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The Story of Charley Parkhurst

One of the most renown and daring stagecoach drivers of the old west during the 1850's and 1860's was Charley Parkhurst. Sometimes the name was seen as Charlie Parkhurst. The biggest surprise for people who knew Charley for years was that Charley was born as Mary Parkhurst in 1812. The fact that Charley Parkhurst was a woman was only discovered after Charley passed away.

When Parkhurst died in 1879, neighbors came to prepare his body for burial and discovered that Parkhurst was physically a female. In addition to this, the doctor who arrived to examine the deceased Parkhurst stated that Charley had at one point in his/her life given birth.

The Young Charley Parkhurst

Mary eventually ended up in an orphanage after her mother died shortly after she was born. This was also brought about by her father's remarriage. Mary didn't stay there too long. At twelve years of age she ran away from the orphanage and found a job at a stable in Worcester, MA. Reportedly it is at this time that Mary became known as Charley Darkey Parkhurst. Mary was dressed as a boy when she ran away from the orphanage and the tale is that she dressed that way for the remainder of her life.

Charley in California

Charley lived for 20 years in Aptos California near Santa Cruz. Wearing a black patch over one eye, he was referred to as ' one eyed Charlie'. Anytime stories are told about old west legends, a degree of embellishment sometimes is included. The passage of years alone is usually responsible. Other times it happens when newspaper stories mix fact with fiction to help sell papers. It's like the old fish story where the fish gets bigger with each telling of the story.

What we do know is that Charley made her way in 1851 across the entire country to California. That would have made her 39 years old. This was during the time of the California Gold Rush and many thousands just like Charley headed west.

The Charley Parkhurst Legend

The legend of Charley Parkhurst also tells us she was a drinking, card and dice playing and cigar smoking woman of the old west.

Charley found herself a job with the California Stage Company as a driver. California stagecoach routes were plentiful. In those days a stage driver was referred to as a " whip". The name certainly is appropriate whereas the driver whips the horses to gain speed. One of her past employers described Charley as being about five-foot-six, slim and wiry. Another difference with Charley Parkhurst's appearance was that in the mid 1800's most men had a beard and/or mustache and Charley had neither.

Charley Parkhurst's fame really came after she died. Her biggest fame of course was the fact that he was a she. It is almost an unbelievable story when you think of a woman driving a stagecoach during the mid 1800's in an often dangerous land. This certainly was not thought to be a woman's work in the mid 19th century.

Charley had a reputation as a very capable stage driver and one of the fastest yet safe whips in all California. She was described as good with a gun and not afraid to use it if necessary. One tale often told about Charley along these lines was that she sent Black Bart, probably the most infamous stagecoach robber in California history, on his way empty handed when he tried to rob her stage. The story is she shotgunned Black Bart in the rear end when he retreated. If this is true, it's a great story.

Charley drove stage coaches during the California Gold Rush days and allegedly shot and killed at least one bandit during an attempted stage robbery. Stagecoach robbery was not an uncommon event as Wells Fargo history certainly points out.

More Charley Parkhurst Stories

There are historians who contend that several of Charley's close friends knew in fact that she was a woman and that the " surprise" was more a newspapers desire for sensationalism than a major news scoop. Regardless, a woman being a "whip" during the California heydays certainly is a story worth telling in itself. A woman driving a team of six horses pulling a Concord Coach up and down steep grades and doing it for years dressed in jeans and a buffalo skin is quite a good story for the legend books. Charley's exploits reportedly included driving a stage over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Nevada where the silver mining in Virginia City was alive and booming.

Another Charley Parkhurst story is that she was the first woman to vote in California. There are no records to indicate that she voted but some people contend that she would have, as a male, and today there is a plaque on the wall at the Soquel California Fire Station highlighting the fact. If Charley did vote, it would have been at this location. The tale is that there is a document on file around Soquel California showing that Charley did register to vote. The controversy seems to be whether or not she exercised the right, as a male, and actually voted. Women had not won suffrage in the United States until 1920.

When Charley Parkhurst retired in 1870, she tried a variety of ways to make a living. Lumbering, raising chickens and cattle ranching were some of them. Parkhurst died in 1879 and it was supposedly at that time, while examining the body prior to burial that Charley's true gender was discovered. Charley Parkhurst is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Watsonville California just south of Santa Cruz.

Another interesting story on Western Trips is the subject of old west stagecoach robberies and the tale of the first female stage bandit

Here is a map showing all of the stagecoach routes in California during the 1850's and 60's.

You may be interested to tour the California Butterfield stage route.

Shop Amazon Warehouse Deals - Deep Discounts on Open-box and Used Sports Equipment

A great side trip to add to your southern California vacation is a visit to the last standing Stage Station of the old Butterfield Stagecoach line. It's one of those rare historic sites off the beaten path. The station is now a N ational Historic Landmark and is located near Warner Springs California 48 miles north of San Diego in San Diego county. Another National Historic Landmark twenty miles from the Oak Grove station is Warner Ranch. Warner Ranch was a working cattle ranch that also was used as a stop on the Butterfield Stage Line. These are two rare and very interesting California historic landmarks.

(Photos and images from the public domain)

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The Most Famous Stagecoach Driver...California's Charley Parkhurst

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The Story of Charley Parkhurst One of the most renown and daring stagecoach drivers of the old west during the 1850's and 1860's was Charley Parkhurst. Sometimes the name was seen as Charlie Parkhurst. The biggest surprise for people who knew Charley for years was that Charley was born as Mary Parkhurst in 1812.

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California Gold Rush For Kids | Bedtime History

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com

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Focus on "The American Civil War," "Reconstruction," "First Civil Rights Movement."

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African Americans are people in the United States who have ancestors from Africa. Many African Americans have non-African ancestors as well. African Americans are also known...

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Getting the right to vote didn’t come easy for women. Here’s how they got it done.

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The Korean War: 5 Things to Know | History

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A prisoner of war (short form: POW) is a fighter who has been captured by the forces of the enemy, during an armed conflict. In past centuries, prisoners had no rights. They were usually killed or forced to be slaves. Nowadays prisoners of war have rights that are stated in the Geneva Conventions and other laws of war.

The Third Geneva Convention gives prisoners of war many different rights. Here are some examples:

They must be treated decently, with respect

They must be allowed to tell their families and the International Committee of the Red Cross that they are a POW

They have the right to communicate with their families, and get packages

They have the right to keep their clothing, eating utensils, and personal things

They must be given adequate food, clothing, housing, and medical attention

If their captors make them work, POWs must be paid for the work they do

If they are going to be charged with a crime, they must be given a trial

If they are very sick or hurt, prisoners of war have the right to be let go. After a war ends, all POWs must be let go quickly.

Prisoners of war also have the right NOT to:

Give their captors any information, except for their name, age, rank, and service number (a military identification number)

Have their money or valuable things stolen

Do forced labor, military work, or work that is dangerous, unhealthy, or degrading

Not every prisoner gets these rights

Not all people who are caught while fighting wars are "prisoners of war." The Third Geneva Convention has a strict definition of what a prisoner of war is. For example, it says that to be "prisoners of war," soldiers MUST:

Wear uniforms or marks on their clothes to make it clear they are soldiers

Have some sign (like a flag) that shows they are soldiers from a distance

Carry their weapons out in the open, where they can be seen

Follow the laws of war

According to the Geneva Conventions, if soldiers do not meet these requirements, they are not "prisoners of war." They are "unlawful combatants" (which means "people who fight in ways that are against the law). This means they do NOT have the rights that are listed in the Geneva Conventions.

This caused controversy in the early 21st century. For example, in June 2002, the United States was fighting the War in Afghanistan. The Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, announced that the people the U.S. had captured were "unlawful combatants [who] do not have any rights under the Geneva Convention[s]." The U.S. said these people were unlawful combatants, not prisoners of war, because:

They did not wear clothing that made them look any different than regular civilians

They did not organize themselves into groups with a chain of command

They did not follow the laws of war (because they gave support to Al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization)

The U.S. brought some of these people to a prison in Guantánamo Bay. Because they were enemy combatants, the inmates at Guantánamo did not get the rights that the Geneva Conventions give to prisoners of war.

War crimes against prisoners of war

When a country, or a group of people, does not give prisoners of war their rights, they are committing a war crime. However, punishing those war crimes has not always been easy.

Photo gallery

Before the 20th century

20th century

Celebration for German POWs who returned after WWI (the banner says "Home greets you!") (1920)

In 1944, 76 Allied POWs escaped from a Nazi POW camp through a tunnel. The Nazis re-captured 73 of them and executed 50.

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A prisoner of war (short form: POW) is a fighter who has been captured by the forces of the enemy, during an armed conflict. In past centuries, prisoners had no rights. They were usually killed or forced to be slaves. Nowadays prisoners of war have rights that are stated in the Geneva Conventions and other laws of war.

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The Brown case overturned an earlier decision by the Supreme Court. In 1896 the court had decided that it was legal to make African Americans and whites use separate public facilities. Throughout the South nearly all public places, including parks, restaurants, movie theaters, and drinking fountains, were separate. It was illegal for an African American to use a facility reserved for whites.

For years African Americans and others worked to change the segregation laws. One group that was very active in those efforts was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In the late 1940s the NAACP supported several African American children who had applied to all-white schools. The children were not accepted into the schools. The NAACP then brought lawsuits against the school boards. The law at the time said that schools could be kept separate if they were equal. The court cases argued that the Black schools were not equal to the white schools. Eventually five of the cases were combined and brought before the Supreme Court.

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Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a court case about segregation in United States public schools. Segregation means keeping Blacks and whites separate. In 1954 the...

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History: Westward Expansion and the Old West for Kids

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Kids learn about the history of the Westward Expansion and the Old West of the United States as pioneers settled the west as the country expanded. Educational articles for teachers, students, and schools including daily life on the frontier, gold rush, Pony Express, timeline, glossary, and people.

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In the early 1800s, few people lived on the Great Plains. People did not think the land was good for farming. It was very dry and flat that most people passed right over on their way to California or Oregon in hopes of striking it rich. In 1862 the Homestead Act was passed.The government sold 160 acre of land (about the size of 160 football fields!) for a small amount of money. If you could farm the land for five years, they could own it. A settler's home and land was called a Making a home of the Great Plains meant learning to farm with very little rainfall on land that was eroded by wind, water and frequent dust storms. Farmers had to grow crops that did not need much water.The soil or Settling the Open West
homestead. Many of the homesteaders came from the east coast, where farmland cost a lot of money. In the Great Plains, land was cheaper. Settlers also came from Europe, where there was not much land to buy. The West was also very appealing to African Americans facing economic troubles, prejudice and violence after the Civil War. Many African Americans started their own towns in Kansas and were called Exodusters, after a book in the Bible that tells the story of how people escaped slavery.

Settlers Face Hardships sod of the Great Plains was hard and held together by grass roots. Settlers were sometimes referred to as sodbusters because they had to break through the sod in order to plant crops. Most settlers also had to use sod to build their homes since wood was scarce and expensive. Winters on the Great Plains were long and cold. Summers were hot and dry, and there were many droughts. Grass fires often started because the climate was so dry and food on the prairie was sometimes hard to come by. Drought, prairie fires, insects, a long winter, too little or too much rain could all affect your food supply.

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In the early 1800s, few people lived on the Great Plains. People did not think the land was good for farming. It was very dry and flat that most people passed right over on their way to California or Oregon in hopes of striking it rich.

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Mail Order Brides: A History of Love in the Wild West | AF-065

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The Great Depression, HISTORY VIDEOS FOR KIDS, Claritas Cycle 4 Week 16

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African Americans During Great Depression

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African Americans During Great Depression

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For Kids

Herbert Hoover was the president when the Great Depression began in 1929. Hoover believed that towns, businesses, churches, and volunteers - good people - should take care of the problem of the growing number of homeless in their community. As far as he was concerned, this was not a problem for the federal government. He wanted people to be self-reliant and not count on the government to help them out. As the Great Depression worsened, many millions of people lost their jobs. When they could not pay their bills, many millions of people lost their homes.

Desperate for shelter, with little or no help from government, millions of homeless began building shantytowns. These were communities of shacks, built with whatever materials they could find, without streets or order. They were built on public and unused land. There was no sanitation, no electricity, no garbage collection. Whenever possible, Hoovervilles were built near creeks, streams, and rivers to provide a source of water. These communities of shacks or shanties were called Hoovervilles, after President Hoover, who refused to help the growing number of homeless. Thousands of Hoovervilles began to appear all over the country.

Each Hooverville was unique. Some Hoovervilles were very small, with 5 or 10 shanties gathered together. But some had a thousand shanties in one Hooverville, of all shapes and sizes and quality. Some unemployed masons and construction workers build shanties for their families that were pretty nice. They used cast off stones and broken bricks and other materials they found in junk piles. They made stoves out of abandoned auto parts. Some of the shanties they built had several rooms. Some had a few pieces of furniture. Some had vegetable gardens. But most were not nearly so nice. Many were made of cardboard. They did not last long and had to be constantly rebuilt. Some shanties were holes dug in the ground and covered with pieces of metal for roofs. When it rained, these "homes" filled with mud. Some were made of scraps of this and that, put together as best they could. The only thing individual shanties and Hoovervilles had in common was that the people who lived in them were out of work, out of money, and had no where else to go.

