Merced-Sierra-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Calkins, Thomas D. 1858 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 8, 2006, 11:47 pm Author: John Outcalt (1925) THOMAS D. CALKINS The development of the Great Golden State is due to the energy and patience of the pioneers who left their comfortable homes in the East and came to the West and helped in the task to establish a State. One of these families was the Calkins', who trace their ancestry, by well preserved records, not only back to the Eastern States, but to the nobility in England. M. D. Calkins, father of our subject, was a native of Ohio and in 1852 came to Nevada City, Cal. He had married in the East, Elizabeth A. Sayles, also born in Ohio, who joined him in California in 1853, and their first child was born here. Later the family returned east and established the family home in Chicago, where Mr. Calkins became established as a journalist. He made numerous trips to California to look after his mining interests here, until in 1878, when he returned with his family. Both he and his wife died in San Francisco. Thomas D. Calkins was born in Elyria, Ohio, on April 13, 1858, the second of seven sons, of whom three are still living. He attended the public schools in Illinois, also an academy in Chicago. In 1879 he came to California and established a newspaper in Forest City, called the Sierra County Tribune, which he moved to Downieville two years later, and conducted it for ten years. He then sold out and moved to Sutter Creek and was proprietor of the Amador County Record for another ten years. We next find him in San Francisco, where, with his two brothers, he established the Pacific Coast Miner, a mining and engineering journal, which was sold three years later to the Mining and Engineering Journal of New York. T. D. Calkins was one of the organizers of the Calkins Syndicate and in San Francisco he established the Orchard and Farm publication. After the fire and earthquake of 1906, when his material fortune was swept away, he sold his interest in the syndicate and spent four years as editor and owner of the Haywards Review, at Haywards; then he was four years in Monterey as owner of the Daily Cypress. In 1917 he came to Atwater and purchased the Atwater Signal, established in that town in 1911 by L. F. Atwater, since which time he has built up a good circulation and also does a good job printing business. Thomas D. Calkins was united in marriage on October 1, 1884, with Mary M. Farley, daughter of Judge M. Farley of Alabama, who brought his family to California in 1869. He served in the State legislature from Monterey County in the sessions of 1882-1883. Mary Farley was born in Fairfield, Texas, and was a sister of Henry Farley, at one time sheriff of Monterey County and who was killed in 1899 by the bullet of a bandit. He was once postmaster at Gonzales and prominent in the Native Sons of the Golden West. Three children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Calkins, viz.: Malcolm, connected with the Merced Sun; Donald Reid, proprietor and editor of the Ceres Courier; and Lucile, wife of R. T. Hughes, of Napa. Mr. Calkins has a record for having put in nearly forty-five years active work in the newspaper business. He has always been closely identified with the life of the State and has helped make its history. Additional Comments: From: HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY CALIFORNIA WITH A Biographical Review OF The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified with Its Growth and Development from the Early Days to the Present HISTORY BY JOHN OUTCALT ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 1925 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/merced/bios/calkins211gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb