George R. Walden
California Pioneer Druggist
Three 4 by 6 inch cabinet cards of the George R. Walden
family taken between 1884 and 1897.
The card on the right is of Dr. Charles H. Farman of Napa, a
dentist.
John Olney: The long arm of the temperance movement reached
Napa in 1901. The spirit of Carrie Nation, member of the
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), who had just
destroyed a saloon, inspired a similar act in Napa. Lin
Weber, in her book, "Roots of the Present," reports that
Carrie Nation’s act seemed to have encouraged a Dr. C. H.
Farman of Napa to do a similar act in a downtown Napa saloon
a few months later.
$95 plus $3.00 postage & packing & insurance
(international orders extra) for these original photographs.
[shelf locator: AHB web site cabinet cards box].
To order this item email dick@AlaskaWanted.com
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From Yda Addis Storke "A
memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa
Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California...." 1891,
page 464. GEORGE R. WALDEN is a native son of the Golden
West, and a business man of Saticoy, Ca. He was born in the
city of Sacramento, December 18, 1857.
His father, Jerome B. Walden, was a native of Canandaigna,
New York, born March 20, 1829, and was a pioneer of the far
West, having arrived in California before it became a State.
For many years Jerome was a Sheriff and detective, and is
now a Justice of the Peace at his home in Sisson, this
State. Twenty- two years of his life, as Sheriff and
detective, were spent in Napa County, where in early days he
rendered efficient service in breaking up the gangs of
desperados that infested the country at that time. He was
united in wedlock to Miss Mira A. Harrington, daughter of a
pioneer Methodist minister of Wisconsin, a member of the
first Legislature and also of the first Constitutional
Convention of that State.
George R. Walden finished his education in the Napa
Methodist College, and also studied two years at the State
University at Berkeley. His parents were desirous of having
him become a physician, and at fourteen years of age he
began to learn the drug business. From that time until 1880
his time was divided between working and going to school. He
was then elected apothecary of the Napa Insane Asylum, and
held the position five years, during which time he
compounded 47,560 prescriptions. On account of ill health he
resigned the position, and from the officials of the
institution received testimonials for faithful and competent
discharge of his duties. In 1886 he removed to San
Buenaventura, and engaged in the real-estate business with
Mr. B. E. Hunt. They organized the Montalvo Land and Water
Company. Eight hundred acres of land in the Santa Clara
valley were purchased, and at a meeting of the directors of
the company Mr. Walden presented the name of Montalvo for
the town, in honor of Ordenez de Montalvo, who had the
credit of first writing and publishing the name
"California." The name proposed was unanimously adopted. The
push for new towns soon after collapsed, and the company
allowed the land to go back, losing their first payment. Mr.
Walden happily consoled himself for the loss of several
thousand dollars with the fact that he had the honor of
having suggested the name of the town that in the growth of
the country is destined some time in the future to become a
place of importance and fame.
In the summer of 1887 Mr. Walden circulated a list for
signatures, and secured twenty names of native sons to
organize a parlor of that order at San Buenaventura; and at
the meeting at which the name to be given the parlor was
discussed, Mr. Walden proposed the name of Cabrillo, the
pioneer of pioneers. After giving a brief sketch of
Cabrillo's life the name was readily adopted, the parlor was
organized, and is still growing. It was decided at that
meeting to take initiatory steps to build some day a
monument to Cabrillo. In 1888 Mr. Walden came to Saticoy and
opened a drug store. In 1889 he was appointed Postmaster of
Saticoy.
He was married April 22, 1884, to Miss Adela L. Frisbie, a
native of Napa County, California. She is a daughter of
Edward Frisbie, a native of Albany, New York, and now a
banker of Redding, Shasta County, California. Mr. and Mrs.
Walden have two children, a son and daughter: Arthur F.,
born at Redding; and Jean, in San Buena-ventura.
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