Santa Cruz County Biographies

ZADOCK KARNER

Submitted by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        I do not know if statistics will say that longevity is a less 
conspicuous feature of human life to-day than it was a hundred years ago, but I 
do know that our national characteristic is to rush, to turn night into day, to 
do a month's work in a week, to rush through with meals, to shorten sleeping 
hours in order to accomplish more work, and all of this is not conducive to long 
life. So noted is this fact that when we find a man that has reached the 
threescore and ten mile post of life's journey, we naturally expect to see him 
weak and infirm. But when we see a man of eighty years robust, hale, hearty, and 
in full possession of all his mental faculties, an interest is awakened, and we 
naturally wonder what sort of an elixir has contributed to retain his virility. 
There are several such men in Santa Cruz County, and many in California. Whether 
their longevity and vigor are due to heredity, hygienic living, climatic 
influences, or other conditions of their environments, I shall not attempt to 
explain, but observation leads me to the conclusion that if a man wants to live 
long, and be useful as long as he lives, California is the country for him to 
live in.
        Although one would never suspect it, because of his energy and ability, 
Zadock Karner, of Santa Cruz, is eighty years of age. He was born in Egremont, 
Berkshire, Massachusetts, October 19, 1811, and is the youngest son of a family 
of seven children, whose father was a farmer.  Zadock lived upon the farm until 
he was twenty-five years of age, having obtained an education in the public 
schools of his native village, and in an academy of Egremont. In 1836 he went to 
Poughkeepsie, New York, and engaged in the grocery business, which he followed 
for two years, and then went to Massachusetts, where C. Kline was engaged in the 
jewelry business, and there learned the trade of a jeweler, being with him for 
three years. From this point he went to Williamsburg, New York, but remained 
only a short time. Returning he made Egremont his home until 1851, when he came 
to California, via the Isthmus, being one of the passengers on the first voyage 
of the Golden Gate from the Isthmus to San Francisco. A brother had preceded him 
to California, and was employed in the mines at Gold Run, to which place the 
subject of this sketch directed his journey, He remained at the mine for nine 
years, keeping a hotel at Mountain Springs during six years of that time. He 
worked at hydraulic mining for two years, and did some work as a watchmaker 
also. His brother dying, he went to Marin County and engaged in dairying, having 
previously acquired a farm of one hundred and sixty acres and twelve dairy cows. 
His nephew, L. K. Baldwin, now a prominent and highly-respected citizen of this 
county, arriving in California about this time, engaged in the dairy business in 
partnership with Mr. Karner. They leased a place at Point Reyes and bought one 
hundred and sixty cows. Their business prospered and they made money, so that 
ten years later, when Mr. Karner sold out his interest, he owned five hundred 
and sixty acres of land at Olema and one hundred and fifty-two cows. He went to 
Castroville, in Monterey County, in 1868, and, in company with another nephew, 
bought two thousand eight hundred acres of land, at $7.00 an acre. He finally 
and reluctantly became the sole owner of this property, but the subsequent sale 
of a part of the ranch enabled him to pay off an indebtedness, and has left him 
with a property of fifteen hundred acres of choice dairy land and a dairy of one 
hundred and fifty cows. This is rented to Swiss dairymen, who utilize the dairy 
for making butter. In 1871 he bought two acres of land on Mission Street, near 
the Bay View schoolhouse, and has made this his residence ever since.
        He was married, in Sheffield, Massachusetts, September 20, 1870, to Miss 
Charlotte B. Brown. He has been back to the East five times, three times by rail 
and twice by steamer. As noted in the foregoing, he is still hale and vigorous, 
and doubtless, has many years of usefulness and life before him.
 
HISTORY OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.-  E. S. Harrison, 
Pacific Press Publ. Co., San Francisco, 1891