FELIX DESMOND

Sacramento County

Biographies

FELIX DESMOND

FELIX DESMOND.--Sacramento County may well be proud of its efficient public officials, men and women of wide experience and unquestioned and non-challengeable integrity of dependability, among whom is Felix Desmond, the popular superintendent of the Sherman Island State Farm. He is a native son, and first saw the light at San Francisco on October 15, 1857. His father, Michael Desmond, was a native of County Cork, Ireland, and he married Miss Anna Darley of the same place. He came to California in the early fifties, and rendered excellent service here as an experienced and hard-working carpenter, more than willing to assist others to get homes and headquarters; and when he and his good wife, who preceded him to the great beyond, closed their earthly careers, they rounded out a record such as anyone might be proud of. The parents of Felix Desmond died when he was a baby and he never knew what it was to have a real father and mother. He was reared by a Mr. McRae, a teamster of San Francisco, and was the third-born in a family of four boys: John, William, Felix and James.

Felix Desmond attended the school of his locality, and when a lad started to make his own way in the world. He received at first two dollars a week, and his job was to thread needles in a carpet factory run by John C. Bell. He then worked for a while in a candle factory, and after that, when he was able to handle horses, took up teaming, and drive for three companies in San Francisco, those of McKinnon, Ayers, and Messrs. Lyons & Collins. He then left San Francisco and went to Stockton, where he worked for George Harris, on a ranch near Oakdale.

Leaving Mr. Harris, where he had become invaluable through his work and his fidelity. Mr. Desmond entered the service of the state of California, and he has been at the State Farm for the past fifteen years. He is now foreman in charge of their ranch of 250 acres on Sherman Island, Sacramento County, which is a part of the State Farm; a self-supporting institution, with about twenty-five inmates from the asylum, the temporarily insane and ailing to a still lesser degree. These (male) inmates do all the work required to operate the farm, which is devoted to the raising of asparagus and vegetables. Mr. Desmond is a Republican, but first, last and all the time, he is a loyal American, enthusiastic for the Golden State.

At San Francisco, on February 28, 1885, Mr. Desmond was married to Blanche Paul, who was born on March 16, 1868, at San Francisco, the daughter of Horatio Paul; and two sons and one daughter have blessed this union, Harry, Roy and Vera. Both sons responded for service in defense of their country in the World War, Roy joining the Pacific Coast Guards, but he was not accorded the privilege of getting to France. He resides in San Francisco. Harry enlisted in the army, on the other hand, trained at Camp Lewis, and crossing over to France, served in the Evacuation Hospital, No. 16. He is married and resides at Cle Elum, Wash., and has one daughter, Elizabeth. Vera married Otto Boyer.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 954. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.