Charley Parkhurst: Information from Answers.com

For other persons named Charles Parkhurst, see Charles Parkhurst (disambiguation).

Charley Darkey Parkhurst, often Parkurst, (1812 – 1879) was an American stagecoach driver and early California settler; a fierce driver, he was never afraid to use his gun.

Parkhurst lived as a man for most of his life, and consequently may have been the first biological woman to vote in California.^[1]

1 Life and career
2 1868 vote
3 Posthumous outing
4 References
5 External links

Life and career

Parkhurst, also known as One Eyed Charley or Six-Horse Charley, was born as Charlotte Darkey Parkhurst in Lebanon, New Hampshire and grew up there in an orphanage owned by a man named Millshark.

He worked as a stable boy for Ebeneezer Balch located first in Worcester, Massachusetts,^[2] and later in Providence, Rhode Island; then in the "What Cheer Stables" at the back of the Franklin House Inn in Providence for the next couple of years.

About 1849, two friends, James E. Birch and Frank Stevens, went to California and consolidated several small stage lines into the California Stage Company. Charley moved there and started to work for them. Shortly after arriving he lost the use of one eye after a kick from a horse. He had a reputation as one of the finest stage coach drivers on the west coast.

Parkhurst retired from driving some years later in Watsonville, California.

After trying lumbering, cattle ranching and raising chickens in Aptos, California for a while, he finally moved into a small cabin near Watsonville again. There he died on December 18, 1879 of cancer of the tongue.

1868 vote

Charles Darkey Parkurst is listed in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on October 17, 1868 under the official poll list for the election of 1868. However, there is no record that Parkhurst actually cast a vote.^[3] If a vote was cast, Parkhust may have been the first biological female to vote in California.

Local legend, as well as Parkhurst's own gravestone, claims that Parkhurst was the first woman in the United States to vote. This is not correct; a few other states allowed women to vote at various times before 1868.^[3] The fire station in Soquel, California has a plaque that reads: "The first ballot by a woman in an American presidential election was cast on this site November 3, 1868 by Charlotte (Charlie)[sic] Parkhurst who masqueraded as a man for much of her life. She was a stagecoach driver in the mother lode country during the gold rush days and shot and killed at least one bandit. In her later years she drove a stagecoach in this area. She died in 1879. Not until then was she found to be a woman. She is buried in Watsonville."

A cartoon in the Soquel Post Office claims Parkhurst was the first woman to vote in California.

A plaque on the fire station in Soquel, California marks the site where Parkhurst might have voted.

Posthumous outing

When Charlotte Parkhurst died in 1879, the neighbors came to the cabin to lay out the body for burial, and they discovered that the renowned stagecoach driver was a woman. Rheumatism and cancer of the tongue were listed as causes of death, but the examining doctor, called in by the astounded neighbors, definitely established that Charlie had been a mother; a trunk in the house contained a baby's dress.^[4]

After Parkhurst's death, the secret of his physical sex was revealed, but it traveled somewhat slower than the news of his death. So the San Francisco Morning Call wrote on December 28, 1879:

"He was in his day one of the most dexterous and celebrated of the famous California drivers ranking with Foss, Hank Monk, and George Gordon, and it was an honor to be striven for to occupy the spare end of the driver's seat when the fearless Charley Parkhurst held the reins of a four-or six-in hand..."

In 1955 the Pajaro Valley Historical Association erected a monument on Parkhurst's grave site which reads :

"Charley Darkey Parkhurst (1812-1879) Noted whip of the gold rush days drove stage over Mt. Madonna in early days of Valley. Last run San Juan to Santa Cruz. Death in cabin near the 7 mile house. Revealed 'one eyed Charlie' a woman. First woman to vote in the U.S. November 3, 1868."^[5]

In 2007 the Santa Cruz County Redevelopment Agency^[6] oversaw the completion of the Parkhurst Terrace Apartments^[7] located a mile along the old stage route from the place of his death.