Yolo County CA Archives Biographies.....Parrish, Bernard W. 1830 - 1912
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 13, 2005, 6:55 pm

Author: Tom Gregory

BERNARD W. PARRISH

    Fifty years of agricultural and commercial activity wrought their startling
transformations in the aspect and environment of Yolo county during Mr.
Parrish's residence here. When he came here he was young and strong, but
friendless and almost penniless. The devotion he exhibited in the management of
his ranch and the wise judgment he showed as a farmer and stock-raiser placed
him in the forefront of the agriculturists residing in the vicinity of Yolo. In
his old age, weakened by bodily infirmities, he was surrounded by the
affectionate ministrations of family and friends and comfortably supported
through the returns from the labors of his years of strength. The home place,
paid for by his own self-sacrificing efforts, developed through his tireless
industry and improved with a harmonious striving toward the beautiful and the
useful, is now capably superintended and intelligently tilled by William W., one
of his sons and himself a resourceful rancher with a thorough knowledge of the
raising of grain and stock.

    A pioneer of 1858 in California and a resident of Yolo county since 1861,
Barney Parrish was born in Allegheny county, Pa., September 18, 1830, and grew
to manhood upon a farm in his native locality, having no educational advantages
except such as his own determination provided. After he had worked as a farm
laborer for some years in 1858 he went to New York City, where he took passage
on a vessel bound for the Isthmus of Panama and from the isthmus he traveled
north to San Francisco on the John L. Stevens, landing in the summer of 1858
with $5 as his capital, a stranger in the city. Immediately after his arrival in
the west he went to the mines and began to work in placer digging, but the
untiring efforts of the next three years convinced him that other occupations
would afford him a more satisfactory livelihood. Coming to Yolo county he
secured work as a ranch hand and for four years he worked for wages. In 1865 he
bought the equity in two hundred and twenty acres and began to improve a farm.
On that place he began housekeeping with his bride in the fall of 1865, the
young wife having been Miss Mary Boub, a native of Wurtemberg, Germany. Her
death in 1871 left him a widower with one son, Edward. The latter has been
employed as an engineer on the Southern Pacific Railroad for the past fourteen
years and makes his residence at Roseville.

    During the year 1872 Mr. Parrish married Miss Anna Wimmer, who was born near
Baden-Baden, Germany, but has lived in the United States since thirteen years of
age and grew to womanhood in Yolo county, where she was living at the time of
her marriage. Born of this union are six children, as follows: Mrs. M. Elizabeth
Hines, of Oakland; William W., the manager of the old homestead; Anna, who
married Thomas MeConnell and lives in Nevada; Otto, who is a farmer near Yolo;
Mamie, Mrs. Asa Bender, of Woodland; and Theodore, who resides in Woodland. For
a long period the family have lived near Yolo, where Mr. Parrish owned a
valuable farm of two hundred and seventy acres. The tillable land is devoted
principally to wheat and barley, while in the pastures may be seen stock of the
best grades. The house has been remodeled and enlarged and a substantial barn
has been added to the equipment of the property, which has been further improved
by the planting of fruit and shade trees.

    The death of Mr. Parrish occurred May 25, 1912, when the community lost one
of its noblest citizens and the family a cherished husband and father.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
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
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]




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