Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: BURDICK, REYNOLDS,
The reminiscences of the early pioneers and adventurers on the Pacific Coast must ever possess a peculiar interest for the Californian. Green in their memory will ever remain the trials and incidents of early life in this land of golden promise. The pioneers of civilization constitute no ordinary class of adventurers. Resolute, ambitious, and enduring, looking into the great and possible future of this western slope, and possessing the sagacious mind to grasp true conclusions, and the indomitable will to execute just means to attain desired ends, these heroic pioneers, by their subsequent career, have proved that they were equal to the great mission assigned them, that of carrying the arts, institutions, and real essence of American civilization from their Eastern homes and planting them upon the shores of another ocean.
Among the many who have shown their eminent fitness for the important tasks assigned them, none merit this tribute to their characteristics and peculiar worth more fully than the subject of this sketch. He was born in Chenango County, New York, August 7, 1827, son of Nathan and Eunice (Burdick) Frink, the former a native of Connecticut and the latter of New York. He resided at home until he reached the age of nineteen years, when he enlisted in the First Regiment, New York Volunteers, raised to take part in the Mexican War. Being assigned to duty on the Pacific Coast, he set sail in the ship Loochoo, and arrived in San Francisco March 26, 1847, where he was quartered until discharged, August 15, 1848. Gold had now been discovered, and the whole world would appear to be en route to the mines. To them also went Mr. Frink, his choice falling on those in El Dorado County; but, not finding much encouragement to remain, he left the district after one month's mining, and returned to San Francisco. We next find Mr. Frink passing the winter of 1848-49 in Chili, South America; coming back, however, in the spring, he once more toyed with fortune in the mines, but soon left for San Rafael, Marin County, where he established a mill in the redwoods of that county, which he conducted until the spring of 1850, when he again left for the mines, this time to the Yuba River. But he made only a short stay, and returned to Marin County, where he bought a ranch and embarked in stock-raising. However, in 1859, he disposed of this farm, moved to Santa Clara County, and settled on the land where he now resides, consisting of four hundred acres of the best soil in the country.
Mr. Frink has been a Justice of the Peace in Marin County. During the year 1851-52 he, with John Minge, were elected the Associate Justices to form the Court of Sessions of Marin, Al Barney being County Judge, while in 1879 he was elected to the State Legislature on the Republican ticket.
He
married, in Marin County, October 26, 1852, Pauline H. Reynolds, a
native of Vermont, and has six children, of whom five are now living,
as follows: William R., born October 26, 1853; Pauline E., born January
26, 1856; Daniel B., born November 8, 1857; Henry R., born December 7,
1859, and died July 17, 1888; Robert A., born April 25, 1865; Stella
H., born September 24, 1868.
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. 517-518
SANTA CLARA COUNTY
BIOGRAPHY PROJECT