American Civil War

Charles Albert Storke was a veteran of the Union Army

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

. He survived "the terrible slaughter of Cold Harbor

Battle of Cold Harbor

The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought from May 31 to June 12, 1864 . It was one of the final battles of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign during the American Civil War, and is remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles...

, where, out of four companies, sixty-nine percent were killed, and the rest captured. The prisoners were sent to Libby, Andersonville, Savannah, and other prisons .... Storke was discharged on May 26, 1865. He graduated from Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 in 1870.

Teaching

After teaching for two years in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, Storke moved to Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...

, as a teacher on the bequest of T. Wallace More, a cattleman who had made his fortune during the California Gold Rush

California Gold Rush

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

 selling food to gold miners. Storke taught mathematics and Latin to local children, including More's daughter, Mattie. Impressed with fourteen-year-old Mattie's good looks and her family's wealth, Storke proposed to her, and the two were married September 10, 1873.
Storke lost interest in teaching once he realized he would never make much money in the occupation.

Newspaper publishing

Having worked as a printer's devil

Printer's devil

A printer's devil was an apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type...

 while attending Cornell, Storke understood that publishing was a lucrative and growing field. He borrowed money from his wealthy father-in-law to start a newspaper in Los Angeles. When the enterprise failed, he returned to Santa Barbara. He did not have money to start a new business and he owed his father-in-law a large sum of money. Having run out of options, he devoted his time to reading the law and became an attorney. He handled his father-in-law's legal affairs including drafting his will. Storke saw to it that upon More's death, the majority of his estate would go to Mattie.

Political career

Storke was elected to the State Legislature

California State Legislature

The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...

 in 1883 and again in 1887. He opposed the Southern Pacific Railroad

Southern Pacific Railroad

The Southern Pacific Transportation Company , earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or Espee, was an American railroad....

 because he was not a part of the so-called political machine. Storke explained:

The railroad refused to pay its taxes. So, during 1884, a special session of legislature was called, for the purpose of devising ways and means to enforce payment. ... Various measures were introduced, including one ... which provided that, ... stocks and bonds of railroad corporations were to be assessed on market value as shown by state stock exchange quotation. This was intended ... as a method of arriving at the real worth of the railroad, so it could be properly assessed. ... The estimate cost ... was more than $20,000.00 in bribes. Then we went home. The people of California were disgusted with us, and seemingly the railroad's grip was as strong as ever.

When Storke discovered that Luther Ingersol was compling a biographical book about the prominent citizens of Santa Barbara and nearby counties, Storke was pleased to be interviewed by the well-known writer Yda Addis. Storke was attracted to Addis for her quick mind, her good social standing and her fame as a writer. Addis, on the other hand, saw Storke as a man who could offer her financial security. They were married on September 10, 1890. The marriage was not a good match. A divorce followed, and in the subsequent lawsuit Addis accused Storke of "sexual perversion". Storke was acquitted. Later Addis tried to kill a local judge and spent the rest of her life in an insane asylum.
Charles A. Storke later remarried. He continued to practice the law and helped his son Thomas

Thomas M. Storke

Thomas More Storke was an American politician, rancher, journalist and publisher. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism in 1962....

 to enter the publishing of the Santa Barbara News-Press

Santa Barbara News-Press

The Santa Barbara News-Press is a broadsheet newspaper based in Santa Barbara, California.-History:The News-Press asserts it is the oldest daily newspaper in Southern California, publishing since 1855...

, then called the Santa Barbara Post.

External links

• Guide to the Charles Albert Storke Papers at The Bancroft Library