Life in most Hoovervilles was grim. Men tried to find day work, or even work for a few hours. Women tried to keep things as clean as possible, repaired clothes and made food stretch. Kids did not go to school, but hunted through junk piles and garbage in the nearby towns, looking for things to bring back to their shanty. Some Hoovervilles were loosely organized. They selected a spokesperson, one of the homeless who lived in the Hooverville, to work with city officials. Others selected a mayor to be in charge of problems that might arise within a Hooverville between residents. Some had homeless teachers who taught kids who wanted to learn. Some Hoovervilles created junk piles that people could freely use. Junk was added and taken away as people put things to work. Some of the junk was made into art. Kids played games they made up. People tried to keep their spirits up with songs and music. But the camps were full of disease, and dirt, and depression.

No one wanted a Hooverville near or in their city or town. Some cities and towns sent in police to chase the homeless away and to burn down shanties. But most people understood that the homeless had no place to go. Towns laid down rules that the homeless had to follow if they wanted to stay. Some townspeople organized food deliveries and blankets to help the homeless. Some donated clothes and toys. Each town's reaction was different.

The picture at the top of this page is a picture of a Hooverville in King County, WA. You can learn more about daily life in a Hooverville with the links below. The first one is a primary source - five pages from the journal of the "mayor" of Hooverville in Seattle, Washington. Although many Hoovervilles had residents with families and children, this particular Hooverville, per a rule laid down by the city officials of Seattle, was limited to men only.

The Story of Seattle's Hooverville

Life in a Hooverville for Kids

Return to the Great Depression for Kids

The Great Depression and the New Deal Interactive Quiz with answers

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Herbert Hoover was the president when the Great Depression began in 1929. Hoover believed that towns, businesses, churches, and volunteers - good people - should take care of the problem of the growing number of homeless in their community. As far as he was concerned, this was not a problem for the federal government.

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Connor Kehl

When the stock market crashed in 1929 the United States went through one of the most dramatic and fastest changes in history. The previous decade and been filled with lively spirit of freedom and youth, and in a matter of days the entire mood of the country changed bringing everything with it, including music. Popular music that had been overwhelmingly positive and free-spirited gave way to earthier expressions of heartache and desperation. Music changed from the upbeat "Happy Days Are Here Again" to much more mellow songs like " Brother, Can You Spare Me a Dime? " as quickly as a syncopated percussion beat written by Gene Krupa (Lawarence). There were a few exceptions like " Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries " by Rudy Vallee, which is a much more comical and lighthearted song about looking at the bright side of life and forgetting about your troubles.

During the mid-1930s the Great Depression didn't seem to be getting any better and Jazz became one of America's most popular styles of music. Its new name was swing and its impact was revolutionary. In just 7 years, this Harlem born style had grown from 10 million records sold to 50 million records sold (Ward). Swing started to move towards big band instrumentation producing major hits such as " " by Louis Prima and Benny Goodman. Radios and jukeboxes could be heard playing swing in every restaurant and club. It became the theme music for Hollywood and provided entertainment and escape for those who were feeling uneasy in life (Ward). The song " " is in the opening scene of the 1933 movie Gold Diggers and is the perfect example of how the depression was the central topic for music and films in Hollywood.

Music is an outlet to express feeling and emotion. The Great Depression caused a major change of emotion throughout the entire country and the music of the nation was bound to follow. Music is a living and breathing thing that will be affected by everything the humans that create it do, and the Great Depression is no exception.

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Connor Kehl When the stock market crashed in 1929 the United States went through one of the most dramatic and fastest changes in history. The previous decade and been filled with lively spirit of freedom and youth, and in a matter of days the entire mood of the country changed bringing everything with it, including music.

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Learn about Valley Forge. The place where George Washington and the Continental Army spent the winter during the Revolutionary War.

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How George Washington and the weather saved the Revolution

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And so, when Washington and his depleted forces dared to cross the icy Delaware River on Christmas night... then deliberately attacked Trenton from the north with the winds at their backs... sleepy-eyed Hessian defenders waking up on the morning after Christmas were greeted by...