Marin County
Biographies
SAMUEL CLARK
SAMUEL CLARK. This worthy gentleman and pioneer was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, Sept. 9, 1827, and is the son of D.A. and Mary Clark. When about fourteen years of age he left home, went to New York and shipped on board a vessel bound for Liverpool. He continued to follow a seafaring life till the Fall of 1852, at which time he arrived in San Francisco. At the time of his arrival he was very ill with the Panama fever, and he went to Washington, Yolo county, to a hospital, where he was finally cured by an old-fashioned Arkansas doctor. In the Spring of 1853 he came to Bolinas, and began boating and hunting. In 1855 he went to Arizona, and followed steamboating on the Colorado river for one year, when he returned to Bolinas and located permanently. Mr. Clark has always been a public-spirited and enterprising gentleman, and has been honored with more than one position of trust, by the suffrages of his neighbors. In 1856 he was elected constable, and in 1867 he was chosen to represent his district as Supervisor, which position he filled to the great satisfaction of his constituents. In 1873 he was again elected to the same position. He has also been Justice of the Peace for Bolinas township. In 1863 the “Pike County Gulch Copper Mining Company” was organized, and Mr. Clark was chosen as President, and when, in 1874, the “Bolinas Steam Navigation Company” was organized, he was honored with the chief position in the corporation. He has held the office of school trustee for a number of years, and takes great interest in the advancement of education, recognizing in it one of the great civilizing agents of the world. In Capt. Samuel Clark is to be found one of Nature’s true noblemen, plain, unassuming, honest, truthful — in truth a very gentleman. He was married June 22, 1867, to Miss Frances Nott, who was born at Bolinas in 1851. Their children are Colfax, born April 14, 1869; Marcia, born June 27, 1870; Gordon, born July 24, 1874; Helena, born December 25, 1875; Frances, born April 25, 1877; Ellis, born August 16, 1878.
History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, Bowen & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880
Transcribed by Betty Wilson
JOSEPH CODONI
JOSEPH CODONI. Born in Switzerland, September 20, 1847. In 1867 he emigrated to this country, arriving in San Francisco January 2, 1868, and soon after came to this county, and has been engaged in dairying most of the time since. Purchased the ranch where he now resides, containing six hundred and nineteen acres, on August 15, 1870. Married October 29, 1873, Rosa Silacci. She is a native of Switzerland. Ida, Silvio and James are the names of his children.
History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, Bowen & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880
Transcribed by Betty Wilson
WILLIAM O. L. CRANDELL
WILLIAM O.L. CRANDELL. Was born in Charleston, South Carolina, January 7, 1829, and when ten months old accompanied his parents to Providence, Rhode Island, where he was educated and resided until he attained the age of eleven years, when he moved to Cooperstown, Oswego county, New York, and there completed his schooling. At the age of seventeen he began school-teaching, an occupation he followed for five consecutive Winters. At eighteen he entered upon the study of medicine, receiving his diploma and being admitted to practice at the age of twenty-two. In January, 1853, started for California via Panama, and arrived in San Francisco February 5th of that year. He at once proceeded to the mines in Shasta county and there sojourned for a year, when, returning to San Francisco, he engaged for a year in clerking in a store after which he went back to the mines, on this occasion to Siskiyou county, and there tarried for two years. In 1857 he commenced merchandising at Hamburg Bar, on Klamath river, an occupation he pursued for two years; he then returned to San Francisco, and after a short time proceeded to Alameda county, where he engaged in farming and fruit raising. In 1865 he paid a visit to the Eastern States of two years’ duration, and then came back for a like period to Alameda county. In 1870, he settled in Marin county at Olema, where he held the office of Justice of the Peace and Notary Public until 1880. In 1872 was elected a Trustee of the Garcia School District, since when he has been clerk of the Board. Married Dolly Maria Weeks October 19, 1848.
History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, Bowen & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880
Transcribed by Betty Wilson
ALFRED DERBY EASKOOT
ALFRED DERBY EASKOOT. This old and highly respected citizen of Bolinas township was born in Manchester, Massachusetts, February 3, 1820. At the age of nine he began going to see on coasters during the Summer season; at the age of thirteen he burnt his hand and face, and stopped on shore one year. At the age of twenty he shipped on board the brig “Perseverance,” Captain Leach, master, running in the West India trade, and continued in this trade on various vessels till 1846, being master of the brig “Retrieve” from 1845 to 1846. During the last-named year he went to Philadelphia and engaged in boating on the Raritan canal, from Philadelphia to New York, and continued in that business for two years. At the end of that time Robert Packer, of Philadelphia, built a barque called the “Esther Frances,” and put her in his charge. He continued as master of this vessel for one year in the South American trade. In 1851 he set out for San Francisco to joint the barque “Asa Packer,” but when he arrived in San Francisco, in July, 1851, he was so ill with the Panama fever that he was unable to take charge of her. August 16, 1851, he came to Bolinas. In 1852 put in a crop on the Belvidere ranch. In 1853 he was elected County Surveyor, to which office he was re-elected for four other terms as follows: 1853–’55; ‘57–’59; ‘65–’67; ‘69–’71. He was married July 4, 1861, to Miss Amedloia L. Dumas, who was born at Philadelphia on the 24th day of July, 1820.
History of Marin County, California; Including Its Geography, Geology, Topography and Climatology; by J. P. Munro-Fraser, Historian; Alley, Bowen & Co., Publishers, San Francisco, California, 1880
Transcribed by Betty Wilson