The Whip (24 page)
Letter to the Editor
March 15, 1930
Watsonville Register—Pajaronian
Dear Editor,
My father met Charley Parkhurst in the fall of 1873. At that time she lived on her place, which is located on the Santa Cruz road, about six miles from Watsonville, and was opposite what is now known as the “Risdon Place.”
My people lived on the opposite side of the road. This place at that time was known as the “Moss Ranch.”
In my boyhood days I knew Charley Parkhurst as a man; in fact, she dressed and acted the part perfectly. She often spoke of her early life, which she claimed was spent in Providence, R.I.
I often heard her tell of working as a stable boy in that city when gold was discovered in this state. She joined the rush and if I remember right, she landed in San Francisco in 1851, coming via the Isthmus of Panama. She was a great lover of horses, and had no trouble getting employment as a stage driver.
She drove from San Francisco to San Jose, from San Jose to San Juan and Watsonville. While driving the stage from San Francisco to San Jose, she was kicked by a horse and thus lost one of her eyes…
During the early part of 1879, she complained of a sore throat and a swelling on the side of her tongue. This trouble proved to be cancer, which was the cause of her death, December 28, 1879…She did not die alone, as an old acquaintance of hers was present when she passed away…
What caused Parkhurst to adopt male attire and follow a man’s work will never be known, as the secret died with her…
A short time before her death, she said that she had something to tell (my father), but there was no hurry about it. She kept postponing telling him, and he was not present when the end came. I have no doubt that she intended to tell him the secret of her life, what caused her to dress and live in the way she did.
After her death, all kinds of stories were told about her early life. So far as the writer knows, these stories were all fictitious. No letters or papers were ever found, (and articles in the newspapers brought forth no inquires or relatives.) Nothing that would give the least inkling about anything else than (my) above statement.
During a period of six years, I saw a great deal of her, and what I have written is her own story of her life. Charley Parkhurst was a kind and good natured person, but could, if occasion justified, be rather profane. She was very charitable, and helped those in need.
She was buried in the Odd Fellows cemetery at Watsonville. The grave was donated by the late Mr. Stoesser.
In the summer of 1880, my father placed a small head stone at the grave. I do not know if the stone is still there or not, as I have not been in the cemetery for many years.
George F. Harmon
San Francisco, California
Newspaper Reports
“Charley Parkhurst used to be with Hank Monk (another famous whip) a good deal in early days and when Hank heard the report that Charley had turned out to be a woman, he was so overcome for several minutes that he gasped for breath, and drawled out: ‘Jehoshaphat! I camped out with Parkie once for over a week, and we slept on the same buffalo robe right along; wonder if Curly Bill’s been playin’ me the same way.’”
—Santa Cruz Sentinel, Oct. 1, 1880
“Rumors that in early years she loved not wisely, but too well, have been numerous and from the reports of those who saw her body, these rumors receive some color of truth. It is generally believed that she had been a mother and that from that event, dated her strange career.”
—Watsonville Pajaronian, Jan. 8, 1880
“Being thrifty, industrious and economical, temperate and a full hand at any employment in which she engaged, often cutting the heart of a tree from genuine masculines of double her avoirdupois, her accumulations were regular and her wealth considerable at the time of her death, which took place in a lonely cabin, with no one near and her secret her own. Why this woman should live a life of disguise, always afraid her sex would be discovered, doing the work of a man, may never be known. A mother she is represented to have been, and it may date back to that proud eminence from which virtuous women alone can fall, fall by the deception of some man monster, but there must have been a cause, a mighty cause.”
—Santa Cruz Sentinel, 1880
“Charley Parkhurst was one of this city’s finest stage drivers. The only people who have any occasion to be disturbed by the career of Charley are the gentlemen who have so much to say about ‘women’s sphere’ and the ‘weaker vessel.’”
—Providence Journal, 1880
Selected Bibliography
The following books have been sources of information, quotes background and inspiration for both setting and characters in this book:
Abbott, E. C. & Smith, Helena Huntington,
We Pointed Them North
, New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1939.
Adams, Ramon F.,
Western Words
, New York: Hippocrene Books, 1998.
Boyer, Paul S.,
The Oxford Companion to United States History
, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Brighton, Marylee,
Windhorse Relations Inc. Meet the Mustangs
.
Brown, John Ross,
Adventures in the Apache Country
, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1869.
Chronicle of America
, Mount Kisco, N.Y.: Chronicle Publications, 1989.
Curtis, Mabel Rowe,
The Coachman was a Lady
, The Pajaro Valley Historical Association, 1959.
“Father’s a Drunkard and Mother is Dead.” 1866. Words by Stella Washington. Music by Mrs. E. A. Parkhurst.
Johnson, Theodore,
Sights in the Gold Region, and Scenes by the Way
, New York: Baker and Scribner, 1849.
Judd, A. N.,
Watsonville Pajaronian
, October 3, 1917.
McCutcheon, Marc,
The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s
, Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1993.
Moulton, Candy,
The Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in the Wild Wes
t, Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1993.
Reader’s Digest
, January 1957.
Stegner, Page,
Winning the Wild West
, New York: The Free Press, 2002.
Acknowledgements
In his collection of poetry
The Leaning Tree
, my friend Patrick Overton wrote:
When you walk to the edge of all the light you have
and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown,
you must believe that one of two things will happen:
There will be something solid for you to stand upon,
or, you will be taught how to fly.
(This is from The Leaning Tree, a collection of poems by Patrick Overton. Copyright © 1975 by Patrick Overton. Reprinted by permission of the author.)
****
In writing
The Whip
, the people in these acknowledgements have either given me something solid to stand upon or have endeavored to teach me to fly. All of them, some even serendipitously, shared in the creation and or publication of this book…
Jon and Jody Hansen: you took a chance publishing a “new voice.” You had the courage, the true grit, to take Charley and me on. For that I will always be grateful, more than you will ever know. And hopefully those readers who are entertained, perhaps even inspired by
The Whip
, have ultimately you to thank.
Jason Baerg: without your keen editing eye, your patience and wicked sense of humor, Charley might still be resting in a large stack of typewritten pages.
Simon Levy: my maestro and friend. Twenty-seven drafts ago, you were the first I trusted to read the book. Thank you for your constant inspiration, honesty and humor. Everyone should have a Simon in their life who points to the sky and says “fly baby, fly”…and then trusts they can do it!
Jeffry DeCola: I will always be grateful to your talent. You created an extraordinary book cover for
The Whip
that gave a face to my imaginings.
Elise Ballard: many years ago, after reading my film script of
The Whip
you said, “Hey, why don’t you write a novel of this amazing story.” It was you who put the seed in the ground. Thank you for your inspiration and your beautiful heart.
Barbara Lyons: you helped me understand the truth that anything is possible if you believe it to be. Your constant friendship, encouragement and kindness has been apart of my life since I was your shy little ‘flower-girl,’ a thousand years ago.
My grateful thanks to Regan Huerta and Geri Anne Solano-Simmons and the staff of the Pajaro Valley Historical Association, Watsonville, California…for your patience and assistance in locating historical information regarding Charley Parkhurst—and most especially, your kindness and warmth in the face of deadline emergencies.
Edward Achorn, Loreen Arbus, Jim Beaver, Deborah Behrens, Steve Bennett, Greg Berkin, Tara Boles Williams, Reiner Boller, Yvonne P. Borroto, Mary Lee Brighton@WindhorseRelations, Colby Chester, Nicole David, Judy Davidson@Davidson&Choy, Robert and Debra Deyan@Deyen Audio Services, Jan Deen, Lisa England, Tom Fleming, Peter Flood, Julie Garfield, Victor [email protected], Jack Heller, Allan Hitchcock, Ara Keshishian, Sonia Keshishian, Eduardo Machado, Valerie McCaffrey, Lee Melville, Richardson Morse, Ryan Oksenberg, Mary Oliver, Patrick Overton, Michael Peretzian, Mike Rice, Peter Robinson, Barbara Witkin Sanders, Brad Schreiber, Sue Terry, Barbara Teszler, Robin Weigert, Eric Weissmann, Esq.
About the Author
Karen Kondazian’s career as an actor, author and journalist is as diverse as it is long. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of eight Karen was chosen to be one of the infamous children on Art Linkletter’s
Kids Say the Darndest Things
. The opportunity to miss school during tapings was all it took for Karen to abandon her life’s goal of becoming a CIA spy and focus on acting.
She completed her schooling at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA), The University of Vienna and San Francisco State University, where she received her B.A., after which she began her acting career in New York. Her first professional work was in the award winning production of Michael Cacoyannis’
The Trojan Women
at the Circle in the Square Theatre.
In 1979, she won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in
The Rose Tattoo
, (in which her work as actor and producer so impressed Tennessee Williams that they became friends, and he gave her carte blanche to produce any of his work in his lifetime).
Her theater career has included starring opposite Ed Harris in
Sweet Bird of Youth
, Richard Chamberlain in
Richard II
(dir. Jonathan Miller), Stacey Keach in
Hamlet
, (dir. Gordon Davidson). She also starred in the world premiere of
Mixed Blessings
with Raul Esparza, and in Eduardo Machado’s off-Broadway play,
Broken Eggs
(world premiere). Her latest awards have been through her work at the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles where she played Maria Callas in the Ovation Award winning,
Master Class
,
Orpheus Descending
,
Night of the Iguana
, and
The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore
, all directed by Simon Levy.
She has appeared as series regular lead in CBS’s
Shannon
and guest starred in over 50 television shows and films including, TNT’s
James Dean
with James Franco (dir. Mark Rydell),
NYPD Blue,
Fraiser
,
Yes Giorgio
with Luciano Pavarotti, and played Kate Holiday in
The Shootout at OK Corral.
She is a lifetime member of the Actors Studio and a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She is also a member of Women in Film. She occasionally teaches at the Lee Strasberg School of Theater and Film in Hollywood.
Kondazian is a published writer. She is the author of the best-selling book
The Actor’s Encyclopedia of Casting Director
, (the second edition of the book will be released in 2012–13). Her long running weekly column,
Sculpting Your Own Career
appeared in Back Stage West.
The Whip
, published November 2011, is her debut novel.
She currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
For more information on Karen Kondazian, please visit herweb site: