JAMES F. PARKS
SURNAMES; PHEBY. ORTHMAN, BRADLEY,
James Franklin Parks was sturdy and ambitious youth of nineteen years
when he made the journey across the plains from Missiouri to California
and virtualy six months represented the period of the long overland
trip made with wagon and ox team. Mr. Parks arrived in California in
the year 1854, and he as one of a comparatively few of the pioneers who
continued active alliance with mining operations from the early days
to the later period of present-day prosperity and progress. In 1887
Mr. Parks became connected with the famous Kennedy mines, near Jackson,
Amador County, California, and there he remained as manager and
superintendent, until the time of his death, which occurred October 8,
1903. His widow resides in San Francisco, and to her the publishers of
this work are indebted for the data on which is based this brief
tribute to the memory of her husband, one of the honored pioneers of
Califonria.
Mr. Parks was born at Warsaw, Cooper County, Missouri, on the 9th of
September, 1835, and thus he was sixty-nine years of age at the time of
his death. He was the second child in a family of nine children, and
concerning the others only the briefest of record can here be given:
Martha is deceased; Mrs. Mary Atkisson, a widow, still resides in
Missouri;Almira is the widow of Richard Meltona nd resides in Lincoln
County , Missouri; Emma and Julia are deceased, as is Alexander; Susan
still lives in the old home town of Warsaw, Missouri; and Thomas is
deceased. Samuel and Christing parks, parents of the subject ot his
memoir, were sterling folk of prominence in their community in
Missouri, the father having there owned and operated a large landed
estate, having served as judge in his community and having been three
times elected to teh Missouri Legislature. Samuel Parks died in the
year 1876, and his widow, surviiving him more than thrity yearss, was
of venerable age at the time of her death in 1908.
James F. Parks received his youthful education in the schools of his
native place and, as already noted in this context, he was nineteen
years of age at the time of his arrival in California. For a brief
period he was employed in the mining camps on Kings River, and
thereafter he was connected in turn with the Pinetree Mine, in Bear
Valley, Mariposa County, and the Gold Hill Mine in Nevada, of which
latter he was foreman. In 1870 Mr. Parks joined in the gold stampede to
White Pine, Nevada, and later he became foreman of Indian Valley Mine in
Plumas County, California. In 1873 he became foreman of the Keystone
mines in Amador County, where he continued his effective service in this
capacity for a period of fourteen years. He then, in 1887, became
associated with the Kennedy mines at Jackson, that county, where he held
the office of superintendent at the time of his death. Mr. Parks took
deep interest in all that concerned the progress and prosperity of the
state to which he came as a pioneer, and his genial and noble
personality gained to him a host of friends.
On the 8th of October, 1872, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Parks
and Miss Mary Pheby, who survives him and who maintains her home in San
Francisco. Mrs. Parks was a native of England, coming to Mariposa
County, California, in early days with her parents, James and Elizabeth
Pheby, the former being a mining man and continuing in that business all
his life. Of the four children of Mr. and Mrs. Parks the eldest is
Lillian, at home; Miss Ruth, at home; John Parks Davis, a junior in the
University of California; and Janet, at school. Samuel Thomas, who
married Josephine Orthman, of Stockton, is a prosperous farmer near
Stockton. Mary Elizabeth is the wife of F. W. Bradley, president of the
Alaska-Treadwell Gold Mining Company. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley have four
sons: Worthen, attending the University of California; James Parks, at
School; Sewall, at school; and John Davis, at school. James Franklin
died in 1920, when about forty years of age. He was born in Amador City,
Amador County, where he was known and loved by all. He was a prosperous
and popular mining operator, associated with the Plymouth Gold Mining
Company in Amador County. His life was so lived that his name will be
recalled with appreciation and affection by his friends and associates,
and his memory will long linger in their hearts.
transcribed by Tom Hilk- from:
History of the San Francisco Bay region
Chicago: American Historical Society, 1924,
MARIPOSA COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES
MARIPOSA COUNTY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY