Cassia County, Idaho - Biography of Charles I. Parke, born 1856

File submitted for use in the USGenWeb Archives by:
Linda Parke <Lparke8569@aol.com>

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Biography of Charles I. Parke taken from "Progressive Men of Southern Idaho" 
pg. 860-861,  There is some questionable material here but the flowery Victorian 
language and some of the material are interesting.  I have marked questionable 
items with an asterisk (*) but transcribed the text exactly as it was written.

CHARLES I. PARKE

Charles I. Parke of Albion, Cassia county learned early in life some of the 
lessons of adversity, but they neither soured his nature nor depressed his 
energies.  With a manly spirit he accepted the fortune that came to him and did 
what he could to make the best of it.  His childhood was clouded by the death of 
his mother, and his youth by the necessity of beginning life for himself at a time 
when many of his age are still at school or enjoying the pleasures of society and 
leisure.  He was born in the Shoshone Valley, Calif.* on January 14, 1856* 
where his parents had settled soon after their marriage.  They were Charles and 
Lavinia (Colton)* Parke, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of 
Michigan*.  In 1848 the father crossed the plains with ox teams and settled at 
Bountiful, Utah, and there, met he met with and married the mother, the wedding 
occurring in 1852*.  The next year they moved to California and there, in 1863*, 
the mother died when their son Charles, the second born of their children, was 
seven years old.  Six and half years later the father moved his family back to 
Utah and soon after solemnized his second marriage.  In the spring of 1871 they 
all moved to the Cassia Creek country, this state, where the head of the house 
took up land and engaged in farming.  They were among the earliest settlers in 
the county, there being at the time of their arrival only two houses in the Raft 
River Valley, and in 1872 they raised the first potatoes grown in that whole 
section which now forms Cassia county.  The father died on May 2, 1902 at the 
age of sixty-eight years.  The condition of the country and that of the family 
together with its frequent changes of residence reduced the opportunities of the 
children for education at the schools to very narrow limits, and at the age of 
seventeen years Charles began life for himself by taking a drove of horses to 
Cheyenne.  he returned within the year and during most of the time from then 
until 1888 he passed in riding the range.  In this exciting and adventurous but 
dangerous life he gained physical strength and suppleness and freedom and 
self-reliance in spirit, qualities which have been of great advantage to him in his 
subsequent career.  In the fall of 1889 he was appointed deputy sheriff and 
during his term in the office was a potential element in preserving order and 
suppressing lawlessness in the county.  At the conclusion of his term he went to 
Eagle Rock and for two months was employed on the irrigating canals.  He then 
changed his base of operations to Butte, Mont., and there was occupied in 
hauling ore until the next November, when he took up his residence in Alberta, 
Canada, and there he engaged in ranching for three years and a half.  Selling 
out his interest in the Dominion at the end of that period; he returned to Utah and 
took up a ranch at Deep Creek country, where he remained four years, part of 
the time teaming.  Going to Mercur next, he devoted his summers to carpenter 
work, in which he had become proficient, and his winters to mining for two years.  
The next year was passed at Sunshine in the same occupations, and from there 
he went to Mammoth.  Here he was caught in a cave-in of one of the mines and 
had his spine so injured that he has not since been able to walk without 
crutches.  After three months in a hospital in Salt Lake City he passed the time 
until June 9th at his home at Sunshine, then took a pair of horses and a light 
wagon and drove across the desert to Deep Creek, where he sold his ranch, 
afterward driving on to Idaho and remaining with his brother until September 18, 
1902.  He then bought a ranch of eighty acres at Albion and settled there where 
he has since continuously resided.  

Mr. Parke was married on November 2, 1882 to Miss Sarah Vaughn, a native of 
Virginia City, Mont., the daughter of William R. Vaughn, one of the pioneers of 
Albion, the town being built on his original ranch, which he sold for the purpose 
and in 1884 moved to Carey, this state, and five years later to Alberta, Canada, 
where he now lives.  Mr. and Mrs. Parke have eight children, Lewis C., Russel, 
Asel, Nettie I., Joseph, Ira, William and Guy.