MRS. CLARA BELLE LORD

Sacramento County

Biographies

MRS. CLARA BELLE LORD

MRS. CLARA BELLE LORD.—Like a chapter of pioneer history reads the life-story of Mrs. Clara Belle Lord and her parents, John Wesley and Sophia (Barrett) Sharp, a separate account of whose lives and labors is given in detail above. Her father came from New York to Ohio, and was there married to Miss Sophia Barrett. Soon afterward the young couple located in Iowa, where their eldest two children were born. In 1850, with their two children they came across the plains in wagons drawn by ox teams, following the overland trail through Salt Lake City. Arriving in California, they stopped for a time at Dry Creek, a settlement near Coloma; and there a daughter, Elizabeth, was born. From Dry Creek, they came on to Sacramento, and after a brief stay in that city finally arrived, in 1850, at Walnut Grove. There they established their permanent home, and there their family was reared and educated. Eight children were born in the family: Mary Ann, Robert W., long a captain on the Sacramento River, Elizabeth, Mrs. Dye, deceased in 1913; Berdine, deceased; Martha Jane, deceased n infancy; Sherwood, deceased in 1917, Alpharetta, deceased in infancy; and Clara Belle, of this review. The father died at the age of fifty-three; the mother reached her seventy-first year.

The youngest child in her parents’ family, Clara Belle Sharp, was born in Walnut Grove, and there she was brought up and received her early schooling. The first school of Walnut Grove was a subscription school, taught by a Mrs. Tyler; but later a district school was established, and it was this school that Clara Belle attended, supplementing her education there with a course at Mrs. Perry’s Seminary in Sacramento.

At her parents’ home on August 31, 1884, Clara Belle Sharp was married to Dr. Charles C. Lord, a native of Missouri, born November 23, 1862, a son of Carl C. and Lucia (Stocking) Lord, who were natives of Ohio. The father came to Alameda County when Charles C. was a small child, and was prominent in public life in that section, serving for many years as treasurer of the city of Berkeley. Mrs. Lord made her home in San Francisco for a short time, and for a time in San Diego, and then returned to Walnut Grove, where she has for years resided on a part of her father’s estate. She owns 150 acres of the original ranch, running from the Sacramento River at Walnut Grove to Snodgrass Slough. The land is devoted largely to asparagus and hay, though there are fourteen acres of bearing pear trees, and an additional young pear orchard is being developed. One daughter, Clara Belle, 3^rd, was born to Dr. Charles C. and Clara Belle Lord; and she became the wife of Hervey Edwin Salisbury, who was born at Folsom, Cal. His father was a native of England, who came to California in the early days and settled at Folsom, and later at Stockton and Sacramento, where his death occurred in June 1922. Hervey Edwin Salisbury is identified with the Pacific Fruit Express at Walnut Grove; and he is also superintendent of Mrs. Lord’s ranch, and with his wife and family makes his home there. Four grandchildren now brighten the life at the home ranch—the children of Mr. and Mrs. Salisbury: Hervey Melvin, Edwin Lyle, Donald Eldridge, and Gerald Alan.

Mrs. Lord has been identified with the growth and development of the section where her parents settled and helped to found a town; and she has carried on the family traditions, doing her share toward bringing about further improvements in the interest of posterity. Her father was a stanch Republican, and she also supports the platforms of that party. She is progressive in all community matters, and is a worthy daughter of her esteemed patients.

Transcribed by Gloria Wiegner Lane.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 504-509. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.