Sacramento County
Biographies
CHARLES FREDERICK TRASK
Charles
Frederick Trask, an orchardist
and rancher of Franklin Township,
on the Sacramento River, about twenty-six miles below the city, was born in Mobile,
Alabama, February 24, 1847, his parents
being Charles Frederick and Jane C. (French) Trask.
The father was a native of Massachusetts of the
early-settled New England family of that name.
Grandfather Manasseh Trask died at Beverly,
Massachusetts, in 1863, aged eighty-one,
and his mother reached the remarkable age of 101. Her husband, the father
of Manasseh, fought in the Revolution. George Trask,
a brother of the elder C. F. Trask, was a well-known
temperance lecturer and writer who died in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, in 1879. C. F. Trask, Sr., was a captain in the merchant marine service, his vessel being owned in Boston. Among the experiences
of his career as sea-captain was the barbarous treatment by pirates on the
southeastern coast of Africa, who cut off his ears in
the effort to wrest from him the knowledge of where the ship’s money was
concealed. He went into business in New
Orleans for a short time, and in 1841 he moved to Mobile,
where he kept a hotel and was also engaged in the business of unloading
vessels. In 1843 he was married to Miss Jane C. French, who was English
by birth, but had been reared in Canada.
Being left a widow by the death of Mr. Trask,
September 15, 1847, she conducted the hotel for one year. Being beaten in
a legal contest with an insurance company, she took her orphan children to
Beverly, Massachusetts, the home of their father, and set out for California by
the way of Cape Horn. After being delayed by shipwreck and consequent
return to Valparaiso, she did not reach San
Francisco until some time in 1850. Proceeding to
the mining regions in Tuolumne County,
she hired out as cook at 100 dollars a month, and accumulated quite a sum of
money. Removing to Sacramento,
she was induced to invest her money in mining property and lost. In 1855
she was married, at Iowa Hill, to J. M. Hawley, who kept a store and saw-mill
at Monona Flat. In 1863 Mr. and Mrs. Hawley moved to this county and
bought a 220-acre ranch about three miles above Walnut Grove. Meanwhile
Mr. C. F. Trask had been brought up by his uncle
William Woodbury of Beverly, Massachusetts.
After the marriage of his mother to Mr. Hawley he came to California
in 1855, but soon returned to Beverly
to be educated. After eight years schooling the last half year at an
academy, he again came to California
and lived with his mother and step-father on their ranch. In 1867 he went
to San Francisco and learned the
trade of ship-carpenter. His mother died November 8, 1868, leaving two
children, himself and sister, Mary Trask, now Mrs.
Elijah Billington, of Santa
Barbara. In 1869 Mr. Trask
was induced by his stepfather to return and take charge of the ranch, and he
has been ever since engaged continuously in that business. C. F. Trask was married February 13, 1873, to Miss Adelia A. Rice, born near Galena,
Illinois, in 1849, a daughter of Oliver and
Beata Calvarine (Adkins)
Rice. Her father died December 22, 1888, aged seventy-six; her mother,
born in 1828, and her grandfather, Abner Adkins, born
in 1803, are both living in 1889. Mrs. Trask
was educated as a school teacher in the normal school at Plattville
and taught for two years in East Dubuque, Illinois,
and for some time in Wisconsin.
She came to California, in
1872. Mr. and Mrs. Trask are the parents of
three children: Alice Maud, born May 25, 1874; Oliver Frederick, November 23,
1875; Charles Raymond, December 22, 1877. They own eighty acres, of which
fifty are in orchard; and rent 252 acres devoted to general farming.
Transcribed by Karen Pratt.
Davis, Hon. Win. J., An
Illustrated History of Sacramento County,
California. Pages
530-531. Lewis
Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2006 Karen Pratt.
Sacramento
County Biographies