Weekly Chillicothe crisis., 1880-01-22
THIRTY YEARS IN DISGUISE.
A Noted Old California Stage-Driver Dis
cnyarad Ftar naatb IN Ra a Woman

A Noted Old California Stage-Driver Dis
covered, After Death, to BE a Woman.
Correspondence of the San Francisco Call.
There is hardly a city or town or hamlet
Of the Pacific coast that includes among
its citizens few Of the gold hunters Of
the early days, where at least one person
cannot be found who will remember Char
ley Pmkhurst. For in the early days the
gold hunters were, by rapidly succeeding
gold discoveries, drawn back TO San Fran
cisco as headquarters, and again dis
tributed from it to the most recently found
diggings, and in those same early days
Charley Parkhurst was stage driver on
the more important routes leading out
from the city. He was in his day one Of
the most dextrOus and celebrated of the
famous California drivers, ranking with
FOss, Hank Monk, and George Gordon,
and il was an honor to be strlven for TO
occupy the spare end of the drivers seat
when the fearless Charley Parkhurst held
the reins of four or six-ln-hand. Cali
tornia coaching had, and has even yet,
one exciting adjunct that was wanting in
all preceding coaching, 1t was when the
organized bands Of highwaymen waylaid
the coaches leaped to the leaders heads,
and, over leveled shot-guns, issued the
grim command made so often that 1t has
crystalized into the telonious formula of
Throw down the box" Drivers OF a
phlegmatic temperament become accus-
toned to these Interruptions, expertly
reckon up the killing capacity Of the gun
barrels leyeled at them, accept the newt.
able, throw down the treasure box and
drive on. Charley Parkhurst was high
strung, and tins was one requirement Of
the driver Of the early days he could never
master. He drove for while between
Stockton an Mariposa and once was stop
ped and had TO cut away the treasure box
to get his coach and passengers clear.
But he did it, even under the "drop" OF
the robbers firearms, with all i'll grace,
and he defently told the highwaymen that
h. would "brcak even with them" He
was as good as his word, for, being sub
saqucntly stopped on a return trip from
Mariposa to Stockton, he watched his op-
portunity, and, cOntempOraneOusly y, turned
his wild mustangs and his wicked revolver
loose, and brought everything through
safe. That his shooting to the mark was
subsequently ascertained by the confession
of "SngaYfOOt," notorious highwayman,
who, mortaly wounded, found his way to
Il miners cabin in the hills, and, in arti-
cuIO mortis told how he had been shot by
Charley ParEhurst, the famous driver, in
a desperate attempt, with others, to stop
the stage.
Charley Parkhurst also afterward
drove on the great stage route from Oak
land to San Jose, and later, and for a
long time, he was "the boss of the road"
be,wern San Juan and Sata Cruz, when
San Francisco was reached by way Of San
Juan. But PaIkhurst was of both an
energetic and thrifty nature, and when
rapid improvements in the means of loco
motion rclCgattd coaches further out to-
ward the frontiers, and made thes driving
Of them less profitable, it was not suffi-
cicnL for him that he was acknowledged
as one Of the three or four crack whips Of
the coast. He reSOlutely abandoned driv-
ing and went to farming, For fifteen
years he prosecuted this calling, varying
it in the winter time by working in the
woods, where he was known as one Of the
most skillul, and powerful of choppers
and iumbermCn and where his services
were eagerly sought for, aud always COM
mlnded the highest wages. Although
in his stage-coachiug days, lie was hail
fellow well met with the migratory miners,
and during the succeeding years Of bis
lilc as farmer and lumberman he was
social and generous with his fellows, he
was never Incorporate, immoral, or reck-
less, and the sure result was that his
years of labor had been rewarded with a
competency Of several thousands OF dol
Hr'. For several years past he had been
so severely afflicted with rheumatism as,
not only to be unable to do physical labor,
but the malady had even resulted in
partial shriycling and distortion of some
of his limbs. He was also attacked by
cancer on his tongue. As the combined
Diseases LeCame more aggressive, the
genial Charley Parkhurst became, not
morosa, but less and less communicative,
till Of late he has conyersed with no one
except on the ordinary topics Of the day.
Last Sunday, in little cabin on the
Moss Ranch, about six miles from Wat
g5nTllC. Charley Parkhurst, the famous
couchman, the fearless fighter, the indus
ti0us farmer and expert woOdman, died,
of the cancer on his tongue. He knew
that death was approaching, but he did
not relax the retioence of his later years
other than to express few wishes as to
certain things to be done at his death.
Then when the hands of the kind friends
who had ministered to his dying wants
come to lay out the dead body OF tie ad-
venturous lArgonaut, a discovery was
made that was literally astounding. Char
ley Parkhurst was a woman, The dis
cOveries of the successful concealment for
protracted periods OF the female sex under
the Disguise of the masculine are not in
frequent, but the one of Charley Park.
hurst may fairly claim to rank as by all
odds the most astonishing OF all Of them.
That a young woman should assume
mans attire and friendless and alone,
defy the dangers Of the voyage of lS49,
to the then almost mythical California
dangers over which hardy pioneers still
grow boastiul--has IN it sufficient OF the
wonderful. That she should achieve dis
tinction in an occupation above all pro-
LESSONS calling for the best physical
qualities OF nerve, courage, coolness,, and
endurance, and that she should add to
them the almost romantic personal brav-
cry that enables one to fight ones way
through the ambush of an enemy, seems
almost fabulous and that for 30 years
she should be in constant and intimate
association with men and women, and
that her true sex should never have been
even suspected, and that she would final
ly 90 knowingly down 10 her death, with
out disclosing Oy wordor deed who she
was, or why she had assumed man S dress
and responsibilities, are things that
reader might be justified in doubling, if
the proof of their exact truth was not so
abundant and conclusive. On the great
register of Santa Cruz county for the year
1867 appears this entry: "Parkhurst,
Charles Durkee, So, New Hampshire,
farmer, Sequel, where he then lived. It.
is said by several who knew her intimate.
ly, that she came from Providence. r. |