CLAUDE RICHARD SPICKARD

Sacramento County

Biographies

CLAUDE RICHARD SPICKARD

CLAUDE RICHARD SPICKARD.--Sacramento owes much to such far-seeing and expert organizers of industry as Claude Richard Spickard, the efficient and popular president of the Motor Carriers Terminals, Inc., which has already proven the greatest possible boon to the Capital City and its immediate environs. He was born at Spickard, Grundy County, Mo., on May 8, 1887, the son of Benjamin F. and Amelia (Custer) Spickard, and grandson of George A. Spickard, a sturdy pioneer who came out to California as a doughty Argonaut in the famous year 1849, crossing the plains and, as a result of the privation and rigors of the hazardous journey, losing his devoted wife, the grandmother of our subject. Grandfather George A. Spickard had served in the Mexican War before coming to California. During the early days, he was in the California mines for several years, meeting with good success, and then returned to Missouri, where he purchased a large tract of land in Grundy County and engaged in farming and stock raising. He served in the Union army in the Civil War as captain of a company in a Missouri regiment. He also served as judge in Grundy County. He gave the right of way through his lands to the C., R. I. & P. Railroad when it was built through Grundy County, and the town that sprang up was named Spickard after him. Benjamin F. Spickard, the father, passed away in Missouri, when he was only twenty-nine years of age, leaving an enviable record as a railroad engineer who stuck to his post, was severely injured while on duty, and died as a result of the unfortunate accident. Mrs. Spickard, his esteemed wife, is still living, the center of a devoted circle in Sacramento.

Claude Spickard attended the public schools of Missouri, came out to Montana, where he worked on a cattle ranch for two years, and after returning to Missouri and resuming study there, came West again, this time to Colorado, where he arrived in 1904. In July of that year he enlisted in the United States Navy, for a four-year service; and so it happened that it was not until 1908 that he came out to California and located in Sacramento. He went to the Capital City Business College for four months, and then learned the carpenter's trade, at which he worked until 1915, when he started to run a jitney on the streets of Sacramento. He then established a pioneer stage line between Sacramento and Stockton; and now he has a line of stages between Sacramento, Auburn and Nevada City.

On October 4, 1921, the Motor Carrier Terminals, Inc., was formed, with Mr. Spickard as president; and their new, commodious station was opened at Fifth and I Streets, on May 1, 1922, under the additional direction of W. M. Sanford as secretary and treasurer; B. Gibson, vice-president; and Chas. Elliott, Geo. W. Tatterson, A.L. Richardson, directors. The structure cost $150,000, and was designed to care for the rapid increase in the number of passengers. It has proved a wonderful convenience for the patrons of stages, and is the direct result of the forethought, the public-spiritedness, and enterprise of the gentlemen just named. This beautifully designed and modernly constructed station may easily and quickly be reached from the busy center of the city; but what is more, it not only will relieve much congestion in motor travel, but adds decided beauty to the surrounding section. There is a basement with a restaurant which will seat approximately 300 people, and also rest rooms, and a lounge rotunda spacious enough to accommodate 1,200 passengers per hour. Storerooms with entrances from both street and rotunda will also prove of the greatest convenience to the hurrying public, since provision is thus made for last-minute purchases of home necessities, and the supplying of personal needs.

Included in the organization of the Motor Carrier Transportation Terminal, so the "Sacramento Union" tells us in a highly flattering notice given the new and welcomed enterprise, are the California Transit Company, operating stages between this city and Oakland, and Stockton and San Joaquin Valley points; the Shasta Transit Company, operating between Sacramento and Redding; the Sacramento-Auburn Stage Company, operating between Sacramento, Auburn, Grass Valley, and Nevada City; the River Auto Stage Company, with lines running to Rio Vista; the Judy-Elliott Stage Company, handling transportation between here and Winters; and the Pierce-Arrow Stage Company, operating between Lake Tahoe, Placerville and this city. Every convenience is afforded by these new companies, which now maintain daily schedules in and out of the splendid new depot created by the genius of Mr. Spickard and his associates. There is no strap-hanging, no sitting on the arms of seats, nor any uncomfortable crowding of fellow-passengers. Plenty of room and comfort for each passenger, is the key-note of auto-stage travel as arranged for by the managers of the Motor Carrier Terminals; and every modern convenience and absolute bodily safety are to be found in the building of the Terminals, to which the bus-going public must come for transfers and for necessary waiting. Built with reenforced concrete beams and floors, and faced with wire-cut faced brick, the structure has been officially declared absolutely fire-proof. With the exception of the slender, isolated window-frames, there is nothing to burn; and as a consequence the distressing catastrophes that have frequently occurred through fire in noted terminals in populous centers, are rendered impossible here. The entrances, too, are spacious, and there is a lobby for passengers on the Fifth Street side, and two wide stairways leading to the loading pits below. A charming and instructive feature of the waiting room proper is found in the decorative mural panels containing scenes of the "days of '49," and of places reached by the stage lines. The depot is said to be the finest in northern California, and is much larger than that used for similar purposes in other parts of the state. President Spickard and his colleagues well deserve the congratulations so lavishly bestowed upon them for this marked accomplishment, one of the most accurately indicative measures of Sacramento's substantial growth.

Mr. Spickard was united in marriage, in Sacramento, with Miss Effie E. Duren, born in Missouri; and they have been blessed with two children, A. Franklin and Claudie Juanita. He resides with his family in his home at 1523 G. Street. Mr. Spickard is a member of the Lions Club; Sacramento Lodge No. 6, B. P. O. Elks; and the Colusa Outing Club. He takes much pleasure in sports, especially in hunting and fishing, and in baseball.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 682-685. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.