Alameda County Biographies

PHINEAS F. MARSTON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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


 
            The subject of this sketch, whose portrait appears in this work, was 
born in Danville (now Auburn), Maine, February 10, 1813, and is the son of Simon 
and Mary (Frast) Marston.  During the first twenty years of his life, he resided 
under the family roof-tree, passing his winters learning the carpenter�s trade, 
and his summers working on the farm.  In 1833 he proceeded to Bangor, Maine, 
where he obtained employment as a journeyman carpenter, and remained until 1838, 
when, on account of a panic, he moved with his chest of tools to Brunswick, in 
the same State.  Here he found work in putting together a house of worship to be 
erected at Waldoborough, to which place he proceeded to aid in its construction. 
 Returning, on its completion, to Brunswick, he completed the �shop-work� for 
another such structure to be put up at Rockland, on Penobscot Bay, after which 
he made Holton his headquarters, and there assisted in building the Hancock 
Barracks.  Our subject next erected a flour-mill for Shepard Cary, whence, at 
the instigation of Captain Babbett, he was placed in charge of a gang of thirty 
men, to erect the Commissary Buildings and general Infantry Barracks.  We next 
find erected a very elaborate dwelling for Mr. Winslow, High Sheriff, at 
Woodstock, after which he was employed on the erection of barracks at Fort Kent, 
on Fish River, near Madawaska. Having completed these various undertakings, Mr. 
Marston returned to Bangor, where he was variously engaged in his own 
professional sphere.  Subsequently embarking in a grocery business he thus was 
occupied for two years, when he was called upon to erect the new railroad 
buildings at Bangor, for the Penobscot and Kennebec Railroad Company, that being 
the first depot of any importance in the town.  He also superintended the 
construction of the Unitarian church in that place.  He continued in that class 
of employment until 1858, when he decided to try the Pacific Coast.  Making the 
trip by way of the Isthmus of Panama, in the steamers Star of the West on the 
Atlantic and Golden Gate on the Pacific side, on arrival in San Francisco, with 
his wife and four children, he at once commenced erecting houses for himself and 
in that city, in company with his brother, Sylvanus B. Marston.  His old friend, 
Colonel Babbett, was at this time at the Presidio; he therefore at once placed 
our subject � knowing what manner of man he was � in the responsible position of 
superintendent of construction of the barracks which were then being erected at 
that post, at Black Point, and at Angel Island.  This occupation lasted three 
years.  On its expiration he was called upon by Colonel R. S. Williams, 
Light-house engineer, to assume the superintendence of buildings in connection 
with this department.  The first of these to be constructed was in Washington 
Territory, on the sand-pit at Point Angelis.  Mr. Marston was next engaged in 
such work on the coast and on Puget Sound; then he superintended the building of 
the light-house and fog-signals on Point Reyes, afterwards performing the like 
duties at Pigeon Point, at the same time building the dwelling-house and 
fog-signal station on Point Ano Nuevo Island.  In 1874 he erected a dwelling and 
fog-signal at Point Montara.  In 1867 he took up his residence at Fruit Vale, 
Brooklyn Township, Alameda County, where he embarked in fruit-culture, at which 
place he has since resided.  Married, in 1840, Miss Susan E. Fisher, who died in 
1864.  By that union he has:  Frank A., Cordelia, Harriet, and Phineas.  Married 
secondly, in 1865, Mrs. Mary F. Pray, by whom there is no issue.  We cannot 
close this brief narrative of a long and active life without testifying to the 
sterling worth of its subject.  During his lengthy employment on government 
works he was no contractor, but merely received a monthly moiety as a reward for 
close application.  His unflinching honesty has placed him at a green old age in 
the enjoyment of well earned comfort.
 
History of Alameda County, California�, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 932-933