Charley Parkhurst (Unerasure #2)

Born in Vermont in 1812, Charley Parkhurst was orphaned at a young age. He and his siblings were placed in an orphanage with a strict institutional environment. Parkhurst swiped boy’s clothing and ran away and worked in a stable at Worcester, and soon became an expert whip. He was fond of a six-in-hand (six-horse team), earning him the nickname “Six-Horse Charley”.

He took a job with the new California Stage Company, and started running stage lines around the San Francisco Bay area and the Sierra foothills. Parkhurst also rounded up bandits and put them in prison himself.

“Parkhurst waged a war upon the outlaws (along) the route of the Grass Valley stage,” according to Munsey’s Magazine, 1901. “He was small, but full of nerve and resource. Once a robber halted him as he was lashing his horses through a mud hole that threatened to bog him down. Parkhurst’s whip was in the air when the robber sprang out of the brush. Down came the lash across the road agent’s eyes. The fellow was picked up a day later, utterly blinded (but) they saved (one) eye so he could see well enough to pick jute during his term in (San Quentin).”

After a horse kicked Parkhurst, causing him to lose an eye, he earned the nickname “One-Eyed” Charley.

He spent his entire life as a well-renowned stagecoach driver until he retired due to rheumatoid arthritis and passed away from cancer in 1879. He was not discovered to be biologically female until after his death.

Reference: CDCR