Collection: Books and Periodicals

About This Item:

Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 713  

338 AISTORY Shingle Springs to Placerville. He is one of Placerville’s leading citizens, and is looked to as a leading spirit in matters of public enterprises. IIe also ranks among the wealthiest citizens of El Dorado County, and conducts the principal mercantile establishment and also the main banking house of Placerville, under the firm name of Mierson & Jewell. Mr. Mierson was joined in marriage in 1864 sith Miss Jewell, a sister of his partner, and they have reared a family of six children. Two of the sons are connected in business with their father. wot Sotto Dee eee — . H. PARKER, the agent in Nevada City AN for the Nevada County Narrow Gauge 2 Railroad, is one of the oldest and best known residents of the city, having first arrived in the fall of 1853. Mr. Parker is a native of Boston, born in 1830, his father, Jonas Parker, being a prominent merchant of that city, and a member of the celebrated Right Honorable Royal Artillery Company. He died wheu Mr. Parker was young, leaving the family largely His mother was a inember of the well-known Gregory family, two of his mother’s aunts living to be each 104 years old. His grandfather was a Revolutionary war hero, who tovk part in the celebrated barefoot march through New Jersey, when the bloody footprints were left in the snow. Ile died in 1849, at the great age of eighty-nine years. Mr. Parker is in the best sense of the term a self-made man, having clothed himeelf from the time he was twelve years old, and receiving from his parents little save a sound body and energetic instinct that enabled him to press forward and onward, never discouraged or inclined to regret the past. While young he had experience in a printingoffice in New York city, and afterward obtained a clerical position in a mercantile house. But, being seized with the gold fever, he decided in 1852 to come tu California, takin dependent on its own resources. OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. passage on the ship Defiance, Captain “ Bully” (Robert) McCerren, for the voyage around the Horn. Part of the cargo was a large portion of the dry dock for Mare Island, which the Government was then sending out. They lef. New York in June, 1852, and after a voyage lasting 162 days, ten uf which were spent buf feting off Cape Horn, they reached San Francisco, December 2 of that year. Mr. Parker went directly to Mokelumne Hill, via Stockton, making his way on foot for the most part, save when he and his partner, by the good will of teamsters, got a lift along the road. The account of this journey is an interesting one, showing plainly the pluck and resource that had carried Mr. Parker through life successfully. Until the fall of 1853 he continued to mine at Rich Gulch Flat, Calaveras County, having to pack provisions five miles throngh the snow, on his back, during the severe winter of that year, and paying as high as $21 for a tifty-pound sack of flour at the store. In the tall of 1853 he came to Nevada City and engaged in hotel-keeping, beginning at the bottom and serving in every capacity. For seven years the firm of Grush & Parker kept the United States Hotel, long one of the best known hotels of the town. Mr. Parker then took charge of the works of the Harmony Mining Company, taking ont a great deal of money, but finding at last that they were in from the wrong side, and the expenses were greater than the product. In the spring of 1862 Mr. Parker went to Austin, Nevada, and for a couple of years spent his summers there, and his winters in Nevada City. He was a Notary, a stockbroker and mining secretary, duing a rushing business, and baving an exciting time. In 1864 he became book-keeper for the firm of Crawford, Leavitt & Co., in Nevada City, who were doing an immense business. The firm, however, failed, and then Mr. Parker took a position with Henry Mackie, banker, and formed the Bank of Nevada County, of which he beThe failure of the Bank of California compelled the suspension of the bank, came cashier.