HON. C. C. SPALDING
Financier,
Horticulturist, Legislator
Sunnyvale , Santa Clara County Pioneer
Surnames:
PARTRIDGE, STOWELL, PIERSON, CALKINS, CROSSMAN, LANDSDALE, PARKMAN
Those forces which have contributed most to the
development, improvement and benefit of California have received
impetus from the labors of Hon. Charles Clifton Spalding, financier,
horticulturist and legislator, whose life record has been a credit and
honor to the state which has honored him. He is distinctively a
man of affairs and one who wields a wide influence, while in all that
he undertakes he is actuated by high ideals that seek the benefit both
of his home locality and of the state at large.
A native of Iowa, he was born at Horton, in Bremer County,
seven miles north of Waverly, November 5, 1864, his parents being John
F. and Olive (Partridge) Spalding. They were natives of New York,
whence they removed to Iowa, and in 1900 they came to Sunnyvale, Cal.,
where the father successfully followed agricultural pursuits until his
demise. The mother survives and is yet living in Sunnyvale. The
two surviving sisters and one brother of Mr. Spalding are Minnie L.,
the wife of C. L. Stowell, of the Stowell Realty Company of Sunnyvale;
Myrtie L., who married O. F. Pierson, a well-known orchardist of
Sunnyvale; and the brother, C. W. Spalding, also of Sunnyvale.
Reared on his father's farm in Iowa, C. C. Spalding
attended the common schools of Bremer County. When nineteen years
of age he taught school for a winter, then he clerked in a large store
in Waverly, Iowa, until he was twenty-one years of age, when he bought
out a general mercantile establishment at Horton, Iowa. Five
years later his brother, C. W., bought half interest in the store,
which they conducted as Spalding Bros. for some time, when they engaged
in the wholesale grocery business at Algona, Iowa.
In 1900 Mr. Spalding came to Sunnyvale, arriving here at
an early period in its development, and he has since laid out several
additions to the town. He also helped to organize the city
government, and was elected its first treasurer, serving in that
capacity ever since, and aiding materially in promoting the development
and upbuilding of the town, which now has its own fire department and
modern domestic water system and a fine grammar school, while a union
rural high school, patterned after the Chaffee Union high school, is
soon to be erected near Sunnyvale for pupils in the Cupertino,
Sunnyvale and Mountain View districts. Mr. Spalding, who is a
member of the board of trustees, has done everything in his power to
raise the standard of the schools in his community and the cause of
education finds in him a strong advocate.
He is deeply interested in the agricultural and
horticultural development of the Santa Clara Valley and in association
with his brother, C. W. Spalding, and F. D. Calkins purchased a 250
acre ranch at Sunnyvale, which they have brought under a high
state of cultivation. It is given over to the growing of peaches,
apricots, prunes and cherries, all developed from stubble, and it has
one of the largest pumping plants in the county, having a capacity of
2100 gallons per minute. Mr. Spalding was one of five who became
the organizers of the California Prune & Apricot Growers, Inc., and
he was elected a member of the board of trustees in 1921, receiving the
largest number of votes ever cast in favor of a candidate from this
district, which is a very important one, comprising Santa Clara, Contra
Costa and Alameda counties.
In financial circles, too, Mr. Spalding occupies a
foremost positon. He was the organizer of the Bank of Sunnyvale,
of which he was made cashier while W. E. Crossman became its first
president, and two years later he was succeeded in that office by Mr.
Spalding. They erected a substantial bank building and in 1919
the institution was sold to P. M. Landsdale, of Palo Alto, who in the
following year disposed of his interests to the Bank of Italy, its
present owners, who are about to build a new brick and reinforced
concrete bank building at a cost of $35,000. The Bank of Italy
stand high among the financial institutions in the state and Mr.
Spalding has been chosen as manager of its Sunnyvale branch. He
is well versed in the details of modern banking and is promoting the
success of the institution by progressive, systematic work.
Mr. Spalding's marriage occurred in San Jose in 1911,
uniting him with Miss Jessie A. Parkman, a native daughter of San Jose
and a graduate of the State Normal. She was an educator, teaching
in the San Jose schools for eighteen years and during a portion of this
period she was a member of the county board of education. They
are blessed with one son, Charles C., Jr., now nine years of age.
For years a member of the Republican County Central
Committee, his fellow-citizens, recognizing his worth and ability, have
called Mr. Spalding to other important public offices and in 1906 he
was elected a member of the thirty-seventh California Legislature,
serving for one term, taking a active part in passing important
legislation, one of his measures being a bill to rebuild the State
Hospital at Angew after the earthquake and fire, securing an
appropriation of $800,000. In November, 1920, he was elected to
represent his district in the forty-fourth General Assembly, by the
people of his district. He is making a splendid political record,
characterized by marked devotion to duty and the fearless defense of
whatever he believes to be right, looking ever beyond the exigencies of
the moment to the opportunities and possibilities of the future.
He is chairman of the committee on banks and banking and is also a
member of the committees on agriculture; hospitals and asylums; motor
vehicles; normal schools; road and highways; and state grounds and
parks. He was one of the organizers and is a prominent member of
the local Chamber of Commerce, of which he is chairman.
Mr. Spalding was made a Mason in Waverly Lodge, A. F.
& A. M., in Iowa, and demitting, became a member of Mountain View
Lodge, No. 198, F & A. M., and is now a charter member and
treasurer of Sunnyvale Lodge, No. 511, F. & A. M. He is also
a Scottish Rite Mason of the 32nd degree, a member of Islam Temple, A.
A. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco, and with Mrs. Spalding is a member of
Sunnyvale Chapter, O. E. S., of which he is past patron. He also
is prominent in the Odd Fellows, Elks, Knights of Pythias, Modern
Woodmen of America, and the Mountain View Grange.
Pre-eminently public-spirited, his interest and
cooperation can always be aroused in behalf of any project for the
welfare of county or state. His efforts are of a most practical
character, the sound judgment of an active business man being manifest
in all of his opinions concerning the best methods of improving the
city along lines of material and intellectual progress and municipal
growth. His activities have touched the general interests of
society to their betterment and Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County and the
state have benefited by his co-operation and initiative spirit in many
ways.
Transcribed by Joseph Kral, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 380
SUNNYVALE
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES
SANTA CLARA COUNTY -The Valley of Heart's Delight
July 17, 2005