Hey guys, welcome back to Blood and Dust. It's been a while.
Um, and this is Julie. We got Matt and we got another person
who you might recognize. The voice you want to say, Hi, Hello,
that's Mike. It's been a while since he's been on, but it's
been a while, Yes, it has. It's really good to hear your
voice. Thank you, well, thank you for the invite, thank you
for bringing me back into the posse. Yeah, thanks for helping us thought
well, Justine kind of handling some stuff on his the home front. Yeah,
I definitely want to shout out to the legend himself, justin Rummel.
I appreciate the heads up and I'm glad to help out. Absolutely. We
just really appreciate. It's awesome to get together with you. I have to.
I have to give props where props are due. I mean, it's
obviously I've been listening in this whole time and every episode, and it's it's
impressive. I mean, the three of you have done fantastically together. Bringing
in Matt, I couldn't ask for a better replacement there. He's done really
well and this thing has gotten better and better and better every episode. And
I'm really impressed. You all have put a whole lot into that, I'm
sure, and and it's been fun to listen, fun to follow along.
Yeah, and I'm kind of going through my phone right now to the last
episode that we recorded or actually released. Give me two seconds, I can
tell you Bloody Bill Anderson number one. That was it. That was it
for us? Oh you mean for y'all? Okay, yeah, for the
for the whole show nowork, I'm sorry, I remember Bloody Bill. I
remember that that was cutting off heads and put them on different bodies and you
know, um no, but I just kind of wanted to give you guys
an update. I know we've been posting a little bit on Facebook, but
for those who are not on Facebook or and I don't know if we've mentioned
anything on Instagram, but our last show was Bass Reeves and that was released
December seventh, and obviously it's been a little while, but we've just had
a couple m health things going on, and then the holidays came up,
and then more health or more work um developments happened, so we just kind
of had to pause for a little bit to kind of get everything back on
the home front the way it needed to be and I apologize for the delay.
We are not stopping again for another year and then restarting again and restarting
again with a mystery guest. Yes, so we're we're back and uh,
Matt, do you want to introduce our our topic surely Darky or Dirky Parkhurs
eighteen twelve to eighteen seventy nine. Yes, And this person is really hard
to kind of get any information, So this episode might be a little shorter.
But we did a lot of digging and for a lot of months as
a good tell so we did the best we could and correct information as well,
because every piece on her old I just gave her away. That's okay,
we're gonna go. We're gonna get into it anyways, I might as
well dive on and Yep, Charlotte Darky Parkhurs, Like I said, I
was born in eighteen twelve. Her father is Judge Ebeny's Parkhursed. He died
in eighteen forty four in Alecan, Michigan. I don't know where that is,
but neither do no. I and I grew up in this I'm guessing
it's going to be in the southern in Michigan. His mother, her mother
at this point, Mary Moorehouse Parkhurst is born. Both are born in Sharon,
Vermont, and really the only other thing other than Charlie being born there
is Joseph Smiths Fa Vermont. She had two siblings, Charles and Maria.
Charles only lived two years as h was you know, kind of common back
in that era you had if you had four kids, one of them probably
lived right. Yeah, time frame. Yeah, her mother she dies in
eighteen twelve. A couple of things I read said her mother died of heartache
from Charles dying, But he dies in eighteen thirteen, so I'm not sure
of the gap there. She only lived age twenty five. Wow, Wow,
that is fairly young. Yeah. Yeah, and even for then,
it makes you wonder too. I mean maybe she maybe it was a complicated
birth or something like. It is awfully strange that they that the two of
them die very close close together like that. So Charlotte ak Charlie and his
sister Marie are sent to an orphanage in Lebanon, New Hampshire. While they're
Charlotte kind of learns life is easier in the eighteen hundreds as a man.
Wow, it's kind of a thing to teach somebody that you're raising to be
an adult. Yeah, especially that that that is. Yeah. I was
wondering where she figured it out. I mean I was wondering where that even
had come from the MBM pulse. I didn't realize that someone had been and
from a mental standpoint, I mean, if you think about it, a
man is raising her, Yes, you know, from two different point of
views. You can take that. You know, be a wife, you
know I'm gonna raise you. You can be a wife, you're gonna marry,
You're gonna have a whole bunch of kids. Or you can have the
life you want and try to be a man. You know, isn't that
interesting now that I guess out loud, and very interesting. I wouldn't even
consider it a slight or any right, like I would take the route that
gave me the most freedom. Right, What a different mentality. That's kind
of a mind blowing actually, now that I'm thinking about it, You know
what though, I mean, I mean, gosh, we covered Calamity Jane.
This took me back to that a little bit. I Mean, Calamity
didn't take it to the next level, but she was always the next level.
Well, Calamity next Jane, next level. But yeah, but definitely
I would say there's a correlation there. I mean, the West was really
tough, especially on women, and I think that's really the undercurrent to both
of their stories. Oh yeah, I agree with that all right. At
the age of twelve, Charlie runs away disguised as a man and soon meets
up with Ebenezer Walsh. He has a liberally stable in Providence, Rhode Island,
and takes Charlie in kind of as his own son. I don't know
if he ever knew that Charlie was a female, right, I don't know
if you guys found anything on that. I have not. I have not
either. It's it's really hard to kind any information on Charlie. I think
if he would have known, it would have been mentioned somewhere. Unless they
were very close. I think he would have discharged her from the stable,
but definitely not definitely not leaned on her to do what she ended up doing,
right, I mean, that's for sure. So Charlie's taken in treated
as a son from Ebenezer. It's kind of weird that he, her father,
and this guy are both named Ebenezer. And it is starts out in
the stables, you know, shoveling shit, and then has gradually moved up,
you know, one horse, four horse, six horses, until she's
a six horse Charlie specifically driving coach a coach. Yes, yeah, that
thing about Ebenezer. Um, it's funny because when I checked her out family
tree wise on ancestry, you could see a long line of Ebeneezer's, like
she's descended from her father, her grandfather. I mean, it went way
way back that name, And I thought it was really ironic that she ends
up with another Ebeneezer who really changes her life for the better, gives her
a foal, a focal point, something to be passionate about. Yeah,
and this is something I wanted to talk as a group about. So her
father remarries in eighteen seventeen. There is no information on how, at least
that I found, how she ends up in an orphanage. Is it her
father doesn't want to deal with kids? Is he heartbroken? I don't know
the story there. Well, maybe even the death of the little boy.
I mean, gosh, we don't know the circumstances regarding that, but I'd
have to believe that had something to do with it, and who's to say
maybe he was with the wife and then he left and then the children died,
and you know, maybe Charlie was left by herself. Who knows neglect?
Yeah, this other new wife say I don't want to raise your kids
or right? That is weird, you know, And not to get too
personal, but you know, my grandpa, he was the eldest of I
want to say, six or seven children, and his father died when he
was really young of brain tumor, and then his mother died, so he
had to take care of his entire sibling line. So they didn't cut them
up into you know, single individuals through the adoption services. And it could
be a finance issue as well. I mean, who knows at that point,
because let's say they were it was a love match at I would like
to think it. There were love matches back then. But if you weren't
emotionally attached to this woman who just died, and you just had a kid
that you couldn't financially take care of, I mean, what easier way just
to drop them off at adoption services? You know he's a judge though,
and the Park Cursor, they're like one of the founding families. And Sharon,
So I don't. I don't feel like money was a problem unless he
was. Maybe he was air bag money. Maybe he had a gambling problem.
Maybe he just didn't care about kids. I don't know. That's so
speculation, and he maybe would be like, this is too much from my
career. I need to hang people. And you know, she's the law.
Were crawls over at this point, I think too, Julie, kind
of you alluded to like emotional attachment, and one of the things that I
think is it's hard for us to kind of grasp the context of is they
didn't have the same level of emotional attachments as we do today. They had
so much death and disappointment back then that I mean, I read once that
some people wouldn't name their children until they became a certain age because they were
so used to kids dying before the age of like seven. So I think
looking at it from that lens and seeing it as more of a survival issue,
you know, maybe puts it in a different context, a different light
that we can understand. That reminds me of a weird thing that I found
out in a book I was reading. Did you ever hear of the disappointment
Room. No, if a child was born, you know, like with
a cleft lip or missing a limb, or some sort of mental effect,
they would be the parents could put them like in a room locked. They
would feed them, raise them, but they essentially stayed in this room,
and it was called the disappointments room. Dear God, Oh wow, so
cruel. Wow. You know I knew about the orphan trains. I don't
know when that happened, but people putting their kids on trains when they couldn't
pay to feed them and send them as we had orphan trains. Just about
an hour south of me. There's a museum and everything about it that's amazing.
Charlie or Charlotte, but at this point we're going by Charlie. Charlie
has been living as a man for several years now. He works, like
I said, works as well up to one two or a yeah, one
two four six horses ends up being called six horse Charlie at some point and
moves on to some bigger and better things where Micha will pick up. That's
right. I knew that. I knew back. First of all, I
need to give Julie full credit for this character. Yep, because absolutely was
a surprise, and I love things that you know, you have to get
into the psychology of the person and figure out really what they're thinking or what
they meant by their actions or their words. It's always fascinating, you know,
human beings do things, and we today, especially assigned like value to
that that a lot of times is misappropriated. But she definitely is a really
fantastic character when you're looking at women in the Old West and just what it
took to survive. So I'm gonna tip my hat to Julie on that.
The other thing I wanted to say before I dive in into her is,
uh, I'm glad I got to come back. I was. I was
just telling Julie that it's it's weird. It's like riding a bike and you
have to you know, if you haven't done it in a few years,
well you don't want to like wreck. So I'm gonna do my best there,
but you have to bear with me because it's I haven't I haven't been
in front of a microphone and it's been a long time. I mean I
can't that's what over two years, right, yea? And I definitely want
to at least a you know, some respects to people out there who maybe
are going through, you know, tough times with what we've all had to
deal with these past couple of years. I mean, what's weird for me
is that, stepping back off the mic, I've lived like three lifetimes for
lifetimes since then. I mean that things have been so just crazy. And
I'm sure you know there's people out there listening that have battle scars from all
of this. I definitely have my stories regarding this crazy situation, and I
just wanted to give them a shout out and say, hey, just keep
your head up and do your best, you know, keep keep a good
attitude, and you know, remember to smile and make jokes to people.
I remember when we all had to start wearing masks the first for the first
time, I was I was telling people when I was smiling at them,
because you know, we couldn't see that kind of stuff all of a sudden.
So anyway, I just wanted to at least acknowledge that. So regarding
Charlie, I think the first thing that I kind of stumbled onto that I
thought was really interesting is that Charlie ends up when you go and you look
at the censuses that were happening once she was living with Ebeneezer Balk. She
goes by the name Charles Dodge Parkhurst or Charles d Parkhurst at times. That's
her her dead brother there's name. So I found that really interesting, going
back to the psychology comment that that's the name she chose as her alias.
You know, I definitely don't think that was an accident regarding the situation.
Yeah, you know, I mean again, it looks like a little hidden
a little hidden seed there, and you know, who knows what her thoughts
were with that. I mean, think about it, if she had been
him, I mean, it's not like there was an emotional attachment to him
because they were too young. But if she had been him, she's not
having to do all this crazy stuff. And I want to I want to
point out that, you know, it's not without precedent in modern times that
people have had to do this for better opportunities. Unfortunately, you know,
our society is really locked in when it comes to assigning value to people.
And you know what your opportunities are going to be based on, you know,
how you were born, maybe the color of your skin or your religion.
That still goes on in the world today, but back then especially,
you know, that would have been something that Charlie was facing as an orphan
at that But I know, I had read an article once about Afghanistan and
how in modern times it was not without precedent that people would change the sex
of their child, like by dressing them differently, like all of a sudden,
Mary became Michael, and literally they would bring the child out out of
the house the next day dressed as a little boy. And the way they
handled that in Afghanistan, or they may still, I'm not sure, but
was to just accept what the parents had done, and that girl, that
little girl would then get the opportunities that she would have had as a boy.
She'd be allowed to go to school, for example. So this,
you know, like I said, this has been going on a long time.
It's just not something that we are I guess comfortable discussing as a society
because it definitely points a finger at inequality. I mean, that's that's really
what's being illuminated. But anyway, so Charlie, you know, as Matt
said, Charlie trains under Ebenezer. The thing about that the two hand,
four hand, six hand, I mean to have her driving six hand carriages
or teams. That's pretty impressive, very impression. I don't think a lot
of people and current present day could be able to give that right. So
when balk bought it was called the Franklin House and what cheer stables. Charlie
went with him to a Providence, Rhode Island. Charlie became known as one
of the best coachmen in Providence, Rhode Island, one of the best coachmen
in all of the Eastern Seaboard, and was often hired the coaches that Balk
I guess would rent out or whatever provide. Oftentimes his customers would ask specifically
for Charlie, and Charlie was known for having a favorite team of horses.
It was six perfectly matched gray horses. So Charlie worked for Balk for several
years, got to know a man at the time by the name of James
Birch who was a young upcoming state age coach driver himself. Whether or not
they were friends or whatnot, you know, we don't know how closely they
they got along. Charlie ended up would end up working for Birch in the
future, so that was a critical opportunity there for Charlie to come across him.
Charlie was about one hundred and seventy five pounds when she matured, and
she was five eight or I'm sorry five foot in height. She had big
arms and she had small all hands. Charlie had a week somewhat lifeless voice,
and she preferred to sleep in the stables with the horses rather than carousing
with the boys. And we can understand that. I mean, I think
going forward, most of Charlie's life was spent basically hiding who she was,
you know, protecting that identity especially you know, I mean, my god,
she'd finally become successful, and that was America in itself right, So
you would definitely not want your gig to be pulled out from underneath you.
As far as the voice, Charlie's voice, it was said that she actually
trained it to be somewhat squeaky, to sound like a whiskey drinker. So
she definitely went out of her way to hide her feminine qualities. And in
fact, she actually almost got caught as a team, or at least something
odd happened that could have gotten or caught it was a winner days in a
place called Paul Tuckett, and Charlie was waiting outside for passengers so that she
could take them home, and it was a cold evening and her hands froze
so she was unable to drive. She couldn't grip the reins and she had
to ask another driver, a friend of hers named Liberty Liberty Childs, to
take over her coach. So, whether it was because of embarrassment or maybe
possible comments that came her way, Charlie actually soon after left New England for
Georgia. I mean that's a stretch, you know. She went from New
England to Georgia and it's not like she knew anybody down there, and she
actually furthered her reputation in Georgia as a top whip and that term I had
to laugh because that I didn't know what that meant until Calamity Jane, So
I've never heard whip, so I was like, oh, yeah, Calamity
Jane. So Charlie went down there and did pretty well for herself for the
rest of Charlie's driving career. Because of what happened with her hands and almost
getting caught, possibly getting caught as something we don't really know, Charlie was
known for wearing these long fringed, beaded gloves, and she wore them in
the summer and in the winter. So she definitely went out of her way
to fix that situation. And do you have a quick question for you at
one time did she get kicked in the head? You know that is soon
after that's coming up. I will be patient. Then she does get kicked
in the head, Julie and it, I mean the cats out of the
bag is going to give her another nickname. It was in Georgia that Charlie
started working for Jim Birch, that once up and coming driver in Providence,
Rhode Island, that she had met, and in eighteen forty nine, the
twenty one year old Birch struck out for California during the Gold Rush to seek
his four surprise surprise. Birch started as a driver with one wagon in California,
but eventually bought several small stage lines and consolidated them into a company called
the California Stage Company. So Birch definitely knew what he was doing as far
as you know, climbing the ladder of success. Charlie by then was in
her late thirties and headed out to Cali as well. She boarded a boat
in Boston and headed to Panama. You know, it's funny people don't realize,
like when you took, you know, a boat somewhere that was a
pain in the ass. And the way they did this, and this is
actually a cool little side note, is they tended to go to Panama because
Panama happens to be the most narrow spot on that what are they called that
there the peninsula? I think it is, I must or something like that.
Anyway, don't know, I'll be looking at um. Anyway, it's
the most narrow spot of land that you can find down there. So what
they would do is the boat would drop you off on the eastern side and
then you would be carried on with a probably a coach or something to the
western side and you'd get on another boat. The side note is it's really
kind of interesting is people don't realize that when Christopher Columbus was doing his thing,
he actually didn't just sail to the New World and discover it and all
that and retire. The guy kept coming back. And the reason he came
back later in his life is that he kind of knew that there had to
be a passage, like he figured out that there was this land mass in
his way, and he discovered that area. He knew that that area was
significant. He was always looking for a river that would cut across, and
it just so happens that that's kind of where he ended his career. He
ended up getting wiped out by a hurricane and he was stranded on shore there
and his son had to take a raft to some city in Mexico to get
them all rescued. So anyway, it's it's an interesting, you know,
geographical little thing there. But the bottom line is Charlie definitely this was a
big adventure. And for a person you gosh, I mean really I would
be saying, yeah, what ears this? This would have been Julie.
Let's see here eighteen forty nine, so she probably would have done that a
year or two after that. Can you imagine eighteen in that timeframe and just
jumping on a boat and seeing the things that he saw or she saw she
you know, I mean, right, the world at that point it was
just a brand new, like everything is possible and amazing everything. There was
no jaded perspective if you were traveling like that's just amazing to me. You
know what amazes me too is being able to just start over in life,
you know, like they didn't have social Security numbers back. I was born
in the wrong era, married five men in my time. So on the
voyage, Charlie met a European traveler and his name was John Charles Ducal,
who in his journal had this to say about their meeting. He said,
he calls himself Charles Clifton, but the passengers on board call him Thunderbolt,
he says, he says, he says. The reason for passing under an
assumed name was that he was an important witness in a case, and wishing
to have nothing to do with it, adopted a false name to get out
of the way. He told us that he's married to a Boston merchant where
he is keeper of the American's House. In short, he is a very
queer fellow. Indeed, so I have to imagine that Charlie man must have
been trashed. That maybe Charlie's trashed or their party and their gambling or something,
and or maybe the dude was just you know, one of those people.
Charlie just felt like with I know, we've been studying her for about
two months now, isn't this the guy who the only person in Charlie's timeframe
to really suspect him and suspicions. That's exactly right. I mean, again,
we don't know about the friend that with a hand situation, but right,
Charlie did a very it's a very good point for you to bring that
up. It's actually excellent because Charlie did an excellent job. She did a
great job of keeping this under wraps. And this is obviously being done on
purpose. Either that or Charlie is trashed. I mean, it's one or
the other. But it is weird that that is something that, you know,
we have to think about. Yeah, so interesting, just trying to
get into the mental state of mind of Charlie, Like if you're gonna dress
up in your day to day life and then build such a career for yourself
with such a high responsibility and you know, importance, it's kind of like,
why would you take the risk of being drunk and saying that, you
know, unless unless you know, this wasn't a set on a boat.
Yes, so maybe or maybe she you know, just like you know,
skirt, I'm just having a couple of drinks whatever, or you know,
maybe this was her sober kind of inside laugh, you know exactly, And
yeah, that's what I'm kind of guessing that that's what it was. You
know, there's something about him. Maybe he kind of was figuring something out
and this is just like a boomerang like upside his head. You know.
But but if if that really went down and Charlie was doing this um and
traveling, this is another alias, right, Clifton, the name was Clifton,
then I think it's a clue to the riddle, you know. As
far as Charlie's secret, there was a court case in which Charlie was named
as an important witness shortly after her death. When the secret of Charlie's true
sex was revealed, The San Francisco Call wrote that Charlie's life was a story
of a fair maiden in New Hampshire becoming disappointed in love and leaving her native
state disguised in that I'm not going to pronounce this, right, have billiments
of the sterner sex? Yeah, because of course the woman just has to
be broken hearted to dress up as a man and decide not to get married
to a man and have children and be a dutiful wife instead of you know,
I mean like writing the sorry yeah yeah instead instead of you know the
fact that Charlie mean, we know that she was having a damn good time
writing those Harley's that she had. I mean, that's really what back in
the day. I mean, that is a lot of power, horse power,
you know, because she was able to have fun with there, so
you know, right, I think Charlie definitely definitely enjoyed. And this is
a reminder for our listeners too. I mean, having one horse was a
big responsibility, but that was also kind of like your transportation, a way
to earn a living, and being responsible for multiple horses and traveling, you
know, taking people to and fro or parcels, anything that you can think
of. That's a huge job and a lot of responsibility. Absolutely, and
as time goes on, that responsibility got bigger and bigger. It's impressive the
jobs that she took on. But I mean, if you think about it,
I mean not to like get too much into history, but you know,
the cats already out of the bag at this point, you know.
Stagecoach. I mean that's how wells Fargo became, how big they are today.
They started as a stagecoach system, and look at how big they are
today. I mean, this is a giant financial responsibility and look at the
simple you know well as Fargo, they know their roots. So you definitely
is a very good point. So if Charlie, uh, you know,
it is possible, I guess we have to at least say that it is
possible that Charlie did marry you know, a prosperous Boston banker, and that
Charlie was tired of, you know, an unhappy marriage perhaps so uh she
escaped, you know, hiding in men's clothes. It reminds me of that
movie as Sleeping with the Enemy, you know, when the lady pretended like
she had died to escape her abusive husband. You know, maybe there is
something to that story, but we don't have any details. Speculation to history.
It's it's all speculation. So all we know is that for a short
period of time, Charlie was driving stage in Georgia, and that Charlie Charlie
actually did return to New England for a brief period as well before she headed
to California. Um, Charlie arrived in San Francis, Go. This will
answer your question in eighteen fifty one, so at nearly forty years of age
as the city was hustling and bustling with gold dust fever, all these people
thinking they're gonna make it rich. That's the American story everyone, It's a
myth, okay. So anyway, Charlie went to work for Jim Birch out
there again as a stage driver and made a name for herself again as one
of the best in the business, which you know, it's just man.
She must have been a really hard worker. I mean, everywhere she went
she was a success. This was definitely an exciting time for Charlie, and
you know, one could only imagine. I mean, I don't know.
I looked up some pictures of where she was living, and it was pretty
spectacular. So I would imagine Charlie was very happy with her life. And
the gamble definitely paid off. I mean, this is a gamble. After
all. She could have gone out there and fallen flat on her face.
I mean, how many thousands did. But she was soon just rumbling through
gold dust towns. I mean that was her job. Towns like rough and
Ready, Grass Valley and I think it's Plaquerville. By the mid eighteen fifties,
Charlie was experimenting with new routes from Oakland to San Juan Batista, and
by eighteen fifty six, Charlie was living in San Mateo City, between San
Francisco and San Jose, California. During this time, Charlie received an injury
that gave her a legendary nickname. In Redwood City, Charlie was kicked in
the face by a horse that she was shoeing. The accident cost Charlie use
of an eye, and she wore a black patch over it for the rest
of her life. From then on, she became known as one eyed Charlie
or cock eyed Charlie. I'm sorry, but just to be a little personal,
I cannot imagine getting kicked in any part of my body by a horse.
I think I would face. Horses are such assholes, I know,
and their giant toddlers in a thousand plus pound body, pure muscle, and
their devious, cute little creatures. And oh, my gosh, like I
love horses, you know, I'm becoming to love them. But man,
can you imagine get kicked in the head and you lose an eyeball? I'm
going to admit right now to the list, and especially if you started to
cut you off my especially in this time. If she had an eye injury,
if they left the eye in her head, it obviously could have been
infected. She could have died or and they I'm assuming they took the risk
of surgery, and that is risky, and she lived. That's amazing.
And I have to admit to the listeners out there, I mean, I've
I'm familiar with horses, you know a little bit when I was younger,
and I was scared to death of getting kicked, Like I never I'd see
people in the stables like walking behind their horses and brushing them, and I'd
be like, no, no, I'm not going to do it. I
just always imagined like this big old shoe coming up and smacking me in the
face. I have horses a re enactments, and it's oh, definitely my
favorite thing to do. So one of the things about Charlie's nickname, though,
is that people did not say it in her presence. So it was
said that Charlie's lead horse, Pete, gave her the kick. And Charlie
by then was a celebrity anyway, so stories of course started being bantered about,
and you know, she became a legend and this became part of the
story. According to historian Pattie Stoker, one story was that the horses became
skittish and Charlie had stopped the coach to soothe the lead horse, Pete,
when a rattler shook its tail. Ah, did you like them, frightening
Pete and causing him to kick Charlie. So I did that for Justin Bowe
because we know he loves snakes. So I have a snake star, y'all
save for the end of the show. Save it, Save it. I
love it. I'm impressed by the way you're doing really well with that.
So this is pretty much where I jump off the trail. So Charlie not
only had routes, you know, through California into New Mexico. Charlie's also
doing West coast to East Coast and back to West coast trips where she is
robbed once at gunpoint. Wow, now she is robbed, and uh,
I mean, the company's not too hard on her. But on the way
back to California, the same guy tries to rob her, and the legend
is and I don't I don't think it's a legend. She shoots him.
You know, the girl don't play that girl, don't play now? Was
this when she was was she driving for Wells? Yeah? This was the
wild. This wild remindered our listeners because I also had to be reminded of
this. You know, stagecoach drivers didn't just have to deal with mail or
just like packages like they had to deal with passengers. They had to deal
with hold ups, robberies, bad weather, and a little to no trails
like they were creating the trails, like some of them are still around to
this day. That's right, that's right, and carrying a whole lot of
gold. And not only that, but like predators on the trail, like
that's a joke. Back then, Hey, Buffalo Hurd could wipe you out.
I mean so yeah, it was definitely dangerous. I'm sure it was
a thrill to her though. I think she loved every bit of her life.
Man, she she had the right era of being alive and experiencing all
that. To be whatever you want to be, to be whoever and whatever
you want to be, you could you could pull that off, and she
definitely did. Oh yeah, so I'm gonna take the reins, I suppose,
folks, and I'll take a shot of whiskey okay. So Charlie was
noticing that the railroads were kind of damaging the stage coach business. So Charlie
decided to retire from driving and he moved to Watsonville, California. So for
fifteen years, Charlie worked at farming and lumbering in the winter, and he
also raised chickens. And excuse me, I want to say it's Aptos.
Said that correctly, and if I'm looking, Aptos is in California, and
it's next to Santa Cruz County in California. So I thought that was kind
of cool. So Charlie later moved to a small cabin about six miles from
Watsonville, and he also suffered from rheumatism rheumatism arthritis excuse me, in his
later years, which is arthritis. But it's all super painful. I had
a past family member who had a severe case of it, where your bones
and your hands and feet become very bent at a severe angle and you can
barely use your hands. It's really painful to use your hands a little on
your feet. So it requires a lot of therapy or a lot of soaking,
or just help asking for help from other individuals. It is considered an
autoimmune disease. Oh really, I didn't know that. Yeah, I hope
I don't have that when I get older. From knowing the past family member,
it was extremely painful. I have an immune disease. Really, yeah,
multiple connective tissue disorder. You're kidding. O. Noah, we got
a ribbon and everything. So after he's been suffering from arritism arthritis. He
died in Watsonville on December eighteenth, eighteen seventy nine, due to tongue cancer,
which I'm guessing was, you know, as if you're portraying yourself as
a man, I'm guessing he partakeed in chew or snuff. So I'm assuming
there was some type of tobacco involved. Absolutely, And you know, so,
so this is where things get interesting, folks. So you might want
to, you know, key in your ears a little bit. If you're
not really paying attention, you're just working, you know, for background,
you might want to just pay attention a little bit. This is kind of
where it gets good. So, as Parkers died in eighteen seventy nine,
neighbors came to the cabin to lay out the body for the burial and discovered
that his body appeared to be female, and so rheumatism, arthritis in cancer
of the tongue were listed as the cause of death. In addition, while
the doctor was examining Charlie, they discovered that Charlie had given birth at some
time, and a trunk in the house contained a baby's dress, which I
thought was very interesting. The La La Times, excuse me, reported that
this discovery came a local sensation and was soon carried by national newspapers. The
obituary about Charlie from the San Francisco Call was reprinted in the New York Times
on January ninth, eighteen eighty So not soon after, I mean very soon
after she died, excuse me. So extraordinary was a driving career, and
the post mortem discovery of Charlie's sex received national coverage. The headline was quote,
thirty years in disguise, a noted old Californian stagecoach driver discover after death
to be a woman. And I have a little bit of the clip from
the paper. This is what it said. It said he was in his
day one of the most dexterous and celebrated of the famous California drivers, ranking
with Fosse Hank Monk and George Gordon, and it was an honor to be
striven to occupy the spare end of the driver's seat when the fearless Charlie held
the reins of four or six in hand. Last Sunday, December twenty eighth,
eighteen seventy nine, in a little cabin on the Moss Ranch, about
six miles from Watsonville, Charlie Parkhurst, the famous coachman, the fearless fighter,
and the industrious farmer and expert woodman, died of cancer on his tongue.
He knew that the death of the approaching, but he did not relax.
There were tenants of his later years, other than to express a few
wishes as to certain things to be done at his death. Then, in
the hands of the kind friends who administered to his dying wants, came to
lay out the dead body of the adventure adventuress Agaranaut. A discovery was made
that was literally astounding. Charlie Parkhurst was a woman any quote, that's great.
You think about this from that time frame, that like that would have
been all over the place. He Charlie already had a reputation, and then
they find out that he gave birth at some point and he was a woman.
Like. People would be talking about this for a very long time,
and it makes you wonder what Charlie was thinking. Like the ultimate joke,
you know, and we kind of saw, I mean in the part that
I did that you know, maybe Charlie, you know that situation on the
boat that was a joke, you know, I mean totally crazy talk.
Yeah. The article noted how unusual it was that Parkhurst could have lived for
so long with nobody discovering his sex, and to achieve distinction and such an
occupation above all professions, calling for the best physical qualities of nerve, courage,
coolness, and endurance, and that he should add to them the almost
romantic personal bravery that enables one's way through the ambush of an enemy. Was
seen to be almost beyond believing that there was ample evidence to prove that he
was in fact a woman. Wow, So I think that's amazing. That
is amazing. And I was going to say, you know, I found
something too, where Charlie supposedly gave kids candy, like carried candy with her
tobacco in her pocket, and I thought, you know, that was a
I'm not going to say that men don't do that. But I have a
feeling that there was a side of Charlie that definitely was a nurturer. You
know, she may have been a mother at one time, and I just
thought that was really cool that this little gesture that she did may have pointed
to her not losing her inner self throughout all this. This was an anecdote
I read that makes you know that Charlie was a woman. So during a
job interview that they're asking the men ahead of her, So if you were
right up against a cliff, how close would you get? And you know,
the first guy it's like, get like a foot away from the cliff,
and the next guy's like, I get six inches away from the cliff,
and then then other guys like, well, I'd ride the rails right
up to the cliff with one entire hanging over. But Charlie says I would
be as far away from the cliff as I could get. You know,
in other words, what you're saying is she's smart. That's right. So
before we jump into other fascinating fascinating that's a new word, folks, fascinating
topics of conversation, I do want to point out that there was somewhere that
I read that once Charlie retired into the Apotos area of California, he you
know, had this cabin. He was well liked by his neighbors, and
he noticed that all of his neighbors was a member of this one hundred and
three year old so Quick Odd Fellows launch and it was basically a whole bunch
of wild and wooly crew and a whole bunch of people collected tales memorabilia.
So it's just this really nice club that you know, his neighbors were part
of, and Charlie wanted to be involved, so he was accepted into this
group. And I read somewhere that upon Charlie's death and this group finding out
that Charlie was in fact a woman and he was not a man, which
you had to be a man to be in this club, they accepted his
gender identity, you know, being a woman, being born a woman,
and you know, living life as a man, and they gave they did
not take away any honors that they gave him during his time frame of being
alive, and they were proud of him. And I thought that was really
cool. That is very cool. That also brings to mind. A little
tidbit that I discovered you off to the side as well, and that is
that Charlie's name appears on voter registration documents from the Times. Now, it
can't be proven and whether or not Charlie actually voted, but if Charlie did
vote, that it was the election of eighteen sixty eight. Okay, you
know something I don't. But so if Charlie happened, if Charlie happened to
vote, then that would mean that Charlie was the first woman to ever vote
in the United States, correct, which I think would be amazing. That
would be amazing, right. I wish we could prove that and talk about
another story like Charlie goes in there and knows what Charlie's doing, And I
really hope that's the case. I do too, Like it's all just like
this amusing joke for her to be doing everything that other women wish they could
do. I think. The other cool thing is that her gravestone claims that
she was the first woman to vote in the United States, and the fire
station in so Quell, California, which she you know, she was part
of the soa Quell Club has a plaque reading quote, the first by a
woman in an American presidential election, was cast on this site November third,
eighteen sixty eight by Charlotte in parentheses Charlie Parkhurst, who masqueraded as a man
for much of her life. She was a stagecoach driver in the Motherload 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
eighteen seventy nine, not until then she was found to be female. She
was buried in Watsonville at the Pioneer Cemetery. End quote. Wow, so
well, there you have it. And you know, again, from what
I read, I don't think there's any real proof of it. They know
that she was on the voter registration documents. But that's what legends, you
know, as we've learned this whole journey, When you become a legend,
all kinds of things become attached to that, right. You know, it's
hard to, I guess, disseminate between truth of fiction. And I am
so happy that I found her name by sheer accident or maybe was it,
but I just I just think she is so fascinating and I the romantic in
me. You know, I would have loved to be back in that time
frame and seeing the things that she saw that were so amazing because you know,
from our perspective in the current present day, everything to our knowledge has
been explored. There's nothing really new or interesting. And she was experiencing everything
like the gold Rush, you know, new cities, forming new parts of
the country, and she was coming. Yeah, it's just amazing. And
she she was accepted by clubs and she was feared, she was respected,
she meant business. She was a no nonsense person and she lived an amazing
life. I just have a lot of respect for her. And that is
a beautiful way to end this podcast. That was fantastic. Julie absolutely agree
with everything you said. Well, and I'm not trying to do, you
know, bash my girl, calamity Jane, because she was a woman wearing
men's clothes, and she was smelly, she was vulgar. She was just
a disgusting woman. But while Bill loved her, Julie, yeah, and
her dreams. But you know, from Charlie's perspective, she maintained her dignity.
She and from outsider's perspective, she was a man and she had a
fearsome reputation. She had a responsibility that you know, Well's Farro hired her.
She was making up a decent amount of money. She retire very good
living. Yeah, she got to live her life and people respected her.
Nobody respected Calamity Jane, you know well, but for the driving abilities.
That was the thing that I kind of that struck me as they both made
their way in the West doing the same occupation. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Just it just I can't stop thinking about the two of them and kind
of comparing it. It's atastic, fantastic, amazing to me. Yeah,
so we have a little bit of time left. I did promise that I
was going to tell you a snake story. I know, we kind of
keep it professional around here, but I did promise. So I own two
snakes, I write, I owe two snakes, and I fed them a
little late. Usually you're supposed to feed them once a week. And I
decided I was going to take out my snake after I was handling the thawed
mice, and I was going to put her in a tupperway cleaner to kind
of reduce the aggression in her tank. When I you know, feed her
and She apparently smelled my pinky finger as a dead mouse. And the type
of snake I have is a hog nose, and they have weird thing and
their throat, and so she decided to fang her way up and slightly venomber.
Yeah, and she basically had her mouth to the butt of my finger,
all the way in her throat. That's impressive. And I was trying
to figure out how not to hurt her. But also I was screaming,
bloody murder. My husband's up and down the house like I've never seen this
man moves to the past in his life, right, there's blood everywhere.
Um. And then she gets off, she eats, she's happy, and
then my hand asides to swell up, and he swelled up, and my
entire poem swelled up. That was the venom. The venom. You know,
garter snakes can do that to you too. I had no idea.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's not obviously going to kill you or anything.
But but that's pretty impressive, Julie, that you're doing all of that.
Yeah, that's a great snake. That's those are great little pets of Western
that's a Western hog knows, Julie. Ye, the pot. Yes,
I will post a photo of her if you guys, you should post a
photo of the of the belly because I don't want to see any snakes.
Yeah, I'm goin to do it. A great discretion, A little cute,
little nose, but they have beautiful bellies. Yes, nice, Yes,
absolutely, And I'd like to throw in before we hang up, I
appreciate this. Uh again, I apologize out there and listener Bill for any
screw ups or cut ups or I personally don't think you did anything. I
think it's very refreshing to hear your voice and your personality after some time,
like it's been a really good time the last couple of months, just randomly
calling you or texting you, and you know, from a friend perspective,
I missed the crap out of you and I am glad that you're back.
Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity. And again I'm I mean
what I said. I love listening to you all of Matt and his personality
and what he's brought to the table. And it's just been a fantastic pride,
whether I'm on it or not. So congratulated and no