CHARLES L. BLAKEMORE
a California '49er

 Bio-Pen Pictures

            Charles L. Blakemore has recently purchased a beautiful home on the Almaden about three miles from San Jose, where he now resides.  He was born at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1861, and attended school there until eleven years old, when he moved with the family to Texas, his father being a railroad contractor.  The family remained in Texas about three years, when they removed to Wyoming Territory, where his father turned his attention to mining, first at Deadwood, Dakota, and thence to the Black Hills, after the removal of the Sioux Indians therefrom.  In the spring of 1878 his father engaged in building the Colorado Central Railroad from Cheyenne to Denver, and after the road was completed he removed first to Silver Cliff and then to Leadville, where he engaged in silver-mining.  The subject of this sketch remained at Silver Cliff while his father was operating at Leadville, the rest of the family during these years remaining at Cheyenne.  In 1882 the family left for California, where his father engaged in quartz-mining, in Trinity and Shasta Counties, in which business he is still engaged.  His father, James M., is a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother, Catherine, nee Gillespie, a native of Virginia.  His father has been a very active and enterprising man, and was one of the California pioneers of 1849.

            Charles L. Blakemore was married in October, 1882, to Miss Hessie Gillespie, of Keokuk, Iowa.  They have two children, born in California, Katie Olif and Charles Cecil.

            Mr. Blakemore is still interested in mining in Northern California and Colorado, having mines in both States.  His home on the Almaden contains twenty-nine acres, one-half in wine and table grapes, ten acres in French prunes, and a family orchard of different varieties.  He has made fine improvements around his $4,000 cottage, and has invested $5,000 in the Index Saloon in San Jose.  Until recently he owned considerable property in San Jose, but has disposed of it.  The Blakemore Mine in Trinity County is considered to be one of the most profitable mines in Northern California.

 

Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.

Pg. 365

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

Proofread by Betty Vickroy

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