California Biographies 

Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. 
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917

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


 
SAMUEL CURTIS PINKHAM.  To do a little bit better than anyone else in the same line of 
business is a sure means of attaining success. That has been the principle and policy of Samuel 
Curtis Pinkham as a druggist ever since he came to Southern California. In 1914, after 
withdrawing from a partnership in which he had been engaged for a number of years, he 
established his store under the name Sterling Drug Company at 1137 State Street in Santa 
Barbara. This store occupies the corner of the fine San Marcos Building. It is generally 
conceded that the Sterling Drug Company has one of the most if not the most attractive drug 
store north of Los Angeles, and many establishments in that city cannot compare with this in 
point of completeness of stock, perfection of system and the thoroughness and reliability of 
service to the patrons.
 
Mr. Pinkham was born in Santa Barbara, California, April 1, 1870, though most of his early 
youth and manhood was spent in the State of Maine, where his family has lived for a number 
of generations. Both his father and mother were named Pinkham and their respective families 
go back in American history to Colonial days. The Pinkhams originated in England, but in the 
colonies were true patriots and both branches furnished soldiers to the Revolutionary war.
 
The late Rufus D. Pinkham, who died in 1901, was a prominent factor in the breeding and 
raising of horses and in ranching in California. He introduced into Santa Barbara the first 
pedigreed horses from the East. He first came out to California in 1851, making the voyage 
around Cape Horn. Later he made a trip by way of the Isthmus. After some experience in the 
northern part of California as a miner, he drifted south, first locating in Santa Ynez, and later 
in the Goleta Valley, where he bought land and engaged in farming and stock raising up to the 
time of his death. His old Goleta ranch is still owned by his family. His wife, whose maiden 
name was Maria L. Pinkham, was also born in Maine and she died in 1908.
 
When Samuel C. Pinkham was a child he was taken to Maine and he attended the grammar 
and high schools of that state, also a normal school and the academy at Fryeburg.
 
He gained his first experience in the drug business at Augusta, Maine, where the family lived 
for several years, and was employed as a clerk there a period of four years. In 1899 Mr. 
Pinkham brought his family to Santa Barbara and resumed his connection with the drug 
business. In 1902 he organized the Sterling Drug Company, which located at 609 State Street. 
In 1914 he opened a store of his own in the San Marcos Building. Mr. Pinkham is a registered 
pharmacist in the two states of Maine and California.
 
December 8, 1896, at Winterport, Maine, he married Clara Powers Haley, a native of Maine 
and a daughter of Walter and Julia Haley. Mrs. Pinkham is also of an old American family of 
English descent and of Revolutionary stock. They are the parents of four children: Raymond D., 
Walter H., Leroy S. and Chesley M. The son Raymond was born in Maine but the others are 
native sons of California.
 
Mr. Pinkham is a member of the Masonic bodies of Santa Barbara and of the Royal Arch 
Chapter in Maine. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective 
Order of Elks, the Native Sons of the Golden West, is a republican, though not active in politics, 
and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Club at Santa Barbara.