Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1880-02-07
JEFFERSON COUNTY VIRGINIA. SATURDAY, FEB $780,
a QUEER WOMAN.

Il " u E-lba sS OIa A.Ns
FOR THIRTY YEARS DISGUISED AS 4 MAN
SIZE PERFORMS TIE MOST BRAVE AND
pAsHING ACTS AS A sTAGE-DRIvER.
The Providence Press, with the in
quiry, ''Can any Of our readers supply
the missing link as TO her IDENTIFY" re-
prints this story, told by Watonville
(Cal.) correspondent: of the San Francis
CO Call: "rhere is hardly city or
hamlet of the Pacific coast that includes
among its citizens few Of the gold
hunters of the eally days, where at least
one person cannot be found who will
remember Charley Parkhurst. For in
the early days the gold hunters were,
10y rapidly succeeding gold discoveries,
drawn back to San Francisco as head
quarters, aud again distributed from IT
10 the most recently found diggingS,
in those same early days Charley Park
hurst was stage-driver on the more
important routes lading out from the
city. Ae was in his day
ONE OF TIE MOST DENTEROUS
ard celebrated of the famous California
drivers, ranking with F.ss, Hank, Monk
and George Gordon, and it was an hour
to be striyen for to occupy the spare
end OF the drivers seat when the fear
less Charley Parkhurst held the reins ot
a four or six-in-hand. California coach
ing had, and has even yet, one exciting
adjutant that was wanting in all pre-
ctding coaching. 1t was when the or
gauized bands of hiyhwaymen waylald
the coaches, leapcd 10 the leaders heads
and over leyeled shot guns, issued the
grim command made SO often that 1t
has crystalized into the felonions for
mula OF throw down the box" Drivers
OF a ph!egmatic temperament became
accustomed to these Interruptions, eN-
pertly reckoned up the killing capacity
OF the gun barrels leyeled at them, &C.
ceptcd the inevitable, threw down the
treasure box and drove Oh. Charley
Parkhurst was
HIGH STRUNG,
and this vas one requirement OF the
driver of the early days he never could
master. lie drove for awhile between
Stockton and Mariposa, and was once
stopped, and had TO cut away the treas
urc-box to get his coach and passeng
crs clear. But he did it even under the
"drop" of the robbers firearms, with
an i'll grace, and he told The highway
men that he would "break caycn with
them" He was as good as his word,
for being subsequently stopped on a
return trip from Mariposa to Stockton,
he watched his opportunity, and con-
temporaneously turned his wild mus
tangs and his wicked revolver loose,
and brought every thing through safe
That his shooting was TO the mark was
subsequently ascertained by the conies-
sion OF ''Sugariool,' a notorious high
wayman, who mortalIy wounded, found
his way to a miners cabin in the hills,
and in arficaiO morHs lold how he had
been shot BY Charley Parkhurst, the
famous driver, in desperate attempt,
with others, to stop the stage.
CHARLEY PARHUURST
also afterward drove on the great stage
route from Oakland TO San Jose, and
later and for 4 long time, he was 'the
boss of the road between san Juan and
Santa Cruz, when San Francisco was
reached by way of San Juan. Bat Park
hurst was of both an energetic and thrift
ty nature, and when rapid Improvements
in the means of lOcomotion relegatad
coaches farther out toward the frontiers,
and msde the driving of them less prof
| table, it was not sufficient for him that
he was acknowledged as one OF three or
four crack whips OF the coast. lie res
oluteIy abandoned driving and went to
farming. For fifteen years he prosecn-
ted this calling, varying it in the winter
time by working III the woods, where
he was known as one OF the most skill
fnl and powerful Of choppers and lum-
bermen, and were his services were very
highest wages Although, 10 his stage
coaching days, he was
HAIL FELLOW WELL MET
with migratory miners, and during the
succeeding years Of his life as farmer
and lamberman he was social and gen.
erous with his fellows, yet never in.
temperate, immoral or reckless, and the
sure result was that his years Of labor
had been rewarded with a competency
of several thousands OF dollars For
several years past he had been so severe
ly afflicted with rheumatism as not only
to be unable to do physical labor, bur
the malady had even resulted in partial
shriyellng and distortion of some of bis
limbs. lie was also attacked by a can
Ger on his tongue. AS the combined
diseases became more aggressive the ge-
nial Charley Parkhurst became not mo-
rose, but less and less communicative,
till Of late be has couyersed with no one
except on the ordinary topics of the day.
Last Sunday, in little cabin on the
Moss Rancho, about six miles from Wat
sonyillc, Charley Parkburst, the famous
coachmap, the fearless iighter,the indus
trious farmer and expert woodman.
DIED
of the cancer on his tongue. lie knew
that Death was approaching, but be did
not relax the reticence Of his later years
other than to express few wishesas to
certain things to be done at his death.
Then, when the hands of the kind friends
who had ministered TO his dying wants
came to lay out the dead body of The
adventurous Argonaut, discovery was
made that was literally astounding
Charley Parkhurst was a woman. The
discoveries of the successful concealment