source or footnote)
External links
- "Charley Darkey Parkhurst has a secret", Santa Cruz Sentinel , October 8, 2006
- "The Strange Life and Times of Charley Parkhurst", Active Metro
- "Survive with Style: Women in the Santa Cruz Mountains"
- The New York Times ' 1880 Obituaries
- Conversation about Charley Parkhurst with Karen Kondazian and Peter Robinson on YouTube
- The episode article reads today's short radio news about Parkhurst, California Legacy Project
- "Life and Death Stagecoach Driver Fear, Charley Parkhurst", May 4, 2016
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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