The Valley of Heart's Delight
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