EBEN RICHTER PARVIN

 

Eben Richter Parvin was born in Donegal Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, October 17, 1815, his parents being Arthur Davis and Catherine (Knab) Parvin, both natives of that State. The Parvins were of the William Penn immigration; were Quakers then and as far as known are Quakers now, followers of the golden rule, laying more stress on moral conduct than on religious dogmas. The father was a farmer and miller as was his father before him, and both lived to be about seventy-eight. The mother of E.R. Parvin lived to be eighty-four, and the known members of both families have been long-lived people. The formal education of the subject of this sketch was limited to about three months’ schooling, but he learned farming and milling in the school of experience. He also did some work on steamboats, and picked up carpentering, and learned to distill liquor but not to drink it. In 1849 he came to California and mined four months, but did not take kindly to it, and soon went into teaming, which suited him better. Has always been fond of a good team; had one when young on his father’s farm and has one now at the age of seventy-four. He carried on the freighting business from Stockton southward to the mines about six years. In 1855 he sold his team to the United States and came on the Sacramento River where he engaged in chopping wood, grubbing and clearing lands, often receiving payment in mortgages. In 1859 he first bought land on Grand Island, where he now resides, about four miles below Courtland. He lost heavily by the flood of 1862, the mortgaged lands losing a great part of their value, and purchasers being few at any price. Original surveys and records were so inaccurate and poorly kept that he has had to buy a part of the 650 acres he now owns, three times, first from an alleged owner, then from the State and lastly from the General Government. But he has outlived all those annoyances, has made his title clear, and now has ninety acres in orchard, with a fine home, one of the most substantial and imposing on the river, planned by himself and built with a view to firmness and durability, under his personal supervision with careful attention to every detail. It was erected in 1882 at a cost of $15,000 and supplemented in 1885 by the erection of a large tank, a warehouse and storehouse, at a cost of several thousand more. Mr. Parvin was married in San Francisco in 1861 to Mrs. Eliza (Kelly) Henderson, a native of Ireland, where her father, William Kelly, fought in the Rebellion of 1798. She came to San Francisco in 1859, and was there married to her first husband, Henderson, who died without issue. She has a brother residing in Brooklyn, New York, named Joseph Kelly, and a nephew on this coast named Joseph Abbott.