California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
 
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

Source:
History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914


THOMAS D. BALDERSTON.� One who has merited the recognition 
of the people of this county for his inflexible honor, his integrity and the 
sterling traits of character which have been evidenced in his every move- 
ment in business, social and public life is Thomas D. Balderston, proprietor 
of the Calpella Hotel. Naturally endowed with unusual qualities of mind 
and experienced in the ways of life by his travels and the many trades he 
has followed, he has acquired an inner knowledge of the world which few 
men possess. His first home was in Dolington, Bucks county. Pa., where he 
was born May 29, 1861, the son of John and Elizabeth (McMaster) Balder- 
ston, who sent him to the common schools of the district and reared him 
to a life of industry, when sixteen years of age he left home to go to Texas, 
where he worked at various trades for a short time. The spirit of wandering, 
the desire to see the world and a hope to find better and more lucrative em- 
ployment, took him to many states in the Union until in 1885, when he came 
to Rocklin, Placer county, Cal., where he entered the employ of the Southern 
Pacific Railroad Company as brakeman. Later as conductor and then as 
yardmaster. he remained with the company until about 1897. when he resigned 
to conduct a hotel and rooming house. He continued for about ten years in 
this enterprise, in which he was quite successful, but later moved to Emery- 
ville, where he engaged in the lodging house business for several years. 

When Mr. Balderston came to Mendocino county in March, 1910, he 
settled in Calpella, where he purchased a hotel and also a feed and fuel yard, 
and this is the business he follows today. Popular, genial and thoughtful in 
all his dealings, he enjoys a gratifying patronage which attests to his good 
management and sagacious judgment. He is a charter member of the Inde- 
pendent Order of Odd Fellows at Rocklin, where he became a member at 
twenty-six years of age. Mrs. Balderston was in maidenhood Miss Grace 
Kuhfeld, a native of Sierra county, Cal.